What we know now: How the Trump Assassination Attempts Changed Politics
A year ago, the attempt to assassinate President Donald Trump changed the politics of the United States. This is what we know now.
- Former President Donald Trump listened at a campaign rally held in Butler, Pennsylvania on July 13, 2024.
- The shooter, Thomas Matthew Crooks, was killed by law enforcement, and the audience at the rally was also killed.
- Despite evidence of confirming the shooting, conspiracy theories about the event persist online.
President Donald Trump said he saw a chart on display at a Pennsylvania rally on July 13, 2024, and fired eight shots at the then candy date, erupting as a archer on a nearby roof.
Footage from the incident shows Trump turning over, raising his hand to his ear, checking it and finding blood. He appeared in Milwaukee, Wisconsin a few days later, accepting a Republican presidential nomination with bandages in his ears.
The FBI later thought the bullet had hit the ears of a whole or fragmented Trump, but the unfounded plot first questioned whether it was glass or the other rap shotgun that injured the president.
But a year later, conspiracy theory has not stopped. A quick scroll through X shows a close-up of Trump’s ears comparing the false theory with the recent photo of an attempted assassination being staged.
Here are what we know about filming and what questions remain.
Donald Trump’s first assassination attempt: What happened?
On July 13, 2024, Trump was speaking at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. That’s when a gunman fired multiple shots at the then presidential candidate on the rooftop near Larry.
Trump was shot in the ear, and as Secret Service agents flocked him and left the stage, he was dug into the back of the lecture. However, they didn’t let him out of public vision, as he striped his face at the moment of the photo that became the definitive image of his campaign.
The shooter was later identified as 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks and was killed by law enforcement. The con artist appeared to have acted alone and did not belong to any particular political tendencies.
The audience at the rally was killed and two people were seriously injured.
Was Trump really shot?
Yes, multiple evidences show that Trump was hit in the ear with a bullet.
A bipartisan Congressional Task Force was created a December report from the task force, weeks after “the initial attempt to investigate all actions by federal, local and local law enforcement agencies (LLE) or other state or local government or private companies or individuals or individuals.”
In the timeline of events included in the report, Crooks fires three shots at 6:11pm, with a round bumping into Trump’s ear, with his details quickly covering his body. Seconds later, Crooks fired five more shots, the report says.
A week after the shooting, Trump’s former White House doctor, Rep. Ronnie Jackson, issued a memo about Trump’s injuries.
“The bullet passed and I hit the top of my right ear less than a quarter of an inch since it got into my head,” a note posted on X. “The bullet truck produced a wound that was 2 cm wide and extended to the cartilage surface of the ear.”
Dr. Anthony Fauci said on CNN that the doctor’s report showed it was a surface level wound with no further complications.
Trump has mentioned many times that he still experiences the “throbbing sensation” in the ears he was shot.
The rest of the questions focus on the shortcomings of security
During the incident at Butler and the second obvious attempt at Trump’s life on a golf course in Florida two months later, some Republicans sparked a conspiracy about the shooting. Trump himself blamed Democrats on the plot during the campaign trajectory.
The Congressional Task Force report alleged that the Secret Service and other federal agencies failed in some of their planning, implementation and leadership. The Secret Service also said that on July 10, six staff members were suspended and disciplinary action between the 10th and six weeks without pay, implementing some of the recommendations in the Congressional Report.
Now, Trump said in a preview clip of an interview with his daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, he was informed by multiple agencies about the shooting.
“They explained to me and I’m happy with it,” Trump said of Fox News. “My view with Lala Trump.” “There were mistakes, but it should have happened… I have a lot of confidence in these people.”
But Rep. Mike Kelly, a Pennsylvania Republican who chaired the task force, said he continues to push more answers about the agency’s failures.
“We can’t stop doing that because we didn’t get the answer,” Kelly said in June in an interview with the USA Today Network at the Butler office. “It’s worth knowing what happened that day.”
Contributors: Zac Anderson, Matthew Rink, Bart Jansen, Josh Meyer, Jeanine Santucci, David Jackson, USA Today Network
Kinsey Crowley is a Trump Connect reporter for the USA Today Network. Contact her at kcrowley@gannett.com. Follow her on X and Tiktok @kinseycrowley or Bluesky @kinseycrowley.bsky.social.
