Former President Donald Trump is set to make his return to Butler, Pennsylvania, for the first time since an attempted assassination at his July rally. The Secret Service has come under fire for its handling of the incident, with a Senate report released Wednesday highlighting multiple security lapses that contributed to the event.
When is Donald Trump holding a rally at the Butler Farm?
Trump announced that he will be holding a rally on October 5 at the Butler Farm Show, the same location where the July 13 shooting took place. Trump’s campaign has described the event as a “big, beautiful rally,” meant to symbolize resilience and defiance. “We don’t allow monsters like that assassin to have the final say,” the campaign told Newsweek. They likened the rally to the way America has rebuilt after terrorist attacks or natural disasters, emphasizing it as a moment of unity and strength.
The July shooting, which is currently under investigation as an assassination attempt, left one person dead and two others injured when shooter Thomas Crooks opened fire. Crooks was ultimately killed by a Secret Service counter-sniper.
A 94-page report from the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, alongside the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, detailed several security failures during the rally. These included poor coordination with local law enforcement, inadequate communication, and a lack of proper resources.
Committee Chairman Gary Peters underscored that these failures were preventable, noting that this was the first attempted assassination of a former president and presidential candidate in over 40 years. The report also uncovered technical problems with the Secret Service’s communication devices and drones. Despite receiving a tip about a suspicious individual with a range finder nearly 30 minutes before the shooting, the agency failed to effectively secure the area.
Though counter-sniper teams were deployed in response to a credible threat, local law enforcement officers who rushed to the scene did not notify Trump’s security detail until after shots had been fired.
