Donald Trump was wounded at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday evening in what the FBI said was an assassination attempt, an act of political violence that threatens to upend an already turbulent US election campaign and deepen divisions in the country.
The former president was wounded at 6:15 pm in a volley of shots fired from an “elevated location” outside the venue, according to the US Secret Service. Authorities said one spectator was killed and others, all men, were seriously injured in the shooting.
Trump was quickly hustled off the stage and into a motorcade, blood visible from his right ear and a streak of blood running down his cheek, and before being taken away in a car, he pumped his fist and yelled “Fight!” to the crowd.
The Secret Service, which protects current and former presidents, said the suspect “fired multiple shots into the stage” and died. The FBI called it an “assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump.”
The FBI later identified the shooting suspect as Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania.
The shooting drew condemnation from across the US political spectrum, with President Joe Biden, in a call with Trump late on Saturday, calling the incident “sick” and a reason “we must unite our country.”
“There is no room for this kind of violence in America,” Biden said.
International leaders also condemned the attack. British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said he was “appalled by the shocking scenes.” Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida offered his “prayers for President Trump’s speedy recovery,” and French President Emmanuel Macron called the attack a “tragedy for our democracy.”
The shootout happened just minutes after Trump began speaking at a rally in the rural northwestern Pennsylvania town of Butler, where witnesses and video footage said seven or eight shots were fired.
“I was shot above the right ear,” Trump wrote on his Truth social platform.
“I heard a whoosh and a gunshot and felt the bullets going through my skin so I immediately knew something was wrong,” he said. “I was losing a lot of blood and that’s when I realised what was happening.” He offered his condolences to the families of those killed and injured.
An initial investigation showed that law enforcement only became aware of the gunman after the shooting. Asked at a news conference whether the incident was a security lapse, FBI agent Kevin Rojek said it was too early to tell, but added that it was “surprising” that the gunman was able to fire multiple shots. Rojek also declined to comment on the gunman’s motive or the type of weapon used.
According to social media posts from Trump’s campaign staff, Trump left Butler County and then flew to New Jersey.
Biden was briefed on the shooting shortly after it happened. “Apparently he’s OK,” Biden said of Trump in brief comments from a police station in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, where he has a vacation home. “This can’t be allowed to happen. It shouldn’t be like this. We can’t tolerate this.”
“At the end of the day, Trump’s rallies are the rallies he should have been able to have,” Biden continued. [conduct] Peacefully and without any issues.”
Biden was scheduled to return to the White House at 12:30 a.m. Sunday, a spokesman said.
A Biden campaign official said the president’s re-election campaign has “paused all external communications and is working to cease television advertising as soon as possible.”
The assassination attempt on Trump marks the first time in decades that a sitting or former president has been the victim of a mass shooting, and comes less than four months before the November presidential election, with the Republican National Convention next week where Trump is due to formally accept the party’s presidential nomination.
After the shooting, the Trump campaign said that Trump was “still looking forward to participating.” [supporters] “At a tournament.”
In recent years, US politics has been plagued by deep divisions and escalating political rhetoric, with sporadic violent incidents occurring over the past four years, including the storming of the US Capitol by Trump supporters on January 6, 2021. Some Republicans were quick to place the blame for this incident on Biden’s political rhetoric.
J.D. Vance, a Republican senator from Ohio and Trump’s running mate, said the “central premise of the Biden campaign” is that Trump is “an authoritarian fascist who must be stopped at all costs.” That rhetoric, he said, led directly to the assassination attempt on Trump.
Attorney General Merrick Garland said the Justice Department would “devote all available resources” to the investigation, and in a separate statement the FBI said it was leading the probe.
U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson wrote to X that he had been briefed on the situation and was “praying for President Trump.” Johnson then said the House would “conduct a thorough investigation” and would subpoena the director of the Secret Service and other federal officials “as soon as possible” to testify before congressional committees.
“We are horrified by what happened,” Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer said in a statement, adding that “political violence has no place in our country.”
Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and former President Barack Obama echoed that sentiment, with House Democrat Hakeem Jeffries saying he “appreciates the decisive response by law enforcement.”
Additional reporting by Felicia Schwartz, Stefania Palma and Demetri Sevastopoulou in Washington
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