Former President Donald Trump set the stage for the final month of his presidential campaign During the return trip to the Pennsylvania location where a gunman attempted to assassinate him this summer.
The trip was Trump’s last visit to the Keystone State. it plays the most important role in the election cycle. As the rally continues, Trump’s campaign has announced two additional events in Pennsylvania that the president will attend in the coming days.
Speaking before one of the largest rally crowds of the era, Trump attacked Democratic leaders for the federal response to Hurricane Helene, falsely suggested the party was trying to steal the upcoming election from him and repeatedly went after Vice President Kamala Harris. As a 2019 ACLU survey said she said she supports taxpayer funding of gender transition care for immigrants in federal detention facilities.
“Who wants sex reassignment surgeries for illegal aliens in dumpsters? I don’t think so,” Trump said during his nearly 90-minute speech. Returning to the topic later, he took a swipe at billionaire tycoon Elon Musk, who attended Trump’s rally, saying, “I don’t think Elon likes the idea. These are not ideas that Elon Musk likes very much.”
Trump Musk featured a parade of wealthy benefactors who spoke at the event, including hedge fund billionaire John Paulson and real estate investor Steve Witkoff.
During his speech, Musk issued apocalyptic warnings to rally participants and spectators, describing himself as “not only MAGA, but I am dark MAGA.”
“One requirement is very important: register to vote,” Musk said. “Okay? Grab everyone you know and don’t know, drag them to register to vote. … Text people now [and] make sure they actually vote. If they don’t, this will be the last election. This is my prediction. There is nothing more important.”
The stop comes nearly three months after Trump was hit in the ear By an assassin at the same location on July 13. The gunman, 20-year-old Thomas Crooks, was shot and killed by law enforcement at the scene. Two rally participants were injured, and another, Corey Comparatore, was killed.
“Now you’ve heard the gunshots, you’ve seen the blood, we all fear the worst,” Ohio Senator JD Vance said. Trump’s running mateIn a speech before the former president, he said he believed God had intervened to save Trump’s life. “But President Trump raised his fist in the air and shouted: ‘Fight!’ when you screamed, you knew everything was going to be okay. Battle! Fight back!”
Much of Trump’s opening speech was dedicated to Comperatore and two other people injured at the July rally. Trump also praised the law enforcement agencies involved in the assassination attempt, saying counter-snipers were responsible for saving “many lives.”
“We have a wicked world,” Trump said. “We have a very sick world.”
Trump also held a moment of silence for Comparatore, who he said had “become somewhat of a folk hero.” He met with the family of the fallen participant before his performance on Saturday.
“He was hit hard,” Trump said. “And he gave his life for the shield [his loved ones] lives.”
Trump was a bit more reserved than other recent events. for example then He called Harris mentally retarded and suggested police should be “real rough” with suspected criminals for “a rough hour”. But other speakers filled the void.
Trump’s daughter-in-law, co-chair of the Republican National Committee, Lara Trump, assessed the elections as a battle between “good and evil”.
“And good will win this battle,” he said.
In his speech, Vance criticized Democrats for labeling Trump a threat to democracy, linking the warnings directly to the second assassination attempt Trump faced last month.
Pointing at Harris, Vance said, “How dare you talk about threats to democracy?”
“Donald Trump took a bullet for democracy,” he said. “What did you do?”
Trump, meanwhile, said RNC Chairman Michael Whatley was “mostly working on Stop Theft” as opposed to get-out-the-vote efforts. which caused confusion among some Republicans. (An outside group tasked with a significant portion of the GOP GOTV effort is a super PAC is affiliated with Musk.)
“Because we have a lot of votes,” Trump said, “and we’re going to win this thing, and the more we win, the more you know it’s too big to fake.”
Trump also took time to discuss the federal response to Hurricane Helene, which battered western North Carolina as well as parts of Tennessee, South Carolina and Georgia. Trump said the government was only offering $750 to flood victims, “and yet they’re sending tens of billions of dollars to foreign countries that most people have never heard of.”
The Federal Emergency Management Agency said it was $750 is just one type of help it offersand there are other programs victims can qualify for after applying for disaster relief.
Trump touched more briefly on domestic issues, promoting fracking and saying he would not approve it Nippon Steel’s agreement to acquire US Steel – Hot topic in Western Pennsylvania. Both Harris and President Joe Biden have also opposed foreign takeovers.
“I don’t like it,” Trump said of the possibility of a Japanese company owning US Steel.
Looking ahead to next month, the former president predicted that both he and Vance will be hit with a series of negative reports.
“One month, we should get there,” he said. “They will still drop all kinds of bombs. They’re gonna shoot you, JD, they’re gonna shoot me. These people will shoot and shoot, but I think we’re almost immune to that, aren’t we? We have become immune to it.”
Trump heaped praise on wealthy philanthropists at the rally, calling Witkoff “one of the greatest businessmen in the country” and saying Paulson is “really one of the greats, one of the great voters, one of the shareholders. He knows what he’s doing.”
He then used Musk to describe the American dream.
If Trump wins next month, he said, “We will have the American dream.” “So every kid in your family is going to grow up and say, ‘I want to be like Elon Musk.’ I wish, I wish I had 200 billion dollars. I will be like Elon Musk.” This is the American dream.”