Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump was the target of an assassination attempt at a campaign rally in the city of Butler, Pennsylvania, on Saturday night when a gunman attempted to shoot the former president.
In a social media post, the former president said he was “fine” after he was “shot with a bullet that pierced the upper part of my right ear.” He was quickly whisked from the stage by secret service agents, his ear covered in blood.
One attendee was killed and two others critically injured.
The FBI has identified Thomas Matthew Crooks (20) from Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, as the “subject involved” in the attempted assassination of Mr Trump.
Main points
- Donald Trump was the target of an assassination attempt at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania
- Trump: ‘I was shot with a bullet that pierced the upper part of my right ear’
- US president Joe Biden has called on US citizens to ‘unite as one’ in an address to the nation
- Gunman was shot dead by the secret service. One spectator was killed, and two others were critically injured
- The FBI has identified the attacker as Thomas Matthew Crooks (20)
- The oversight committee in US Congress has summoned the secret service director
Key reads
- Donald Trump assassination attempt sparks dread and fear in America
- Pop. Pop. Pop. Suddenly, a day of big emotions – glee, unity and righteous anger – was now shattered by fear
- Trump rally shooting: FBI identifies ‘suspect involved’ in assassination attempt
- Assassination attempt is a major test of American democracy
- US and world leaders condemn campaign rally attack on Trump
That is a wrap on our live story for tonight. US president Joe Biden will address the nation again, this time from the Oval Office, in a few hours time (around 1am Irish time).
Thanks for tuning in.
The White House has confirmed that Joe Biden will travel to Las Vegas, Nevada on Monday. The NAACP, a more than century-old civil rights group that advocates for the rights of Black Americans, previously announced that Biden would serve as a keynote speaker for its 115th national convention.
The gunman who opened fire at a Pennsylvania campaign event for Donald Trump appears to have acted alone and there is no current public safety threat, FBI officials have said.
Federal Bureau of Investigation Director Christopher Wray said during a briefing with reporters on Sunday afternoon that the FBI has committed the “full force” of the agency to the investigation. Officials said they will continue to probe the shooting “aggressively” and will be focused on averting any potential threats in connection with the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee.
Kevin Rojek, the special agent in charge of the FBI’s Pittsburgh office who is leading the inquiry, shared new details about what investigators have uncovered so far. Rojek said that it appeared the man identified as the shooter, 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, had used an AR-556 style rifle that appeared to have been legally purchased by his father. It wasn’t immediately clear how the alleged shooter had gotten the firearm.
Rojek said that the FBI had Crooks’ phone, but hadn’t been able to access information stored in it yet. Getting into the phone was a priority, he said, as investigators search for evidence of Crooks’ motive.
The FBI is investigating the incident as an assassination attempt as well as a potential domestic terrorism event, according to FBI assistant director Robert Wells. - Bloomberg
Pennsylvania state police have released the names of the two men injured in the Trump rally shooting. They are: David Dutch (57), of New Kensington, Pennsylvania, who is currently listed in a stable condition. The other is 74-year-old James Copenhaver, of Moon Township, Pennsylvania. He is also listed in stable condition.
Officials previously released the name of Corey Comperatore (50) of Sarver, Pennsylvania, who was shot and killed in the attack. The Pennsylvania governor, Josh Shapiro, called Comperatore a “hero” and said he was a former fire chief who “dove on his family to protect them last night at this rally” and was killed while protecting them.
Our Washington Correspondent Keith Duggan writes:
The bullet which grazed the head of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump will continue to travel through the discourse of a fragmenting American election season as the country grapples with the consequences of the latest horrifying assassination attempt on a political figure.
The atrocity left one victim, who attended the former president’s rally in Butler, Pennsylvania on Saturday evening, dead. Several other people who went to hear Trump speaking were injured and the rally, broadcast on national television, ended in nightmarish and tragically familiar scenes.
Keith’s full analysis can be read here.
Una Mullally has spoken to some diehard supporters of Donald Trump gathered at Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan.
Ryan Hart from New Jersey said he felt sick to his stomach when he heard, “depressed and sick”.
“I think it’s just going to mean more supporters for Trump and more money [for the campaign]. You can see that happening already. An act of violence has no place in any [campaign]. When I was down at a rally before in Wildwood [New Jersey] it was very peaceful. My YouTube videos from that got over 90,000 views,” he said.
The full piece can be read here.
Writing on his Truth Social platform on Sunday, Donald Trump has thanked wellwishers and said “it was God alone who prevented the unthinkable from happening”.
“We will fear not, but instead remain resilient in our faith and defiant in the face of wickedness.”
He added: “Our love goes out to the other victims and their families.
“We pray for the recovery of those who were wounded, and hold in our hearts the memory of the citizen who was so horribly killed.
“In this moment, it is more important than ever that we stand united, and show our true character as Americans, remaining strong and determined, and not allowing evil to win.
“I truly love our country, and love you all, and look forward to speaking to our great nation this week from Wisconsin. DJT”
Condemnation of the attack has come from former US presidents George W Bush and Barack Obama, with the latter saying: “We should all be relieved that former president Trump wasn’t seriously hurt, and use this moment to recommit ourselves to civility and respect in our politics.”
China has expressed concern about the shooting, Beijing’s foreign ministry said in a statement on Sunday. “President Xi Jinping has expressed his condolences to former president Trump,” the statement said.
French president Emmanuel Macron said his thoughts were with Mr Trump and wished him a speedy recovery, adding the shooting marked a “tragedy for our democracies”.
Elsewhere, British prime minister Keir Starmer sent best wishes in a post on X and condemned political violence; Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau said on X he was “appalled by the shocking scenes”; and Indian prime minister Narendra Modi said he was “deeply concerned by the attack on my friend”.
A recap of the latest information we have:
- Donald Trump will continue with his schedule and fly to Milwaukee, Wisconsin later on Saturday ahead of the Republican National Convention
- US president Joe Biden said that he had spoken with Mr Trump following the assassination attempt on the ex-president
- “We had a short but good conversation. Jill and I are keeping him and his family in our prayers. We also extend our deepest condolences to the family of the victim who was killed. He was a father, he was protecting his family from the bullets that were being fired,” Mr Biden said
- The president is set to address the nation later tonight from the Oval Office, the White House has confirmed
- Mr Biden is rescheduling his trip to Texas following the assassination attempt, according to White House pool reports
- The trip was originally planned for Monday, July 15th. Mr Biden was set to deliver a keynote address at the Lyndon B Johnson library in Austin to mark the 60th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act
- Pennsylvania’s governor Josh Shapiro said that the victim, 50-year old former fire chief Corey Comperatore, who was killed in yesterday’s rally shooting, “died a hero.
US law enforcement agencies are working to ensure security at the Republican Party’s convention in Milwaukee this week, following the assassination attempt on Donald Trump.
The former president will accept the formal Republican presidential nomination at the four-day convention, expected to draw more than 50,000 people.
“We feel very comfortable that we’re working with the Secret Service. We’re working with 40 different law enforcement agencies in terms of what that security is going to look like,” Republican National Committee Chair Michael Whatley said in an interview on Fox.
Donald Trump has said he plans to leave for the Republican National Convention on Sunday after being targeted in an assassination attempt.
Writing on his Truth Social platform, the former US president said: “Based on yesterday’s terrible events, I was going to delay my trip to Wisconsin, and The Republican National Convention, by two days, but have just decided that I cannot allow a ‘shooter’, or potential assassin, to force change to scheduling, or anything else.
“Therefore, I will be leaving for Milwaukee, as scheduled, at 3.30pm today. Thank you! DJT.”
In another post, he added: “Unite America!”
President Biden’s full address can be watched here:
Speaking from the White House, Mr Biden said he has instructed that the investigation be “thorough and swift”, and the investigators will have every resource they need “to get this done”.
He said as the investigation continued, he had also directed the secret service to provide Mr Trump “with every resource, capability and protective measure necessary to ensure his continued safety”.
Mr Biden said he had also directed the head of the secret service to review all security measures for the Republican National Convention, which is scheduled to start on Monday.
Finally, Mr Biden said he has directed an independent review of the national security yesterday’s rally to “assess exactly what happened and we’ll share the results of that independent review with the American people as well”.
“We must unite as one nation. We must unite as one nation to demonstrate who we are. May God bless you all and may God protect our troops,” he concluded.
In an address to the nation, US president Joe Biden has said he has spoken with Donald Trump and that he was grateful the former president is doing well and recovering. He said it was a short conversation but that he and his wife Jill will be keeping Mr Trump in their prayers.
Mr Biden also extended his condolences to the family of the victim who was killed. “He was a father, he was protecting his family from the bullets that were being fired and he lost his life. God love him,” Mr Biden said.
The US president repeated there was “no place in America for this kind of violence or any violence for that matter”.
“An assassination attempt is contrary to everything we stand for as a nation,” he said. “It’s not who we are as a nation. It’s not America, and we cannot allow this to happen. Unity is the most elusive goal of all but nothing is more important than that right now. Unity. We will debate and we will disagree, that’s not going to change. But we’re not going lose sight of who we are as Americans.”
Mr Biden said he and vice-president Kamala Harris were briefed in the situation room by his homeland security chain, including the director of the FBI, the secretary of homeland security, the Attorney General and others. He said the FBI was leading the investigation, which was still “in its early stages”.
Mr Biden said while they don’t yet have the motive or affiliations of the shooter, they know who he is. He urged the public not to make assumptions about the shooter’s motive and “let the FBI do their job”.
US president Joe Biden is rescheduling his trip to Texas following the assassination attempt on Donald Trump, according to White House pool reports.
The trip was originally planned for Monday, July 15th. President Biden was set to deliver a keynote address at the Lyndon B Johnson library in Austin to mark the 60th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act.
Who was Thomas Matthew Crooks, the suspected Trump rally gunman? We have a profile of Crooks here.
US president Joe Biden is due to make an address in the next 30 minutes.
US president Joe Biden and vice-president Kamala Harris are currently receiving an updated briefing on the Donald Trump assassination investigation in the White House situation room, the Guardian reports. The investigation is being led by the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. The briefing is being provided by law enforcement and national security officials.
Daniel Geary writes: One can condemn political violence and still seek its underlying causes. And no one is more responsible for creating its conditions in the US than Trump himself.
Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Ministry have condemned the attempted assassination of former US president Donald Trump.
“The Kingdom expresses its condemnation and denunciation to the attempt on life of former US president Donald Trump,” it said in a statement.
It voiced its “full solidarity with the United States of America, the former president and his family, and stressed its rejection of all forms of violence.”
It also expressed “its condolences to the family of the deceased and the friendly American people, and wished speedy recovery for those injured.”
US president Joe Biden’s reelection campaign is scrambling for a new strategy after an assassination attempt on Republican rival Donald Trump in western Pennsylvania, including deciding to call off attacks on the former president for now, Reuters reports.
Within hours of Saturday’s shooting, Biden’s campaign was pulling down television ads and suspending other political communications, including those that had highlighted Trump’s May conviction in New York state court on felony charges relating to hush money paid to a porn star to avert a sex scandal before the 2016 US election.
Rather than attacking Trump in the coming days, the White House and the Biden campaign will draw on the president’s history of condemning all sorts of political violence including his sharp criticism of the “disorder” created by campus protests over the Israel-Gaza conflict, according to campaign officials, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Bomb-making materials were discovered in the home of the suspect involved in yesterday’s Donald Trump rally shooting, according to law enforcement officials speaking anonymously to the Associated Press.
Bomb-making materials were also reportedly found in the suspect’s car near the rally site. Law enforcement officials also told AP they believe that the weapon the 20-year old suspect used in his attempt to assassinate Trump was purchased by his father at least six months ago.
Melania Trump, the wife of former president Donald Trump, has called on the public to “ascend above the hate, the vitriol, and the simple-minded ideas that ignite violence”.
In a statement shared on social media, the former First Lady thanked the “brave” secret service agents and law enforcement officials “who risked their own lives to protect my husband”.
She also offered her “sincerest sympathy” to the families of the “innocent victims”.
“We all want a world where respect is paramount, family is first, and love transcends. We can realise this world again. Each of us must demand to get it back. We must insist that respect fills the cornerstone of our relationships, again.”
See her full statement below:
Anthony Guglielmi, chief of communications at the secret service, has rebuffed rumours that requests for additional security for former president Donald Trump were refused.
For those unfamiliar, this is a map of where the rally was held:
Ivanka Trump has paid tribute to her father following Saturday night’s assassination attempt.
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, a Republican, said there is a need to “turn the temperature down” in the US.
“The rhetoric has just been over the top,” he told US television, stating there has been “no figure in American history, at least in the modern era ... who has been so vilified and persecuted by media, Hollywood elites, political figures, even the legal system”.
Trump supporters gathered at Trump Tower in New York following the assassination attempt of the former president.
The New York Times reports: One by one, they filed toward Fifth Avenue – locals, tourists, gawkers, fans – confident that, on this night, they would have company at Trump Tower.
Christine Randall (59) had been watching former president Donald Trump’s rally at home in Manhattan when the shots rang out.
“I really thought maybe he was dead. I started crying,” Randall said just before 10pm Saturday. “When he stood up, I was so happy.”
And then right away, she said, she collected her “Make America Great Again” hat and a “Take America Back” flag and started walking toward the former president’s building.
She was not alone.
With a wall of officers guarding the tower’s gilded entrance and a smattering of news cameras nearby, some two dozen visitors had descended, even hours after the shooting, to show their support for Trump and seek solace among the shaken.
Political correspondent Jack Horgan-Jones has further comment from Taoiseach Simon Harris on the shooting.
Speaking today at the National day of Commemeration held at the Royal Hospital Kilmainham in Dublin, the Taoiseach reiterated his comments from earlier in the day. He said the events in Pennsylvania were “shocking” and said he was relieved former president Donald Trump was safe and well.
He again said there had been an “escalation in political violence” around the world. He said it was important to reflect on political violence, to condemn it and said it should be examined how “rhetoric can be dialled down”.
He said people should debate and discuss issues “without being disagreeable with each other and without being vitriolic and perhaps even dehumanising opponents”.
He said again his thoughts were with the person who was killed, and those who are critically injured. “I am pleased that [former] president Trump is well and we send him our best,” he said.
He would not be drawn on the outcome of the US presidential election, but said there was a glimmer of hope in that president Joe Biden spoke with his Republican rival last night.
Here is footage of the moment everyone is talking about:
Crime and Security Correspondent Conor Gallagher reports:
A former member of the Defence Forces and close-protection expert, who asked not to be named due to the nature of their work, said it appears the secret service made a series of “rookie mistakes” in relation to protecting the ex-president.
These included the absence of enough “concentric rings of security” and a lack of “total control of high line of sight positions”, they said.
“It’s hard to know why his [security] detail was not bigger but he could have requested it, or it wasn’t in the budget.”
Reaction to the assassination attempt on former president Donald Trump is coming in quick and fast. Here is a breakdown of some of the quotes from high-profile figures.
- US attorney general Merrick Garland said: “My heart is with the former president, those injured, and the family of the spectator killed in this horrific attack. We will not tolerate violence of any kind, and violence like this is an attack on our democracy. The Justice Department will bring every available resource to bear to this investigation.”
- US secretary of homeland security Alejandro Mayorkas: “We condemn this violence in the strongest possible terms and commend the Secret Service for their swift action today. We are engaged with President Biden, former president Trump, and their campaigns, and are taking every possible measure to ensure their safety and security. Maintaining the security of the Presidential candidates and their campaign events is one of our Department’s most vital priorities.”
- US defence secretary Lloyd Austin: “The entire Department of Defence condemns this violence, which has absolutely no place in our democracy. This is not the way that we resolve our differences in America, and it must never be. I’m relieved that reports indicate former President Trump is safe, and I am praying for him and his family and everyone affected by this appalling incident.”
- Former US president George W Bush: “Laura and I are grateful that President Trump is safe following the cowardly attack on his life. And we commend the men and women of the Secret Service for their speedy response.”
- Former US president Barack Obama: “There is absolutely no place for political violence in our democracy. Although we don’t yet know exactly what happened, we should all be relieved that former President Trump wasn’t seriously hurt, and use this moment to recommit ourselves to civility and respect in our politics. Michelle and I are wishing him a quick recovery.”
– Reuters
Donald Trump has said he will remain “resilient” and “defiant” after being targeted in an assassination attempt.
Writing on his Truth Social platform, the former US president thanked everyone “for your thoughts and prayers yesterday, as it was God alone who prevented the unthinkable from happening.
“We will fear not, but instead remain resilient in our faith and defiant in the face of wickedness,” he said.
“Our love goes out to the other victims and their families. We pray for the recovery of those who were wounded, and hold in our hearts the memory of the citizen who was so horribly killed.
“In this moment, it is more important than ever that we stand united, and show our true character as Americans, remaining strong and determined, and not allowing evil to win.
“I truly love our country, and love you all, and look forward to speaking to our great nation this week from Wisconsin. DJT.”
The assassination attempt has raised questions about potential failings by the secret service.
The US oversight committee in the Republican-led House of Representatives has summoned Kimberly Cheatle, the secret service director, to testify at a hearing scheduled for July 22nd.
Meanwhile, Kevin Rojek, the special agent in charge of the FBI’s Pittsburgh Field Office, told a press conference their “assessment at this time” is that law enforcement did not know the shooter was on the roof until he began firing.
“It is surprising” the gunman was able to open fire on the stage before the secret service killed him, he said.
Taoiseach Simon Harris has said the shooting was “truly shocking”, political correspondent Jack Horgan-Jones reports.
Speaking on the BBC NI’s Sunday Politics programme, the Taoiseach said he was relieved Mr Trump was secure and well, he sent his best wishes to the former resident, and said that his thoughts were with those injured, and particularly, the innocent spectator who was killed.
“Political violence must always be condemned, always be called out,” Mr Harris said.
“It is quite alarming the rise that we are seeing in political violence across the world. It’s only weeks since my Slovakian counterpart had an attempt on his life as well.”
He said one “glimmer of hope” was the fact that Mr Biden and Mr Trump spoke in the aftermath of the shooting.
“It’s so important that happened, it’s so important political violence is condemned,” he said, describing it as a “horrific, heinous, criminal act”.
Asked if the incident could further toxify the presidential race, Mr Harris said the situation needed real leadership in the United States, Europe and in Ireland.
“We must dial down the rhetoric when it comes to demonising political opponents,” he said, adding engagement and robust debate must happen without dehumanising people.
