Former President Donald J. Trump honored the memory of a campaign supporter Saturday with a moment of silence, the ringing of bells and a tenor’s rendition of “Ave Maria,” 12 weeks to the moment after shots rang out that wounded Trump and killed retired Buffalo Township Fire Chief Corey Comperatore.
Supporters of the former president gathered at the Butler Farm Show for a rally interrupted by the July 13 attempt on Trump’s life and the wounding of Comperatore and two other Trump supporters.
“For 16 seconds,” Trump recalled, gunman Thomas Matthew Crooks “unleashed pure evil … but by the hand of Providence and the grace of God he did not succeed. He did not shake our unyielding resolve.”
At the exact moment of the gunfire 12 weeks before, former President Trump called for that moment of silence, after which tenor Christopher Macchio came out to sing “Ave Maria” from the Butler Farm Show stage.
It was one of two interruptions to Trump’s speech. The second was unexpected.
Trump saw something happening in the audience and asked, “Is there a doctor in the house?” Apparently it was for some sort of medical emergency, perhaps heat stroke, though what it was is unclear to the viewer at home.
Trump told the attending physician, “Take your time, doctor, we have plenty of time.” He then asked the person needing aid, “You’re doing OK? We’ve got to protect our people, take your time.”
During the interval, many in the audience began singing the national anthem.
“Thank you, doctor, good job. Thank you very much,” Trump said. “People are here a long time and it happens.”
Trump thanked “the men and women of the United States Secret Service who threw their bodies on top of mine … there was not even a moment of doubt in their minds … they are great people.”
He said the Secret Service showed “a devotion to duty” both then and “again three weeks ago” at his Florida golf course.
“It is an evil world,” Trump said. “It is a really sick world.”
He applauded the Secret Service counter-sniper and a local police officer who both fired at Crooks. The local officer is believed to have hit Crooks’ gun. The Secret Service sniper’s shot was more deadly.
“He had a lot of bullets, a lot of ammunition,” Trump recalled about the sniper on the roof of the nearby AGR building, which was secured Saturday by other snipers. “There would have potentially been many, many people” killed.
He thanked the efforts of Butler Township, Butler County and Pennsylvania State Police, as well as the staffs at Butler Memorial Hospital (where he was treated for the ear wound) and Allegheny General Hospital in Pittsburgh (where the two wounded Trump supporters were taken).
“They were very brave,” Trump said. “They were Trump fans and they still are.”
Trump said he was told there were “probably three” dead but it turned out to be only one, “one great gentleman.” He thanked survivor David Dutch, saying, “We’re thrilled to see your recovery is going well.”
He said James Copenhaver wanted to be there Saturday but “he has just undergone a major surgery related to the shooting.” He said doctors are “looking to a full and complete recovery” for Copenhaver.
Trump said Corey Comperatore is “not with us tonight and he should be. He has become something of a folk hero.” He had cameras at the rally point out where Comperatore’s widow, daughters and other relatives were sitting.
“It is not easy to find people in this audience,” he said, calling them a “great, incredible family … and he loved you a lot.”
He said Mrs. Comperatore said, “a lot of people have been very generous” but “I’d rather have my husband.”
Trump said Comperatore was a devout Christian, a veteran and part of a rare number “a few men (who) volunteer to run into fires. This guy would do anything, he was brave. He put his life on the line for others and he loved doing it.”
On July 13, Trump said, “Corey leapt into the fire one last time,” throwing himself on his wife and daughters. “He didn’t want them hurt.”
Butler County Board of Commissioners Chair Leslie Osche said evil is not welcome in Butler County and asked the audience to honor the families of the three shot along with Trump on July 13 and “keep them in our thoughts and prayers.”
She said prayers “go out to our brave friends” recovering from the remnants of Hurricane Helene, and that “Corey Comperatore and his family represent all that is Butler County and the heart of our country.”
She said “Corey heeded the call of God in Joshua 1:9, which reads in the New International Version of the Bible, “Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go.”
In his obituary, Osche said, Comperatore’s wife and daughters said his courage was “not loud and boisterous” but rather a “courage of quiet resilience.”
Butler County Commissioner Kimberly Geyer called July 13 “a traumatic and tragic day in America’s history … and Butler County was famous for all the wrong reasons.”
She said she wanted “to show the world what Butco is really all about,” including farmers, veterans and first responders and others who “work hard, we work smart, and we work together.”
Other speakers Saturday included Sen. J.D. Vance, R-Ohio, the Republican vice presidential nominee, who said “this community has been so good to me and President Trump.”
While 84 days before “an assassin tried to fill our hearts with terror,” Vance said, “we will not be denied, we will make America great again and we will do it together.”
He said what happened to Trump “was a true miracle.” He quoted Psalm 23, “though I walk through the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me,” and said, “I truly believe that God saved Mr. Trump’s life that day.”
He said “there are so many people here” who were there on July 13, including Sean Parnell, who served as a master of ceremonies Saturday, telling him, “You were a hero on that day.” However, Vance added, “our hearts are heavy with sadness, for there is one hero who is not here today, and that is the great Corey Comperatore.”
Vance also said, “Our opponents have not heeded Abraham Lincoln’s words” about the “better angels of our nature,” but “continue to use dangerous, inflammatory rhetoric” to call Trump “a threat to democracy.”
Vance said Harris and her allies seek “to silence us, we the people” and said “they have declared war explicitly on the First Amendment,” even quoting Democratic vice presidential nominee Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as saying there was “no guarantee to free speech.”
The Republican vice presidential nominee also said censorship would be only the first step, that “first they tried to silence him, tried to bankrupt him” and “tried to jail him” and “it was only a matter of time until someone tried to kill him,” pointing also to “another gunman armed with an AK-47 rifle,” trying to finish the job at a Trump golf course in Florida. After that, Trump called him.
“I was sitting at home with my son in Cincinnati,” Vance said. “(Trump told him) ‘they tried to shoot me again.’ At first I was in disbelief.”
Trump told his running mate he was “physically OK” but “pissed off” because “’I was about to make a birdie on the sixth hole.”
Vance referred to his debate with Walz and said, “I feel a little bad for Tim Walz. Tim Walz has to defend the indefensible.” He also said “everyone knows the truth” that “Kamala’s Day One in the White House” was 1,400 days ago and “she hasn’t done a damn thing.”
Vance said Harris had a record of failure that “is only getting worse” after Helene rolled through Appalachia.
“What began as a natural disaster is becoming a man-made disaster,” Vance said. He said Biden was spending time on a beach, Harris at a fundraiser and “deployment of the military and the National Guard is at a snail’s pace.”
He criticized “the Harris administration” for giving “billions of dollars to other countries and illegal aliens,” while pledging only $750 to Helene survivors.
Vance said he and Trump would assure that “emergency assistance goes to American citizens and not illegal aliens,” that “we are going to secure the southern border,” stop the flow of fentanyl into this country, drive down the price of gas, housing and other goods and “we will always defend your God-given right (to free speech).”
Also speaking was Dave McCormick, Republican nominee for U.S. Senate, who said “it is hard to believe that it was almost three months ago” when a tragedy occurred on that same stage at the Butler Farm Show. He said those gathered also are there to “mourn the loss of Corey Comperatore” and “honor who he was … a role model for everything that is great about this country.”
McCormick said “the best way to honor those who have gone before us, those who have served us, those who have made the ultimate sacrifice, is to keep America the greatest country in the world.”
He said “in 31 days we face a crossroads. We’ll either get our country in the right direction … or on a path we won’t recognize.”
McCormick also talked about the choice in his contest against incumbent Democrat Sen. Bob Casey Jr., “a choice between a seventh-generation” Pennsylvanian who is “an outsider, a businessman, who went to West Point, who served in the 87th division in Iraq” and Casey with “30 years in elected office” who was “weak when we need strength” and a “99% vote for the radical policies” of Biden and Harris.
During his speech, Trump introduced “a truly incredible guy,” Elon Musk, who helped provide communications in some areas ravaged by the remnants of Hurricane Helene with his Starlink and also, as Trump said, “created the first great American car company in decades.”
Musk said “the true test of someone’s character is how they behave under fire. We had one president who couldn’t climb a flight of stairs, and we have another who was fist-pumping after being shot.”
Musk expressed concern over how “the other side wants to take away your freedom of speech, they want to take away your right to bear arms,” and even, in California, passing legislation banning voter ID at the polls, saying, “I still can’t believe that is real.”
Musk said Trump “must win to preserve the Constitution … to preserve democracy in America,” and urged the audience to “register to vote and get everyone you know and everyone you don’t know to register to vote.”
He added, “Your vote does count, it matters,” and predicted that the Nov. 5 election could be decided by “a tiny margin.”
Other speakers included:
• Tom Natoli, who attended the July 13 rally. He said he was surrounded Saturday “by patriots who were standing with me” when the shooting started and “everyone stood their ground in support of their president.”
Natoli said, “I was a lifelong Democrat (but) that all changed the day Donald J. Trump came down that escalator at Trump Tower. I’ve been an outspoken supporter of Trump ever since.”
He said what had been a sunny day changed “in an instance” into “one of the most infamous, dark days in American history. By the grace of God, our president was spared so he can make America great again.
He ended his remarks with Trump’s words from July 13: “Fight! Fight! Fight!”
• John Alfred Paulson, hedge fund manager. He said Trump would “deliver the greatest economic boom” if he is elected.
Trump called Paulson “one of the greatest businessmen,” but wondered about Paulson’s prediction that there would be a “ massive depression” if Trump loses. “I don’t know about that,” the former president said.
• Steve Witkoff, founder of Witkoff Group, who expressed blessings to Comperatore’s family, as well as the families of the other men wounded on July 13, James Copenhaver and David Dutch. He also called himself “a dear friend of the president” who has seen “his strength and commitment to the nation. I’ve been at his side through some of the toughest moments. I was ten feet away from him during his second assassination attempt.”
He also recalled “when he reached out to me, after I lost my son Andrew, he was not just the president; he was a friend.” He quoted Abraham Lincoln, “you cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today,” and said Trump will work to make the nation “safe, prosperous and free” and “believes in every fiber of his being … this country’s best days are still to come.”
• Eric Trump (Trump’s son) and his wife (and Republican National Committee co-chair) Lara Trump, who rose to the podium at 5:33 p.m. Eric called Comperatore an incredible man, but said his father’s foes “tried to smear us, they tried to bankrupt us” and “they weaponized the entire legal system.” And then, “they tried to kill him.”
He said the Democratic Party “can’t do anything right,” saying, “You have people’s houses floating down rivers,” while Harris is saying, “I’d like to give that family $750.”
• Lara Trump said it was a “pivotal moment for this country,” and no longer a battle between Democrats and Republicans, but rather, “it is good versus evil, and good is going to win this battle.” She said God spared her father-in-law’s life “because He was not done with Donald Trump … not once but twice.”
She said, “You can operate with fear and cowardice, or you can operate with strength and faith.” She said the RNC has been working for free, fair and transparent elections where only citizens vote, and “it has been the number one focus of the RNC since I took over alongside Chairman Michael Whatley.”
• Scott Pressler, a conservative activist, whom Lara Trump said “has done an incredible job” flipping Bucks and Luzerne counties from Democrat to Republican. He said, “Pennsylvania, you have the power to change the world. Pennsylvania wins the White House. Please check your voting status, and go to vote.pa.gov and register.”
Trump mentioned other politicians in attendance, including U.S. Rep. Mike Kelly, R-Butler, “a man who is beloved in this state,” as well as Butler County Sheriff Mike Slupe, and Osche.
There was Rep. Guy Reschenthaler, R-Peters Township (“That’s the hardest name to pronounce,” Trump said); Rep. Glenn Thompson, R-Howard; and Rep. John Joyce, R-Blair County.
“We have a lot of senators and a lot of people from Congress here,” Trump said, including Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo.; Rep. Dan Meuser, R-Luzerne County; Reps. Cory Mills and Mike Walsh, both R-Fla.; and Rep. Ronny Jackson, R-Texas, who was Trump’s doctor while he was in the White House (and served Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama as well), “and then before that he was an admiral.”
Trump said Jackson said he was the healthiest of those three presidents. He said Jackson said, “I’d love to run for Congress” and now “he’s one of the most popular” House members.
He also said there were “so many others” there, such as Dr. Jim Sweetland and first responder Rico Elmore, and volunteer Ed Shear, all of whom were there July 13, with Sweetland working in vain to save Comperatore.
“You learn about them at times like this,” the former president said.
He also said, “we have to send our prayers and support to all the people affected by Hurricane Helene,” said Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp is “doing a good job” while the federal response “is just not acceptable” and “a very bad job.”
The rally concluded with a recording of the Village People’s “YMCA,” followed by a brief concert by Macchio, which included “Hallelujah,” “America the Beautiful,” “How Great Thou Art” and “God Bless America.”
Also at the rally, Lee Greenwood performed “God Bless the U.S.A.” and there was a local duo, Gary Burk III and Eric Gunderson. Burk also was called upon to sing the national anthem to help open the rally.