Elon Musk announced Thursday night that he will be attending Donald Trump’s Saturday rally in Butler, Pa., at the scene of the first assassination attempt against the former president in July.
“I will be there to support!” Musk wrote in response to Trump’s post on X, two minutes after it was posted. Trump teased that the second Butler rally will be “historic.” No further details were provided about Musk’s visit to Butler.
The Tesla CEO and X owner endorsed the former president following the assassination attempt carried out by 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, who on July 13 aimed eight bullets at Trump — killing firefighter Corey Comperatore, wounding two others, and hitting Trump in the ear. Later that day, Musk called Trump “tough” after seeing the bloodied GOP nominee pump his fist into the air and say to the crowd “Fight, fight, fight!” as he was rushed off the stage by Secret Service agents.
Musk’s endorsement was remarkable, considering he used to vote for Democrats before embracing Trump. In March, the billionaire said he was “leaning away from Biden” and teased a last-minute presidential endorsement. Now, Musk is fully behind Trump’s reelection bid.
Trump will be joined by multiple special guests in addition to Musk on Saturday — including Senator J.D. Vance (R., Ohio), Trump’s running mate; Representative Cory Mills (R., Fla.); U.S. Senate candidate Dave McCormick; Dr. Jim Sweetland, the doctor who performed CPR on one of the victims during the shooting; and relatives of Comperatore, who died from a head wound while shielding his family from the gunman’s bullets.
Given the highly anticipated event with prominent figures in attendance, the Secret Service has said it will be on high alert and work with state and local law enforcement to increase security.
The federal agency “has made comprehensive changes and enhancements to our communications capabilities, resourcing, and protective operations,” Secret Service chief of communications Anthony Guglielmi told a Pittsburgh ABC affiliate.
“We are coordinating closely with the Pennsylvania State Police as well as local law enforcement in and around Butler Township. We are also leveraging other federal security resources to expand personnel and technology,” Guglielmi said, without providing details on the security enhancements.
Trump’s campaign event will be held on the Butler Farm Show grounds, the same site as the first Butler rally.
Butler County Commissioners chairwoman Leslie Osche said she was “confident” in the increased security.
“We have the benefit from learning from the prior event,” she said. “And I know that our team led by our emergency management director did an after-action review of everything that occurred and what can be better and done differently.”
Since the first assassination attempt, Trump has appeared behind bulletproof glass while onstage during his outdoor rallies. It’s likely that will be an additional security precaution this weekend.
The Secret Service has faced scrutiny for its failure to prevent the shooting. The episode prompted Kimberly Cheatle to resign from her post as Secret Service director.
Communication breakdowns between federal and local law enforcement were the primary reason for the security failures that day, according to a Secret Service internal review released last month. Additionally, a bipartisan Senate report found that the planning and security failures were entirely “foreseeable” and “preventable.”
Public approval of the Secret Service has dropped substantially, to its lowest point in a decade, with more Americans viewing the agency negatively than positively this year. Just 32 percent of Americans rated the Secret Service’s job performance as excellent or good while 36 percent rated it as poor, according to a Gallup poll.
The survey was mostly finished before the second assassination attempt against Trump on September 15, meaning respondents were unable to take the latest incident into account when rating the president’s security detail. Though, in an apparent departure from protocol, the Secret Service did not surveil the former president’s Florida golf course before Trump began playing, an agent spotted would-be assassin Ryan Wesley Routh, 58, and opened fire, sending the gunman fleeing. Routh was arrested a short while later and taken into custody.