On July 13, 2024, Donald Trump, then a former president of the United States and the presumptive nominee of the Republican Party in the 2024 presidential election, survived an assassination attempt while speaking at an open-air campaign rally at the Butler Farm Show Grounds in Meridian, Pennsylvania, just outside Butler. Trump was shot and wounded in his upper right ear by 20-year-old Thomas Crooks, who fired eight rounds from an AR-15–style rifle from a nearby building's roof. Though Trump survived the shooting, Crooks shot three audience members, killing Corey Comperatore instantly, and mortally wounding James Copenhaver, who died of complications from his injuries in 2026. Four seconds after he began firing, a member of the Butler County Emergency Service Unit shot at him and hit Crooks's rifle, preventing him from firing more shots. Twelve seconds later, Crooks was shot and killed by the Counter Sniper Team of the United States Secret Service.
As shots were fired, Trump clasped his ear and took cover behind his lectern, where Secret Service agents shielded him until the shooter was killed. Evan Vucci, a photojournalist for the Associated Press, captured photographs of Trump with blood on his face and ear, pumping his fist in the air. During this, Trump was saying "Fight! Fight! Fight!" as agents escorted him offstage; the images went viral on social media. Trump was taken to a hospital, treated, and released later that day. He made his first public appearance after the shooting two days later at the 2024 Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, wearing a bandage on his ear.
The incident is regarded as the Secret Service's most significant security failure since the attempted assassination of President Ronald Reagan in 1981. The director of the Secret Service, Kimberly Cheatle, faced bipartisan calls to resign when she testified before the United States House Committee on Oversight and Accountability on July 22; she stepped down the next day. President Joe Biden ordered an independent review of the security arrangements, condemned the violence, and called for a reduction in heated political rhetoric, emphasizing the importance of resolving political differences peacefully. Lawmakers called for increased security for major candidates in the election, and the Secret Service approved enhanced security measures, including the use of bulletproof glass at Trump's outdoor rallies.
The lack of security at the event and of public information about Crooks has spawned conspiracy theories. According to public opinion polls taken a month after the shooting, over half of Americans believed that Crooks did not act alone. Helen Comperatore, the widow of Corey Comperatore, has said she believes the US government plotted the shooting.
According to results from AP VoteCast/Fox News Voter Analysis, the assassination attempts that year galvanized Trump's supporters in the election. Of the 16% of 2024 election voters who called the assassination attempts against Trump the single most important factor to their vote, 81% supported him. While 52% of voters overall approved of the way Secret Service was handling its job, only about a third of Trump voters agreed.
Background
At the time of the incident, Trump was the presumptive Republican nominee in the 2024 presidential election. The shooting occurred two days before the 2024 Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Another attempt at violence toward Trump happened during one of his rallies in 2016, when a man attempted to grab a police officer's gun at a rally outside Las Vegas.
On July 3, 2024, the Trump campaign announced that Trump would hold a rally on July 13 at the Butler Farm Show Grounds in Connoquenessing Township and Meridian (an area of Butler Township), near Butler, Pennsylvania. On July 10, an advance team began setting up for the rally, including the installation of generators in a large open field. The rally was part of the campaign's attempts to garner votes in Pennsylvania, a swing state with 19 votes in the Electoral College. Dave McCormick, the Republican nominee in the state's concurrent U.S. Senate election, was invited to appear onstage during the rally to increase support for his campaign.
Security arrangements
The Federal Bureau of Investigation had no information about any particular threats before the incident, but the Secret Service had increased Trump's security detail in recent weeks because of intelligence indicating that Iran was plotting to assassinate him. The acting Iranian minister of foreign affairs rejected this claim, saying that Iran wanted a "legal path to bring [Trump] to justice" for ordering the assassination of Qasem Soleimani.
U.S. Representative Mike Kelly said he had contacted the Trump campaign to recommend holding the rally in an area that could handle a larger crowd than the Butler Farm Show Grounds and that their response was: "We appreciate your input, but we've already made up our minds".
Before the incident, attendees at Trump rallies were screened for prohibited items, including weapons. The Secret Service also routinely screens and monitors buildings and businesses near such events, including structures outside security perimeters. The venue "had two layers of security—an outer area patrolled by state police and an inner perimeter manned by Secret Service agents, including an anti-sniper team on a roof behind the stage". Four counter-sniper teams were assigned to the event, two from the Secret Service and two from local law enforcement. One of them, comprising three snipers (local SWAT officer Greg Nicol, SWAT team member from Beaver County Jason Woods, and a third shooter from Butler County's SWAT team), was positioned inside a building owned by AGR International.
The Pennsylvania State Police, which serves as Connoquenessing Township's law enforcement agency, was also involved in security matters, while Butler Township police were given traffic duties. Butler City sent no law enforcement personnel, and the event was not within that city's boundary.
Attempt
Lead-up to the shooting
On July 7, 2024, Thomas Matthew Crooks visited the Butler Farm Show grounds, the site of a future campaign rally Trump announced four days earlier. He spent 20 minutes there, having registered to attend the rally the previous day. On July 12, Crooks went to a shooting range and practiced with his rifle, a DPMS Panther Arms-produced AR-15–style rifle with a 16-inch (41 cm) barrel, chambered in 5.56×45mm NATO, which he had bought from his father. This rifle model is capable of a Minute of Angle (MOA) accuracy of 2-3 inches at 100 yards (91 m). An unmagnified Holosun AEMS red dot sight was attached to the rifle. Brandon Webb, a former Navy SEAL and the former head instructor of the SEAL Sniper course, said a well-trained shooter could hit a target with a high degree of accuracy using an AR-15 at the distance at which Crooks shot Trump, especially with a magnified optical gunsight, such as an ACOG.
On July 13, the day of the assassination attempt, Crooks bought a five-foot (1.5-meter) ladder before driving to the site of the rally in the morning. According to ABC News, a team of Beaver County SWAT officers (tasked with supporting the Secret Service) had taken its position at the security perimeter by mid-morning. Crooks left the rally site and bought 50 rounds of ammunition from a gun store, before driving back to the rally at 3:35 p.m. EDT, armed with his rifle and with an explosive device in the trunk of his car. Crooks did not undergo security screening, as he was outside the Secret Service's security perimeter for the rally. Around 3:50 p.m., Crooks flew a drone for about 11 minutes, showing the scene behind his eventual firing position.
At 4:26 p.m., a local law enforcement countersniper ended his shift and spotted Crooks around the southernmost warehouse of a complex owned by AGR International, in which police countersnipers were positioned. The countersniper texted his colleagues about Crooks, noting that Crooks might have known about the police presence inside the building. The New York Times described the text messages as suggesting that Crooks aroused police suspicion more than 90 minutes before the shooting. At 5:14, a countersniper still in the building saw Crooks directly underneath the warehouse and photographed him. The countersniper saw him "scoping out" the rooftop of the building and carrying a golf rangefinder, which particularly alarmed officers. The countersniper texted images of Crooks to other members of law enforcement before heading outside to find him and keep visual tabs on Crooks while backup arrived. Crooks ran from his position and evaded a search joined by four other local police officers. Law enforcement officers spotted Crooks between 20 minutes and 30 minutes before the shooting. Multiple local law enforcement officers identified Crooks and believed he might have been acting suspiciously near the event's magnetometer weapon detectors; they expressed their suspicions over radio, and the Secret Service was informed of this at some point.
Trump arrived onstage at about 6:03 p.m. At 6:05, he began speaking.
At 6:06, Crooks scaled an air conditioning unit between the northernmost AGR International buildings to reach the complex's roof, rather than using his ladder. He walked across a series of interconnected roofs to reach his firing position on the southernmost roof, between 400 feet (120 meters) and 450 feet (140 meters) north of the venue stage. The building housed three police snipers tasked with covering the rally, but none of them were on the roof due to a shortage of personnel.
Several bystanders witnessed Crooks on the roof and alerted the police about him minutes before shots were fired at Trump.
The slant of the roof that Crooks had been on may have prevented Secret Service snipers from seeing him as he crawled into a firing position; the northern sniper team's view of Crooks's position was also blocked by trees. Using a three-dimensional simulation of the shooting, the New York Times reported that "the gunman was largely concealed by two trees and the slope of a warehouse building roof, which he used as his perch."
At 6:08 p.m., a local law enforcement officer reported over radio, "Someone's on the roof". Police bodycam video footage revealed that, at this point, a search operation began in which at least four Pennsylvania law enforcement officers focused on the roof Crooks was on and its immediate surroundings, attempting to reach him. Hoisted by another officer, a Butler Township police officer attempted to climb to the roof of the building in search of Crooks. Crooks spotted the officer, whose hands were clinging to the edge of the roof, and aimed his rifle at the officer, who then let go, falling 8 feet (2.4 m) to the ground and severely injuring his ankle. According to ABC, this encounter, which occurred about 40 seconds before Crooks opened fire, was "the first time any law enforcement saw that the person on the roof had a gun".
Shooting
Crooks undertook the shooting immediately after the confrontation with the officer.
A few minutes into Trump's speech, starting at 6:11:33 p.m., Crooks fired eight shots into the rally, grazing Trump's right ear and striking three rallygoers, killing one instantly and mortally wounding a second who died in 2026, before being killed seconds later by a sniper from the Secret Service. As the shots were heard, rally attendees yelled "Duck!" Police bodycam footage captured the movements and responses of some of the law enforcement officials at the rally to the detected threat on a rooftop, which the BBC later called "moments of frustration, confusion and miscommunication". Two shots were fired toward Crooks. Aaron Zaliponi, a member of Butler County's Emergency Services Unit, fired the first shot four seconds after Crooks began shooting at Trump. The bullet is believed to have struck Crooks's rifle stock, causing it to fragment and send debris flying, which hit his face, neck, and right shoulder. The impact forced Crooks to stop shooting and reposition himself. On a building behind Trump's left shoulder, a team of Secret Service countersnipers were facing in a different direction and reoriented toward Crooks to aim a second shot at him before he could resume firing; a member of that team fatally shot Crooks 16 seconds after he had begun firing.
The upper part of Trump's right ear was grazed by the first bullet Crooks fired. Trump raised a hand to his ear before dropping down on his podium behind the lectern for cover. Secret Service agents lunged toward Trump and shielded him. After the assailant was declared "down", agents helped Trump get up. Blood was visible on his ear and face. He asked the Secret Service agents to let him get his shoes. According to Trump, the agents "hit me so hard that my shoes fell off, and my shoes are tight". They also offered to put him on a stretcher, but he declined. As he was walked off the venue stage, Trump told the Secret Service agents to wait and then raised his fist, pumped it at the crowd, and mouthed the words "Fight! Fight! Fight!" The crowd responded with cheers and chants of "U-S-A!"
When I rose surrounded by Secret Service, the crowd was confused because they thought I was dead. And there was great, great sorrow. I could see that on their faces as I looked out. They didn't know I was looking out, they thought it was over. But I could see it, I wanted to do something to let 'em know I was ok. I raised my right arm, looked at the thousands and thousands of people that were breathlessly waiting and started shouting, Fight! Fight! Fight!
— Donald Trump
Trump was then escorted to a vehicle and taken to the nearby Butler Memorial Hospital.
Trump credited a large chart displaying immigration statistics with saving his life. Immediately before the first shot, he turned his head to his right, toward the chart, and pointed to it. The movement narrowed the profile of Trump's skull toward the direction of the shooter, possibly saving him from a direct gunshot wound to his skull. Trump later said, "If I hadn't pointed at that chart and turned my head to look at it, that bullet would have hit me right in the head." Trump had said "That chart's a couple of months old and if you want to really see something that's sad, take a look at what happened" when Crooks cut him off.