As tensions rise around security, the previous leader is prompting his numerous followers to accompany him back to the location where a shooter attempted to end his life. In less than a week following the assault in Butler, Pennsylvania, the ex-president, Donald J. Trump, graced the stage of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, with graphic imagery of his blood-covered visage behind him. ‘I’m going to give you the exact run-down of what occurred, and I won’t speak of it again,’ he declared, ‘This tale is too tormenting to relive.’ However, he didn’t hesitate to refer to it in the following 12 weeks.
In his campaign narrative, he wove the shooting incident as an act perpetrated by ‘them’—from the Democrats to Deep State, Marxists, and the media—identifying these groups as being hell-bent on hindering his progress. This Saturday, he aims to stage a theatrical comeback to the very site where the incident took place. A one-off event that Mr. Trump has been advertising for weeks as a must-see. ‘We’re heading back to Butler too,’ he declared at a gathering in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, on July 31. ‘People asked me, ‘Are you certain?’ I responded affirmatively, ‘We’re heading back.”
A few days post this proclamation, in Bozeman, Montana, he restated his intentions to the public, ‘We’re going back to Butler, Hope you are aware of it.’ ‘We must head back to Butler,’ he insisted. What Mr. Trump is on the brink of doing has practically no historical parallel. Several presidents have been victims to shootings and targeted by gun slinging assassins, yet none have dared to return to the scene just three months later to hosts a grand campaign rally.
This impending situation underscores the dichotomy present between Mr. Trump’s public articulation of his security apprehensions and his personal inclination towards daring ventures. Despite expressing concerns about lack of adequate protection by the U.S. Secret Service and even indirectly accusing the Biden administration of political undercurrents behind said security failings, he persists with his plan to return to Butler.
Since the first rally in Butler which took place on July 13, there has been an uptick in threats to Mr. Trump’s life. Another attempt at his life was made in September, at his West Palm Beach, Florida golf club, added to threats from Iran, posing considerable dangers. As a result, he has been compelled to tweak his travel itinerary occasionally and has had to revise or cancel some events on his campaign trail.
Members of the presidential protection detail, those primarily tasked with President Biden’s security, are actively helping to plan the rally on Saturday. Assistance is being drawn from the Pentagon, and as per protocol since August, ballistic glass, typically employed for presidential and vice-presidential protection, will be utilized to ensure Mr. Trump’s safety.
However, in spite of the heightened security measures, the event continues to cause unease for several officers who have previously been involved in presidential protection tasks. There seems to be a disconnect, perhaps a contradiction, in the former president’s recent statements about his own sense of security and the decision to head back to Butler.
He shared in an interview, that he is ‘constantly apprehensive’ about security at his political rallies. He says, ‘I feel the executive house isn’t treating us fairly, We are entitled to security.’ Following the attack, Mr. Trump took advantage of the situation to momentarily advocate for unity, criticize his political adversaries and portray himself as a martyr.
The anticipated trip back to Butler seems to be an attempt to stage a spectacle. A promotional poster of a bloody-faced Trump holding a fist in the air was published on Thursday, with news that Elon Musk is expected to attend the event on Saturday. One can easily imagine the scene: Mr. Trump, recreating that original defiant pose – a fist raised towards the sky amidst the roar of the crowd chanting ‘fight! fight! fight!’
The former president is perceived to be following in the footsteps of those predecessor presidents who came out of assassination attempts unscathed and used the experience to their political advantage. After Theodore Roosevelt survived a chest gunshot wound in Milwaukee in 1912, he created an aura of a man who was nearly invincible. His famous words, ‘It takes more than that to kill a Bull Moose!’, are still remembered.
After John Hinckley Jr. shot at Ronald Reagan in 1981 while he was at the Washington Hilton, Reagan also attempted to use the event to his advantage. As Rutgers University historian David Greenberg described it, ‘Reagan and his image-makers milked the assassination attempt for sympathy and built support for his tax plan.’ Although Trump’s actions might seem far more extreme, he is in fact, merely following a time-tested tradition.
Yet, Trump’s decision to return to Butler distinguishes him from others. Reagan never invited his followers to a public gathering at the Washington Hilton, and Franklin Delano Roosevelt never envisaged a rally in the Miami suburb where Giuseppe Zangara targeted him. ‘It’s beyond imagination to think of John F. Kennedy holding a press conference or a campaign rally at Dealey Plaza, had he survived the attack on his life,’ spoke Matthew Dallek, a historian at George Washington University specializing in presidential assassination attempts and political violence.
Returning to the crime scene, Trump’s decision is not only unprecedented but reveals a distinct feature in his approach, according to Dallek. Past presidents and those who bore the brunt of assassination attempts never spurred their followers into action against an unnamed foe following an attack, unlike what Trump is doing. This approach starkly differentiates his handling of the situation from his predecessors’ experiences, marking a drastic departure from convention in the face of a crisis.