Campaigning to hope to win the American presidential election against Kamala Harris, Donald Trump held a meeting on Saturday in a particularly symbolic place for him. The Republican candidate was in fact back in Butler, where he narrowly escaped an assassination attempt on July 13.
“Twelve weeks ago, right here, an assassin tried to silence me and our movement. This vicious monster (…) was close to achieving it but the hand of Providence prevented him,” declared Donald Trump, in front of several thousand people gathered in the crucial state of Pennsylvania, a month to the day before the presidential election on November 5. “I will never give up, never bend, never break,” insisted the former president.
Trump castigates “the enemies within”
He also marked 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 place where he had then been interrupted.
He also denounced those he called “the enemies from within, much more dangerous than those from without.” “For 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 me. But I have never stopped fighting for you and I will never stop,” he assured his supporters.
A meeting under very high security
The rally took place under very high security, with snipers set up on the roofs of several surrounding buildings and a drone flying over the crowd. Donald Trump’s supporters were much more numerous than at the previous meeting in Butler, many wearing a t-shirt bearing the image of the former president just after the assassination attempt, others with their ears covered , recalling the bandage he had worn the following days.
Before entering the stage, Donald Trump was preceded by his running mate JD Vance, under the eyes of Elon Musk, relatives of victims of the shootings and the police who protected him. Invited to come and speak by the Republican candidate, the boss of Twitter and even Tesla presented the American election as “a fight that must not be lost”, fearing that it could be, in the case on the contrary, “from the last election”.
Our file on the American Presidential election
The assassination attempt was seen as a pivotal moment in the campaign, as Donald Trump stood out in the opinion polls against Joe Biden and two days later he surrendered as a “political martyr” to the Republican convention. Those close to the candidate have since accused the Democrats of inciting violence with their speech presenting the Republican as an existential risk for democracy.