DONALD TRUMP
Copyright © 2025 by USA TODAY
All Rights Reserved • ISBN: 978-1-63846-139-5 No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission of the copyright owner or the publisher.
Published by Pediment Publishing, a division of The Pediment Group, Inc. • www.pediment.com Printed in Canada.
This book is an unofficial account of President Donald J. Trump’s 2024 election by USA Today and is not endorsed by President Trump.
LEFT: President Donald J. Trump delivers remarks at Dodge County Airport on Oct. 6, 2024 in Juneau, Wis. JOVANNY HERNANDEZ / IMAGN IMAGES
01 Entering the race
Donald Trump enters the 2024 presidential race, setting up a Republican showdown
ANTONIO
FINS AND STEPHANY MATAT | PALM BEACH POST • ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED NOV. 15, 2022
PALM BEACH, Fla. — Donald Trump is back in, and now it’s decision time for Florida’s GOP and MAGA universes.
And, after the highly divisive former president on Tuesday night announced he will run for president in 2024, the choosing of sides is well underway.
“He’s a fighter, he’s a pugilist,” said Michael Barnett, chair of the Palm Beach County GOP, who is backing the former president. “And that’s what energizes the base. He’s not afraid to stick up and take the hits.”
Others said they are on Team DeSantis.
Jorge Garrido, the chairman of the Hispanic Vote of Palm Beach County, said it is time to recognize that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is the new face of the party in and outside of Florida. Garrido said DeSantis’ popularity across the country is gaining momentum, based largely on a tough-on-crime message and focus on family values.
The rank-and-file also seems to be divvied up along the Trump-DeSantis
fault line cutting through Florida like an interstate highway. According to exit polls from last week’s election, some 45% picked the governor and 33% said they wanted Trump.
While far from a surprise, the announcement capped months of speculation punctuated by innuendo and assorted potshots cast by Trump at possible political rivals, specifically Gov. Ron DeSantis, a potential GOP nomination rival.
Trump’s decision sets up what could be a political drama, a real-life House of Cards in Florida. The fault line between Trump and his erstwhile political apprentice, DeSantis, ripped seismically this month, shaking the Republican Party to the core.
Trump has mocked the governor, dubbing him with the nickname “Ron DeSanctimonious.” He also issued a veiled threat to unearth the governor’s “past,” and then scorched him as an “average” Republican in a six-installment missive on his social media platform, Truth Social.
On Tuesday evening, however, the Trump World notables attending the campaign’s launch downplayed the evident, public friction between the Florida GOP’s two favorite sons.
“He didn’t even mention DeSantis,” scoffed pollster Dick Morris, originally a Bill Clinton confidant who has been advising Trump. “This is a fabrication. There’s no feud.”
As for DeSantis and the seemingly brewing battle, on Wednesday he said “people just need to chill out.”
Despite announcement, Trump still faces multiple investigations
Hovering over Trump’s announcement is the fact that he is the only U.S. president to be twice impeached and a former POTUS facing a slew of investigations, which he also touched on Tuesday.
Personal grievance was a mainstay during his speech. To cheers of “Drain the Swamp,” Trump depicted American government, particularly in Washington, as
unfailingly corrupt and he again vowed to wage war on the “deep state,” and particularly the FBI and federal law enforcement agents and prosecutors.
He then added: “I am a victim.”
In 2019, the U.S. House voted to impeach Trump over his dealings with Ukraine, but the Senate voted in 2020 to acquit. He was later impeached by the U.S. House for a historic second time just days before leaving office following his reelection defeat, charged with “incitement of insurrection” over the deadly Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.
And then there are the multiple investigations.
Trump may have major issues unrelated to campaigning for 2024.
Prosecutors are probing the former president over the removal of classified documents from the White House, attempts to overturn his 2020 election loss to President Joe Biden, and the insurrection in 2021.
The U.S. Justice Department and
RIGHT: A passenger in a vehicle painted with signage expressing support for President Donald Trump is seen while riding over the Southern Boulevard Bridge on Nov. 15, 2022, in West Palm Beach, Fla. Hundreds of Trump supporters gathered near the former president’s Mar-A-Lago estate awaiting his expected announcement of a 2024 presidential campaign. ANDRES LEIVA / IMAGN IMAGES
local prosecutors in Atlanta are looking at Trump’s role in attempts to overturn his 2020 election loss and the subsequent insurrection.
A grand jury also is investigating whether Trump improperly removed classified documents from the White House when he left in early 2021. That probe included a search of Mar-a-Lago, the site of Tuesday’s announcement.
Trump has denied wrongdoing and has called the investigations politically motivated.
Since 2021, Trump has faced legal scrutiny in at least six independent federal and state inquiries that are both criminal and civil in nature. At least two investigations involve the 2020 election.
A special House committee is preparing to issue a report detailing its findings, many of which were explained in riveting televised presentations, into Trump’s role in the Jan. 6 Capitol attack. The violence on Capitol Hill is also the subject
of an investigation by the U.S. Justice Department.
New York’s attorney general has sued the Trump Organization over its business practices and made referrals to the Manhattan district attorney’s office.
Lincoln Project, progressive group, CREW watchdog call Trump dangerous
A progressive group, Way to Win, said it is ready to hang the Jan. 6 attack, as
well as the U.S. Supreme Court’s abortion ruling and other “extremist” GOP policies, on Trump like an albatross.
For this month’s midterms, Way to Win said it aired a series of 30-second commercials in “key battleground states” in the Midwest and Southwest as well as 17 contested and GOP-leaning U.S. House districts. As of late last week, Way to Win said the Democratic candidates had won 11 of those House races.
Now it plans to do the same in 2024.
“Voters in these key battleground states do not want the Trump Republican agenda of having our freedoms taken away,” said Way to win co-founder Jenifer Fernandez Ancona. “It’s important to keep on that drumbeat.”
They are not the only ones seeking to remind the country of the lawless end to his presidency.
The Lincoln Project, which came into existence precisely to oppose Trump, began airing an ad in West Palm Beach and
said Trump’s political brand is an “affront to decency, democracy, and sanity.”
“Donald Trump is back,” the organization said in a statement. “For The Lincoln Project, the dangers Trump poses to America have never left our radar. Even while many on the right and left declared him as, ‘The Former Guy,’ we recognized Trump was a persistent risk to the Republic and our democracy. He’s in, and we’re ready to help defeat him a second time.”
LEFT: Trump supporters and event attendees mingle before a media event in the ballroom at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Fla., on Nov. 15, 2022.
THOMAS CORDY / IMAGN IMAGES
Key takeaways from a Republican debate with no Donald Trump
JOEY GARRISON AND PHILLIP M. BAILEY | USA TODAY • ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED AUG. 24, 2023
In a race dominated by Donald Trump, eight other presidential contenders battled it out at the first Republican primary debate Wednesday in an uphill fight to stop the former president from running away with the nomination.
Trump’s absence overshadowed the debate in Milwaukee but gave his challengers a prime opportunity to seize the spotlight and emerge as the leading alternative.
Yet even as the front-runner enjoys a massive polling lead, most candidates only sparingly threw punches his way, instead lobbing most of their attacks at one another, President Joe Biden, his policy agenda and his son Hunter.
Here are five takeaways from the debate.
Republicans dance around Trump
Throughout the two-hour discussion, the Republican field struggled to make a clear argument against Trump, who is leading his next-closest counterpart, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, in national polls by about 40 percentage points.
DeSantis took no swings at Trump, spending more time railing on Biden’s son Hunter Biden and liberal billionaire philanthropist George Soros while characterizing the U.S. as a country that has lost its way.
“We need to send Joe Biden back to his basement and reverse American decline,” DeSantis said.
There were some exceptions. Former Govs. Chris Christie of New Jersey and Asa Hutchinson of Arkansas, as expected, took shots at Trump over his legal woes and personal behavior. But the sharpest case against Trump arguably came from Nikki Haley, a former governor of South Carolina who was U.S. ambassador to the United Nations during the Trump administration.
During the first hour of debate, Haley was the only candidate to create a policy distinction with Trump, saying “our kids are never going to forgive us” for $8 trillion in new debt during the Trump administration.
Then Haley made a point that others seemed unwilling to articulate: that
Trump is too polarizing to win another general election.
“It is time for a new generational conservative leader,” she said. “We have to look at the fact that three-quarters of Americans don’t want a rematch between Trump and Biden. And we have to face the fact that Trump is the most disliked politician in America. We can’t win a general election that way.”
Trump indictments: Most pledge support in 2024 even if he is convicted Fox News debate moderator Bret Baier called Trump “the elephant not in the room.”
The former president’s quadruple indictments came up about an hour into the discussion and created one of the most contrasting moments for voters to measure in Wednesday’s debate.
Asked whether they would still back Trump as the GOP nominee in the general election if he were convicted, most of the eight contenders on stage raised their hand. Exceptions were Hutchinson, who kept his hand down, and Christie, who
raised his hand halfway but seemingly to speak on the subject.
“Someone’s got to stop normalizing this conduct, OK?” Christie said. “Whether or not you believe that the criminal charges are right or wrong, the conduct is beneath the office of president of the United States.”
Christie was met with loud boos from the crowd of Republican partisans.
“This is the great thing about this country,” he said. “Booing is allowed, but it doesn’t change the truth.”
Those remarks prompted a response from Vivek Ramaswamy, who has given the most full-throated support for Trump on the campaign trail of any of the candidates, and called him “the best president of the 21st century.”
“Your claim that Donald Trump is motivated by vengeance and grievance would be a lot more credible if your entire campaign were not based on vengeance and grievance against Donald Trump,” Ramaswamy said.
Republican candidates were then asked whether former Vice President
Mike Pence did the right thing when he opposed Trump’s plan to overturn the 2020 election results by certifying Biden’s victory on Jan. 6, 2021.
“Absolutely, he did the right thing,” Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C, told the audience. “But we should be asking ourselves a bigger question about the weaponization of the Department of Justice. When I’m president, the first thing I’ll do is fire (Attorney General) Merrick Garland.”
When the question turned to DeSantis, the Florida governor seemed reluctant to answer directly, saying Democrats want to keep that topic going and Republicans need to turn the page.
But the former vice president pressed for a response.
“I think the American people deserve to know whether everyone on this stage agrees that I kept my oath to the Constitution that day,” Pence said. “There’s no more important duty, so answer the question.”
“I’ve answered this before. Mike did his duty, I’ve got no beef with him,” DeSantis finally said.
Ramaswamy’s coming-out party met with GOP fire
Ramaswamy drew fire from multiple rivals as he sought to use the debate as a coming-out-party on the national stage after gaining traction in recent polls.
“First, let me just address a question that is on everybody’s mind at home
tonight,” Ramaswamy, a 38-year-old billionaire businessman, said in his opening remarks. “Who the heck is this skinny guy with a funny last name?”
The Ohio Republican − who spoke out of turn frequently throughout the night − took no time irking his opponents.
Pence was the first to take a swipe at Ramaswamy: “Joe Biden has weakened this country at home and abroad. Now is not the time for on-the-job training. We don’t need to bring in a rookie.”
Christie also reminded the audience that the last politician to stand on a stage and say he’s a skinny guy with a funny name was former President Barack Obama. “I’m afraid we’re dealing with the same type of amateur,” Christie said.
As he angered his foes, Ramaswamy doubled down on his hard-line conservative pitch.
“Do you want a super PAC puppet or do you want a patriot who speaks the truth?” he said. “Do you want incremental change or do you want revolution?”
Republicans vary on national abortion ban
Biden and Democrats have made clear they plan to thrust abortion rights at the center of the president’s 2024 reelection bid.
In the year since the U.S. Supreme Court ended Roe v. Wade, six states have addressed reproductive rights questions and the liberal side has won each of those
ballot questions.
Asked about where they stand in terms of a national standard, each of the Republican presidential candidates said they were “pro-life,” but that meant something different with each answer.
Haley, the only woman running, said the GOP should be trying to find a consensus because any federal legislation needs 60 votes in the Senate. She said that means leaning into banning later-term abortions and agreeing not to jail women who get them.
But Pence, who is well liked among evangelical voters demanding a national ban, cast abortion as a “moral issue.” He scolded Haley, saying that “consensus is the opposite of leadership.”
Scott, like most on stage, said Congress should aim for a 15-week ban at least. When pressed on the question, DeSantis talked up signing a six-week ban in Florida while sharing his personal reasons for opposing abortion.
Christie said that he doesn’t support a federal prohibition and that it should be left up to the states.
Biden campaign spokesman Kevin Munoz, in a statement released during the debate, said: “Americans have rejected the extreme, anti-choice positions of MAGA Republicans in the midterms and in elections throughout this year. They will again in 2024.”
OPPOSITE PAGE: People attend the Republican Presidential Primary Debate watch party hosted by Americans for Prosperity Wisconsin at The Explorium Brewpub on Aug. 23, 2023, in Milwaukee, Wis.
JOVANNY HERNANDEZ / IMAGN IMAGES
LEFT: American columnist Guy Benson (left) and owner of The Explorium Brewpub Mike Doble make opening remarks at the Republican Presidential Primary Debate watch party hosted by Americans for Prosperity Wisconsin at The Explorium Brewpub on Aug. 23, 2023, in Milwaukee, Wis.
JOVANNY HERNANDEZ / IMAGN IMAGES
The primaries 02
Donald Trump continues push toward GOP nomination with New Hampshire win
WASHINGTON — Former President
Donald Trump is sailing toward the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, defeating his top remaining rival, Nikki Haley, in the first-in-the-nation primary state of New Hampshire.
Trump’s swift victory, which was called in his favor just minutes after the last polls closed in the state, underscores how the former president remains the de facto leader of the GOP.
His triumph in New Hampshire, where Haley was best poised to topple the former president, will spur Republicans to consolidate their support behind him ahead of a head-to-head matchup with President Joe Biden. Regardless, the former South Carolina governor promised to stay in the race, noting New Hampshire may be the first-in-the-nation state, but not the “last-in-the-nation.”
Here are the takeaways from a pivotal night for the GOP primary.
Trump is sailing toward the 2024 GOP nomination
Trump’s victory all but secures the
nomination for the former president, who has long been the dominant frontrunner in the race. In the days leading up to New Hampshire, Trump had what appeared to be a surefire path toward the nomination as his rivals in the field, such as Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C. and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, dropped out of the race and threw their support behind him.
The Granite State was widely viewed as the primary Haley had the best shot at pulling off an upset victory against the former president; its voter demographics lean toward the political center compared to other early voting states, such as Iowa and South Carolina, along with its primaries that are open to undeclared voters.
Despite Haley’s promise to stay in the race, the former president’s victory will incite his allies to call for the GOP to consolidate their support behind him as the nominee, a future they have argued is inevitable.
“For the sake of the Republic, it is well past time for her to suspend her failing campaign and unite behind President
Trump,” Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., one of Trump’s staunchest supporters in Congress and a member of House GOP leadership, said in a statement on Tuesday evening. “Any effort to desperately divide Republicans going forward will be remembered and seen as a direct assist to Joe Biden’s failing campaign. It must end now.”
And regardless of how close of striking distance Haley came within Trump, New Hampshire’s results will almost certainly disappoint the anti-Trump wing of the GOP who have longed for an alternative to the former president heading into the 2024 general elections.
Meanwhile, Biden’s reelection campaign looked ahead to a Trump rematch in a statement issued after Trump’s New Hampshire victory.
“Tonight’s results confirm Donald Trump has all but locked up the GOP nomination, and the election denying, anti-freedom MAGA movement has completed its takeover of the Republican Party,” Biden campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez said.
Haley vows to stay in: ‘This race is far from over’
Haley made clear she has no plans to drop out of the race, but her path to the Republican nomination is fading as Trump’s momentum builds.
Haley, who staked her campaign on winning New Hampshire, instead settled for a double-digit loss, yet vowed to fight on.
“Now you’ve all heard the chatter among the political class. They’re falling all over themselves, saying this race is over,” Haley said in her concession speech. “I have news for all of them. New Hampshire is first in the nation. It is not the last.”
She added: “This race is far from over. There are dozens of states left to go.”
Trump, in remarks after his victory, seemed angry that Haley didn’t drop out, accusing her of taking a “victory lap” when she actually had “a very bad night.”
Trump said Haley benefited from New Hampshire Democrats who voted in the Republican primary and mocked her for her third-place finish in last week’s Iowa caucus. “Ron came in second and
OPPOSITE: A voter enters the Christa McCauliffe Elementary School in Concord, N.H., to cast a ballot in the New Hampshire presidential primary on Jan. 23, 2024. JASPER COLT / IMAGN IMAGES
RIGHT: Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley speaks at her New Hampshire presidential primary watch party at the Grappone Conference Center in Concord, N.H., on Jan. 23, 2024. Haley was unable to secure enough votes to take the state’s delegates from former President Donald J. Trump.
left,” Trump said, referring to DeSantis. “She came in third and she’s still hanging around.”
Moving forward, the primary map doesn’t doesn’t get easier for Haley. The race moves to Nevada and the Virgin Islands, which vote on Feb. 8, and Haley’s home state of South Carolina, which votes Feb. 24.
“My sweet state of South Carolina,” Haley said. “Every time I’ve run for office in South Carolina I’ve beaten the political establishment. They’re lined up against me again.”
But South Carolina might be a longshot for Haley, despite her history as governor of the state. Haley trails Trump significantly in South Carolina, according to recent polling,
and two top South Carolina Republicans, Scott and Gov. Henry McMaster, have both endorsed Trump.
In a campaign memo released Tuesday, Haley’s campaign manager, Betsy Ankney, said, “We aren’t going anywhere,” arguing that “roughly half of Republican voters want an alternative to Donald Trump.”
Charting the path ahead, Ankey pointed to upcoming states with open primaries that allow independents and Democrats to vote in the Republican primary and could favor Haley. That includes 11 of the 16 states that vote on “Super Tuesday” March 5.
“After Super Tuesday, we will have a very good picture of where this race stands,” Ankey wrote. “Until then, everyone should take a deep breath.”
Haley goes on the offensive against Trump
In what was far from a concession speech, Haley, vowing to stay in the race, went on a full offensive against Trump, arguing the former president perpetuates “chaos.”
The former South Carolina governor also reiterated Trump’s electability at the top of the ticket and that his leadership has cost the GOP “every competitive election,” pointing to the party’s underperformance in recent elections.
“The worst kept secret in politics is how badly the Democrats want to run against Donald Trump,” Haley said. “A Trump nomination is a Biden win and a Kamala Harris presidency.”
JASPER COLT / IMAGN IMAGES
Haley also took aim at Trump’s age, pointing to Trump’s recent mixup where he repeatedly mistook her for former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., in a stump speech at a rally.
“The first party to retire its 80-year-old candidate is the first party that’s going to win this election,” Haley pronounced, taking another dig at Biden as well.
Oh, and Joe Biden won, too President Joe Biden wasn’t on the ballot in New Hampshire, but he won anyway. And the outcome wasn’t close.
Biden’s write-in candidacy in the New Hampshire Democratic primary won overwhelmingly — getting about 70% of the vote — easily topping his two longshot
challengers, Rep. Dean Phillips, D-Minn., and author Marianne Williamson. Phillips finished with about 20% of the vote and Williamson about 4%.
For Biden, there’s no real upside from the victory. But he avoided what would have been an embarrassing loss.
New Hampshire Democrats weren’t pleased with Biden when he backed a primary calendar — later adopted by the Democratic National Committee — to recognize South Carolina as the first primary state, replacing New Hampshire. Biden passed on campaigning in New Hampshire over its decision to ignore the DNC.
Despite the dustup, New Hampshire Democrats came through for Biden.
The decisive result left Phillips, a
congressman from Minnesota, one of the biggest losers of the night. Phillips, who banked on mustering a win in New Hampshire with Biden off the ballot, upset many in the party when he launched a late primary challenge in October.
Kathy Sullivan, former chairwoman of the New Hampshire Democratic Party, told CNN Tuesday that her support for Biden was “unwavering.” As for Phillps, Sullivan said, “I actually found him annoying.”
Despite the poor finish, Phillips said his campaign will continue.
“We’re going to go to South Carolina, then we’re going to go to Michigan, and then we’re going to go to 47 other states,” Phillips said.
LEFT: Former President Donald J. Trump speaks at a campaign rally at SNHU Arena in Manchester, N.H., on Jan. 20, 2024, ahead of the New Hampshire presidential primary.
COLT / IMAGN IMAGES
JASPER
Shooting shakes a 2024 election already shattering historic norms
SUSAN PAGE | USA TODAY • ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED JULY 15, 2024
MILWAUKEE — This election was already historic.
Now, with the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump Saturday night, the word “unprecedented” seems inadequate to describe where we find ourselves four months before Election Day.
Our polarization? Sharpened. Conspiracy theories about the shooting? Swirling.
The blame game? Begun. Sometimes shocking events bring the nation together, reinforcing a sense that we are all in this together. When President Ronald Reagan was shot in 1981, it was his surgeon, Dr. Joseph Giordano, a liberal Democrat, who bridged party politics.
Right before he put Reagan under anesthesia, he assured him: “Today, Mr. President, we are all Republicans.”
But the instinct that, at bottom, more unites us than divides us seems like a muscle we no longer exercise. Especially not in the middle of a roiling election. Especially not during an election in
which both parties predict catastrophe, even the end of democracy, if the other side wins.
Words of unity before politics resume
To be clear, there were words of unity, expressions of outrage, promises of prayers in the aftermath of the shooting.
President Joe Biden called Trump late Saturday to express his concern, apparently the first time the two men have spoken directly since their last contest, in 2020. “There is no place for this kind of violence in America,” Biden told reporters. His campaign was pausing its political ads, most of which target Trump as a danger to the republic.
On Sunday, Trump in a post on Truth Social called for national unity, too.
“This isn’t an opportunity for politics or strategy or how this is going to play out,”
Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., told CNN, saying he was “just so glad that Donald Trump is going to be OK.”
But the actions of politics were set to be triggered, and soon.
Republicans were already arriving in
Milwaukee for the definition of partisan politics, the national political convention, which opens Monday.
Trump’s third consecutive nomination for president was already assured. Now the dramatic photos of him pumping his fist at the Pennsylvania rally, blood streaming on his face, will assuredly be in evidence everywhere — the GOP’s depiction of a leader who cannot be vanquished.
On the social media site X, formerly called Twitter, thousands of supporters reposted a drawing of Trump staring down the path of an approaching bullet as God placed one hand on his shoulder and blocked the bullet with the other.
Democrats are scheduled to meet for their convention in Chicago next month, a session already thrown into disarray by calls from a growing list of Democratic officeholders and donors for Biden to step back from the nomination. They cite concerns about his mental acuity, his vigor and energy.
The contrast of Biden’s fragile demeanor with Trump’s defiant reaction to being
shot — to being shot! — are sure to become part of some Democrats’ calculations, too.
The post-Jan. 6 election
The 2024 election was already on track to shatter all norms.
The Biden vs. Trump rematch would be the first contest between a president and a former president in modern times. If the Democratic nominee turns out to be someone other than Biden, it would be the first in modern times that a party dumped its presumptive nominee in the weeks leading up to its convention.
It’s the first election in which a major party nominated a person convicted of felonies.
It’s the first election since the assault on the Capitol, on Jan. 6, 2021, the biggest challenge to the peaceful transfer of power in the nation’s history.
Now it’s the first election in a half-century, since 1972, in which a major presidential contender was hit by a would-be assassin’s bullet.
Unprecedented? We had already moved past that.
OPPOSITE: With the rally site in the background, a law enforcement officer guards a road outside The Butler Farm Show Grounds where former President Donald Trump was shot on July 13, 2024. DORAL CHENOWETH / DORAL CHENOWETH / IMAGN IMAGES
‘I’m not supposed to be here tonight’:
Trump recalls rally attack in RNC speech
JEREMY YUROW AND SUDIKSHA KOCHI | USA TODAY • ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED JULY 19, 2024
For the first time since his Pennsylvania rally, Donald Trump shared the details of the gruesome shooting to Republican National Convention attendees, noting that they will never hear it from him a second time because “it’s too painful to tell.”
“I’m not supposed to be here tonight,” Trump said. “As you already know, the assassin’s bullet came within a quarter of an inch of taking my life.”
my right hand to my ear, brought it down,” he said. “My hand was covered with blood, just absolutely blood all over the place.”
“These are great people at great risk. They pounced on top of me so that I would be protected. There was blood pouring everywhere, and yet, in a cer-
“Our resolve is unbroken, and our purpose is unchanged — to deliver a government that serves the American people.”
The GOP nominee vividly described hearing a “loud whizzing sound” and feeling an impact while discussing immigration at the campaign rally last weekend.
“I said to myself, ‘Wow, what was that? It can only be a bullet,’ and moved
DONALD TRUMP
In addition to sharing his initial reaction, the former president praised the Secret Service agents who intervened after the gunman opened fire, calling them “very brave.”
tain way, I felt very safe because I had God on my side,” Trump said.
The assassination attempt occurred when a gunman, identified by the FBI as Thomas Matthew Crooks, opened fire at
Trump’s rally just outside of Pittsburgh. Trump sustained an injury to his right ear, a spectator was killed, and two others were seriously injured. The gunman, positioned on a rooftop, was shot and killed by Secret Service agents.
Trump said he hoped the attack would turn out to be something that brings a politically divided country together.
“Despite such a heinous attack, we unite this evening more determined than ever,” he said. “Our resolve is unbroken, and our purpose is unchanged — to deliver a government that serves the American people.
Rachel Barber contributed to the reporting of this story.
OPPOSITE: An image of Donald Trump after he was shot at during a rally, taken by Associated Press photographer Evan Vucci, is displayed on screen as Donald J. Trump delivers his nomination acceptance speech during the final day of the Republican National Convention at the Fiserv Forum. JASPER COLT / IMAGN IMAGES
‘I will never yield’: Trump delivers defiant speech at site of his attempted assassination
BY ZAC ANDERSON AND DAVID JACKSON | USA TODAY • ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED OCT. 5, 2024
It started as a memorial and ended as a standard rally speech.
After a shocking assassination attempt that brought the specter of political violence to an already tense White House campaign, 2024 Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump returned to the crime scene Saturday to deliver a defiant speech, declaring “I will never yield, not even in the face of death itself.”
His remarks represented yet another dramatic moment in a toss-up race that has American voters on edge.
Trump’s return to Butler, Pennsylvania exactly three months after being shot there punctuates a remarkable stretch in the nation’s political life, one that saw the Democrats swap their top-of-the-ticket candidate and the Secret Service foil a second alleged Trump assassination plot. The former Republican president also is now speaking behind bullet proof glass in a campaign that has been one of the most extraordinary in modern times — unstable, violent and high stakes.
The Butler shooting hasn’t appeared to significantly change the trajectory of the race. President Joe Biden dropped out shortly afterward and Vice President Kamala Harris has been running much stronger since she took his spot.
Yet it has become central to Trump’s campaign and claims that he is a persecuted figure. Before Saturday, Trump had appeared in public at least 51 times since the shooting and referenced it in 31 of those appearances, according to a USA TODAY analysis.
Trump and his allies have been tying the assassination attempt to other travails, including his legal cases and impeachments.
“Those who want to stop us… have slandered me, impeached me, indicted me, tried to throw me off the ballot, and, who knows, maybe even tried to kill me,” Trump said Saturday.
Trump in Butler didn’t mention by name the actual shooter, Thomas Matthew Crooks. The FBI still hasn’t
found a motive for Crooks. That didn’t stop Trump’s allies from claiming again, without evidence, that Democratic rhetoric contributed to the shooting.
Trump initially struck a much more compassionate and empathetic tone Saturday than at his typically combative rallies, spending considerable time honoring the victims of July 13. Rallygoer Corey Comperatore was killed that day, and two other attendees were injured. Trump praised “our beautiful Corey” and met with his family before the event. He also lauded the U.S. Secret Service, and Butler public safety personnel — but eventually veered into full-throated negative politics.
Noting that Election Day is now only a month away, Trump attacked migrants and pledged mass deportations, hammered the Biden administration’s hurricane response, lauded running mate JD Vance’s debate performance, protested the many investigations of his conduct, bragged about what he said are good poll
numbers, and criticized what he called a “very corrupt political establishment.”
“I will never quit, I will never bend, I will never break, I will never yield — not even in the face of death itself,” Trump said.
At one point, Trump said “we have an enemy within,” but did not specifically identify it. He also told supporters that “we have an evil world — we have a very sick world.”
Trump did not mention Harris or Biden in the early part of his speech, but eventually got around to familiar rally-style riffs against “Kamala” and other Democrats.
He also told supporters that “twelve weeks ago, we all took a bullet for America,” and that a victory by him in the election would be “the greatest achievement in the history of politics.”
The rally also featured a special guest: Billionaire businessman Elon Musk, who attacked Biden over his age and said Trump’s reaction to the shooting showed
OPPOSITE: Former President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally in Butler, Pa., on Oct. 5, 2024. On July 13, 2024, a gunman fired eight rounds at the former president and Republican presidential nominee during a rally in Butler. Trump was grazed by a bullet in the attack, and Pennsylvania firefighter Corey Comperatore was killed as he tried to shield his family from the attack. Two other men were injured. JASPER COLT / IMAGN IMAGES
DONALD TRUMP
“courage under fire.” Musk also predicted dire consequences if Trump supporters don’t register and vote.
“If they don’t, this will be the last election,” Musk said. “That’s my prediction.”
Trump’s speech capped a full-day program that was part memorial and part political rally, featuring Republican candidates, musicians, parachutists, and a flyover by Trump’s airplane.
“What an amazing crowd,” Trump running mate JD Vance said during his time on stage at the rally. “We’re here to say we can’t be intimidated — we cannot be stopped. We won’t be denied.”
While paying tribute to Trump and the shooting victims, Vance also attacked Harris and other Trump opponents for
using “dangerous, inflammatory rhetoric” that has created an atmosphere for violence.
“It was only a matter of time before somebody tried to kill him,” Vance said.
Vance attacked Harris for describing the Republican candidate as a threat to democracy, and added: “Donald Trump took a bullet for democracy — what the hell have you done?”
Vance did not mention Trump’s own use of violent rhetoric throughout his political career.
The Trump campaign also sought to turn the Butler event into a fundraising opportunity.
During the day, the campaign sent out fundraising solicitations with an all-caps
quote from Trump saying: “I’M BACK IN BUTLER TO ADDRESS THE NATION! If every PATRIOT chips in $5, we’ll set a RALLY RECORD:”
While Vance hit the Democrats for incendiary rhetoric, some of the Republican speakers in Butler supplied intemperate rhetoric of their own about the tense and close election.
“This is no longer a fight between Republican versus Democrat — left versus right — it is good versus evil,” said Lara Trump, the ex-president’s daughterin-law and a co-chair of the Republican National Committee. “And good is going to win this battle.”
OPPOSITE TOP LEFT: Elon Musk joins former President Donald Trump on stage as Trump speaks at a campaign rally in Butler, Pa., on Oct. 5, 2024.
JASPER COLT / IMAGN IMAGES
OPPOSITE BOTTOM LEFT: A statue of former President Donald Trump with a raised fist greets supporters before Trump speaks at a campaign rally in Butler, Pa., on Oct. 5, 2024.
JASPER COLT / IMAGN IMAGES
LEFT AND OPPOSITE RIGHT: Former President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally in Butler, Pa., on Oct. 5, 2024. On July 13, 2024, a gunman fired eight rounds at the former president and Republican presidential nominee during a rally in Butler. Trump was grazed by a bullet in the attack, and Pennsylvania firefighter Corey Comperatore was killed as he tried to shield his family from the attack. Two other men were injured. JASPER COLT / IMAGN IMAGES