Donald Trump at rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, where he was almost killed | US elections 2024

Donald Trump returned on Saturday to the same place where, on July 13, he narrowly escaped an assassination attempt in the final stretch before an extraordinary presidential election which remains marked by the threat of political violence.

The Republican candidate and former president of the United States addressed his many supporters gathered in the village of Butler, in the crucial state of Pennsylvania, one month to the day before the November 5 presidential election, where he will face Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris.

Twelve weeks ago, right here, an assassin tried to silence me and our movement. This depraved monster […] almost succeeded, but the hand of Providence prevented him.

In the process, the Republican candidate observed a minute of silence at the precise time when the shots rang out on July 13, with a tribute to the only victim, Corey Comperatore, before resuming his speech at the exact location where he was then interrupted.

The rally took place in a context of very strict security measures, with snipers installed on the roofs of several surrounding buildings and a drone flying over the crowd, a journalist from theAFP.

Several thousand people came to listen to Mr. Trump, many wearing a t-shirt bearing the image of the former president just after the assassination attempt, others with their ears covered, reminiscent of the bandage that he he had worn the following days.

Before entering the stage, Donald Trump was preceded by his running mate JD Vance, under the eyes of the richest man in the world, Elon Musk, relatives of victims of the shootings and members of the police who ‘have protected.

Invited to come and speak by Mr. Trump, the billionaire presented the American election as a fight that must not be lostfearing that otherwise it would be from the last election, that’s my predictionhe said.

President Trump must prevail to preserve the Constitution and democracyinsisted Elon Musk.

The assassination attempt was seen as a pivotal moment in the electoral campaign as Donald Trump was trailing in opinion polls against Joe Biden after his disastrous televised debate and two days later he went to political martyr at the Republican convention.

Those close to the candidate have since accused Democrats of inciting violence with their speech that presented Mr. Trump as an existential risk to democracy.

His return to Butler comes the day after statements from Joe Biden, who said he was worried about the risk that the vote would not be peaceful.

I’m worried about what they’re going to do during the vote, the American president said on Friday. Donald Trump has never admitted his defeat in 2020 and already claims that the Democrats cheat like hell.

Over the past eight years, those who want to stop us have slandered me, tried to impeach me, sued me, tried to take away my ballots and, who knows, maybe even tried to kill. But I never stopped fighting for you and I never will.

“A bullet for democracy”

On July 13, in the middle of a rally, a young man shot the former president, injuring him in the ear, killing a sympathizer present in the stands and injuring two others.

According to his team, Donald Trump took a bullet for democracy.

The populist tribune immediately grasped the scope of this shock: his ear bleeding, grazed by a bullet, protected and evacuated by secret service agents, the septuagenarian remained standing with his fist raised in defiance in front of the cameras, urging his supporters to to fight, to fight, to fight.

Immortalized under a large American flag, this scene went around the world.

The secret services had shot the young shooter, Thomas Crooks, 20, perched on the roof of a building a few hundred meters away. The head of the Secret Service, Kimberly Cheatle, was later forced to resign.

This assassination attempt, followed by a second in September on the former president’s golf course in Florida, caused shock at home and abroad. The United States is marked by a violent political history: the last president killed was John Kennedy in 1963.

At the same time, Kamala Harris was in North Carolina, another key state in this election, hit by a powerful hurricane which left at least 220 dead in the southeast of the United States, where she met teams of rescuers and victims.