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Trump rally at site of Pennsylvania assassination attempt: How to watch
More than two and a half months after the assassination attempt on his life, former President Donald Trump will return to Butler, Pennsylvania, this evening to finish a campaign rally that was cut short by the July 13 attack.
The Republican nominee—last seen on the same stage being escorted by Secret Service agents, blood dripping from his right ear—will be joined by a host of special guests and a projected large crowd.
Trump’s campaign called his return to the site a “tribute to the American spirit,” writing in a press release that “In America, we do not let monsters like that evil assassin have the last word. Every time our nation is struck by attack or hardship, we rally, we persevere, and we prevail.”
Here’s what we know about the second Butler, Pennsylvania rally today:
When and Where to Watch
The rally will be held at the Butler Farm Show—the same venue where, on July 13, Thomas Matthew Crooks fired eight rounds, injuring Trump’s ear, wounding two attendees, and killing one person, Corey Comperatore, a former fire chief.
The venue’s doors will open at 10 a.m. ET and the rally will begin at 5 p.m. ET.
The rally will be live-streamed on C-SPAN.
Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris are locked in a tight race for Pennsylvania’s 19 Electoral College votes. Aggregate polls from FiveThirtyEight and The New York Times show a near-deadlocked race in the state, with Harris leading by 0.6 percent and 1 percent, respectively.
Who Will Be There
Trump’s campaign has announced a lengthy list of prominent attendees, including the wife and daughters of Comperatore, Helen, Allyson, Kaylee, and his sisters Kelly Meeder and Dawn Comperatore-Schaffer. Helen Comperatore told the New York Post that Corey had shouted for people to “get down” after the shots were fired and used his body to shield his family from bullets.
Trump said he would honor Corey Comperatore’s memory, recognize the injured attendees, and thank law enforcement during his second Butler visit.
The former president’s running mate, Ohio Senator JD Vance, his son, Eric Trump, and his wife, Lara Trump, who is the co-chair of the Republican National Committee, will also be in attendance.
Late Thursday, tech billionaire Elon Musk replied to Trump’s social media post about his Butler, Pennsylvania rally, writing, “I will be there to support!” The Trump campaign later released the guest list with Musk’s name on it.
Elon Musk’s Growing Support of Trump
Within half an hour of the assassination attempt on Trump’s life—which was live-streamed—Elon Musk posted an endorsement of Trump on his social media platform, X, formerly known as Twitter.
“I fully endorse President Trump and hope for his rapid recovery,” Musk wrote at 6:45 p.m. ET on July 13, along with a video of Trump fist-pumping on stage while surrounded by Secret Service agents and bleeding from his ear.
REBECCA DROKE/AFP via Getty Images
Musk’s attendance at the second Butler, Pennsylvania, rally comes amid an increase in his political commentary and criticism of Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee for president, and the current administration. In a series of recent posts on X, Musk voiced concerns about government policies on a wide range of issues and their impact on the country’s future.
On Wednesday, Musk posted, “Trump/Vance MUST win. I can’t handle 4 years of seeing and hearing Kamala/Walz. That would be cruel and unusual punishment!” In response to a comment on his post, he added, “The survival of the Constitution is indeed at risk.”
On October 3, he took aim at Harris’ political record, writing on X, “Kamala’s voting track record when she was in the Senate was to the left of Bernie Sanders! She was rated most far left of all 100 senators. Not a moderate at all.”
Other posts revolved around voter registration, writing that Democrats “are literally using YOUR tax dollars to import voters and disenfranchise you!” writing in another post that “Citizens of Arizona, this election is your last chance before you’re disenfranchised.”
On Friday, he called for the impeachment of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, saying “weak government leadership costs lives” in reference to the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s response to Hurricane Helene and its limited funds. In another post about disaster relief, he wrote, “The level of belligerent government incompetence is staggering!!”
He also posted, “Unless Trump wins and we get rid of the mountain of smothering regulations (that have nothing to do with safety!), humanity will never reach Mars. This is existential.”
Security Protocol
The Secret Service has been under intense scrutiny since the July 13 assassination attempt. Last week, a bipartisan Senate report found five key failures on the agency’s part:
- Failed to clearly define responsibilities for planning and security at the July 13 rally.
- Failed to ensure the AGR Building from which Crooks shot was effectively covered.
- Failed to effectively coordinate with state and local law enforcement.
- Failed to provide resources for the July 13 rally that could have enhanced security.
- Failed to communicate information about the suspicious person to key personnel and to take action to ensure the safety of former President Trump.
U.S. Secret Service Chief of Communications Anthony Guglielmi said in a Friday statement to Newsweek, “Since the attempted assassination of former President Trump on July 13, the U.S. Secret Service has made comprehensive changes and enhancements to our communications capabilities, resourcing, and protective operations.”
He reiterated, “Today, the former President is receiving heightened protection and we take the responsibility to ensure his safety and security very seriously.”
The statement continued: “Regarding the October 5 event in Butler, we are coordinating closely with the Pennsylvania State Police as well as local law enforcement in and around Butler Township.” Typically, the Secret Service coordinates with local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies at campaign events.
“We are also leveraging other federal security resources to expand personnel and technology. To maintain the integrity of our protective operations, we cannot go into specifics regarding the security enhancements,” he said.
The statement advised locals to prepare for traffic disruptions.
“Residents in the area should expect traffic delays and an increased presence of state, local, and federal law enforcement as part of our efforts. Specific road closure information will be released by the Pennsylvania State Police,” it said.
Note: Map shows the area with a shake intensity of 3 or greater, which U.S.G.S. defines as “weak,” though the earthquake may be felt outside the areas shown. The New York Times
Shake intensity
Pop. density
A cluster of earthquakes have struck near the U.S.-Mexico border, including ones with a 4.5 and 4.7 magnitude, according to the United States Geological Survey.
As seismologists review available data, they may revise the earthquake’s reported magnitude. Additional information collected about the earthquake may also prompt U.S.G.S. scientists to update the shake-severity map.
Subsequent quakes have been reported in the same area. Such temblors are typically aftershocks caused by minor adjustments along the portion of a fault that slipped at the time of the initial earthquake.
Aftershocks detected
Quakes and aftershocks within 100 miles
Aftershocks can occur days, weeks or even years after the first earthquake. These events can be of equal or larger magnitude to the initial earthquake, and they can continue to affect already damaged locations.
The New York Times
When quakes and aftershocks occurred
Sources: United States Geological Survey (epicenter, aftershocks, shake intensity); LandScan via Oak Ridge National Laboratory (population density) | Notes: Shaking categories are based on the Modified Mercalli Intensity scale. When aftershock data is available, the corresponding maps and charts include earthquakes within 100 miles and seven days of the initial quake. All times above are Pacific time. Shake data is as of Saturday, May 9 at 11:55 p.m. Eastern. Aftershocks data is as of Sunday, May 10 at 11:54 p.m. Eastern.
American citizens arrive onshore after being evacuated from the M/V Hondius in the Granadilla Port on Sunday in Tenerife, part of the Canary Islands, Spain.
Chris McGrath/Getty Images
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Seventeen U.S. cruise passengers are expected to return stateside early Monday, after weeks aboard the M/V Hondius, the cruise ship at the center of a deadly hantavirus outbreak.
The Americans are disembarking the cruise in the Canary Islands and boarding a medical repatriation flight, arranged by the U.S. government, bound for Nebraska. After landing at the Offutt Air Force Base near Omaha, they’ll head to the National Quarantine Unit at the University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC) for an initial evaluation, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“For the passengers getting off the ship, I’d say, ‘Welcome to Nebraska.’ You are coming to the premier facility in the United States, if not the world, to take care of you,” says Dr. Ali Khan, dean of the College of Public Health at UNMC.
The 17 U.S. passengers are among the total of nearly 150 people who were on the ship from 23 different countries. They’ve endured in the midst of a hantavirus outbreak which has caused at least eight cases, including three deaths, according to the World Health Organization.
The returning Americans had been isolating in their cruise cabins. They will now be monitored for several more weeks, U.S. health officials said in a media call on Saturday.
The passengers are arriving at America’s only federally funded quarantine unit, which also received cruise passengers from a different outbreak — the Diamond Princess Cruise, in early 2020 — which was one of the first known superspreading events of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Unlike COVID, which was a novel pathogenic strain when it emerged, scientists have been studying hantaviruses — and specifically the Andes variant which caused this outbreak — for decades. “We do know that you can get small clusters of disease, but in 30 years we’ve never seen any large outbreaks,” says Khan, “so this is unlikely to become a pandemic.”
This strain of hantavirus can be deadly, but it isn’t very contagious between people. It tends to take prolonged, close contact with someone who’s showing symptoms.
So far, all of the U.S. passengers are well. But symptoms can take up to 42 days after exposure to show up, according to the CDC.
“It’s appropriate to be cautious,” Khan says, “To monitor these people for 42 days [to make sure] they don’t get sick. And if they do get sick during those 42 days, to make sure to put them into isolation.”
Health officials said the U.S. passengers would not be officially quarantined. Instead, they suggested that after an initial assessment in Nebraska, some could continue monitoring at home, with daily check-ins from their health departments.
Seven U.S. passengers who had left the cruise ship earlier are being monitored in several states, including Texas, California, Georgia and Virginia.
Public health experts have been raising alarms over what they consider to be a muted public response by the U.S. government to this outbreak.
Lawrence Gostin, professor of global health law at Georgetown University, says the U.S. response has been fragmented, disjointed, and delayed for weeks, but it’s finally coming together. “The CDC was missing in action for quite a long time,” he says. “Better late than never — but it is very late.”
In response to a request for comment from NPR, Emily Hilliard, a spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services: “These claims are completely inaccurate. The U.S. government is conducting a coordinated, interagency response led by the Department of State. HHS, through ASPR [Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response] and CDC, is supporting efforts to protect the health and safety of U.S. citizens, including repatriation, medical evaluation, and public health guidance.”
She further described CDC’s response activities, including setting up its Emergency Operations Center, deploying teams to the Canary Islands and Nebraska, and notifying state health departments of returning U.S. travelers.
Many of these activities have come recently, and Gostin agrees that the U.S. government is now taking active measures to ensure that the passengers, their families, and the communities they’re returning to are safe.
But health officials got lucky this time: the Andes virus is not very contagious, and health officials say this outbreak will likely be contained. The way the U.S. has handled this episode shows glaring gaps in its pandemic preparedness, Gostin says: “If this was a highly transmissible virus, you could imagine what chaos we would be facing now.”
Gostin says more investment is needed in infectious disease prevention, containment and control.
Pope Leo XIV’s moral voice has resounded in global politics during the first year of his papacy, on war, immigration and artificial intelligence.
But in quieter, more personal ways, the first pope from the United States has also been shaping the future of the Roman Catholic Church in his home country — one bishop at a time.
So far, Leo has made roughly 30 announcements involving new bishops, elevated bishops or retiring bishops in the United States, offering an early look at what the American church hierarchy will become under his leadership.
He appears to be naming bishops not primarily as political statements, but rather as leaders who, like him, have focused on pastoral care and local management, and who reflect the changing composition of Catholic pews and priests.
Last week, Leo appointed Bishop Evelio Menjivar-Ayala to be the next bishop of Wheeling-Charleston, the diocese that covers West Virginia. The first Salvadoran bishop in the United States, Bishop Menjivar-Ayala became a citizen 20 years ago after a period as an undocumented immigrant, an experience that resonates with many Catholic families in the country.
In his own story, Bishop Menjivar-Ayala sees the story of Leo, who as a young priest moved to Peru from the United States to be a missionary and then became both a bishop and a citizen of his new country. Leo’s appointments have a global perspective, he said.
“Those decisions are not taken from political points of view, but what are the needs of that community?” he said. “Jesus said if you want to be great, you should become the servant of all.”
The same day Bishop Menjivar-Ayala was appointed, Leo also named Father John Gomez, a Colombian-born priest who became a U.S. citizen five years ago, to lead the Diocese of Laredo on Texas’ border with Mexico.
Father Gomez, currently the vicar general of the Diocese of Tyler in East Texas, felt a call to ministry after completing his military service in Colombia. He went to seminary in Miami and continued his theological studies in Texas and Rome. In Tyler, nearly half of Catholics are Spanish speakers, he said.
“That was the reason I came to the United States, to serve the growing Spanish-speaking population in the Catholic Church,” he said.
“Now I am a bilingual, bicultural man, and I love to serve both communities,” he said. “But there is a great need for us here in the church, for priests.”
Many of the most prominent U.S. cardinals and archbishops are reaching retirement age, meaning Leo will have an opportunity to make personnel changes at the highest levels. Bishops are required to offer the pope their resignation at age 75, but the pope can choose whether to accept it for five years.
In Chicago, Cardinal Blase Cupich turned 77 in March, and in Newark, Cardinal Joseph Tobin turned 74 last week. Archbishops in Las Vegas, Miami and Santa Fe are all turning 76 this year.
Before Leo was elected pope, he ran the influential Vatican office responsible for choosing bishops. That expertise has allowed him to move quickly, and his relative youth means that he could significantly remake a generation of the church hierarchy, similar to the legacy of Pope John Paul II, said Christopher White, a senior fellow of the Initiative on Catholic Social Thought and Public Life at Georgetown University.
In December, Leo replaced Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York, who turned 75 shortly before Francis died, and appointed Archbishop Ronald Hicks, 58, who also had a similar biography to Leo’s, with shared ministry experience and administrative skills.
A notable number of Leo’s new bishops, like many American priests and parishioners, were born in other countries.
Last June, Leo appointed Bishop Simon Peter Engurait, who was born in Uganda in 1971, the seventh of 14 children, to the Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux in Louisiana.
About a third of priests in his diocese are foreign-born, many with green cards and some with religious worker visas, Bishop Engurait said.
“Back in the day, you had bishops from, for example, Ireland, because that is where most of the priests came from,” he said. Now, as more and more priests come from Latin America and Africa, the makeup of the bishops is also changing.
One of his hopes is to integrate the range of diverse Catholic communities in his diocese, which includes many African Americans and a significant Hispanic and South Asian population, though very few Africans, he noted.
Recently, Hispanic Catholics had a celebration of the Virgin Mary, including traditions from places like Nicaragua, Puerto Rico and Mexico, and he wished other immigrant cultures in the dioceses were represented to share their own flavors of Catholicism, he said.
Leo’s focus on the universality of the church is a central gift for parishes, he noted.
“I personally believe that God gives us leaders for a time, for a season,” he said, adding that Leo has “a beautiful recognition and appreciation of the global human family.”
Shortly after his own installation mass, Bishop Engurait traveled to participate in the installation of another Leo-appointed bishop in his cohort, Bishop Pedro Bismarck Chau, an auxiliary in Newark who was born in Nicaragua and became a U.S. citizen in seminary.
Leo is continuing a trend that Pope Francis started, elevating priests who have what Francis called “the smell of the sheep,” Bishop Chau said.
Many in Leo’s cohort of new bishops came up as parish priests, meaning they have extensive on-the-ground pastoral experience as opposed to having primarily worked in diocesan offices or adjacent ministries, he noted.
In September, Bishop Chau will go with fellow newly appointed bishops to Rome for what they jokingly call “Baby Bishop School,” an annual Vatican program for that year’s bishop class, and meet Leo for the first time. His own appointment process began while Francis was still alive and Leo, then Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, was still in his former role leading the bishops’ office.
“He saw my paperwork, he brought that paperwork to Pope Francis, that’s the interesting part of it,” Bishop Chau said. “I can’t wait to talk to him about it.”
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