Donald Trump takes stage in Butler, Pennsylvania, months after assassination attempt – live | US elections 2024

Elon Musk has joined Trump on stage in Butler, wearing what he calls a “Dark Maga” hat.

Musk is returning to the same core topic that Trump and his proxies have emphasized: inflammatory and unverified concerns that non-citizens will vote in the 2024 election, and cast their ballots against Trump. He is also encouraging the crowd to register to vote, and make sure their friends and family do the same.

“Fight, fight, fight. Vote, vote, vote,” he concluded.

Trump has resumed speaking, returning to the inflammatory rhetoric on immigration that has marked his campaign since he first ran for office in 2015.

“Crime rates all over the world are down, they’re taking their gang members and their criminals, they’re taking their people in jail, and they’re releasing them into our country,” he said, continuing with xenophobic comments about “the China virus” and Venezuela.

Despite Trump’s claims, violent crime in the United States has fallen.

Trump has paused his speech as first responders aid a rally-goer who appears to have collapsed. Attendees began gathering at the rally eight hours ago. Although the temperature in Butler is only in the high 60s, attendees have collapsed at other political rallies due to heatstroke this election season.

Trump is now returning to the core topics he’s hammered on at previous rallies and debates: immigration, gender-affirming healthcare, fracking and his political opponents.

First denouncing immigrants and transgender Americans, returning to his claim that Kamala Harris would pay for “transgender operations on illegal aliens”, Trump goes on to reiterate his promise not to ban fracking, a contentious issue in Pennsylvania, where fracking contributes greatly to the state’s economy.

He then claims to be leading by a wide margin in the polls, although the presidential election remains closely tied, with Kamala Harris slightly ahead in national polling.

Trump is now speaking about his mission to “make America great again”.

“We have to have a fabulous military to protect us from evil, everything has to be the best. We have to have the best schools. We have to have a strong borders. We don’t want bad people coming in and hurting us,” he said.

“You deserve a nation that builds things again, makes things better, that aims for the stars once more, and that once again commands respect, and we want to get respect like we had it four years ago.

“We are going to win the greatest election in the history of our country. Maybe the greatest election of all time.”

Trump addresses family of Corey Comperatore

Trump is thanking the US Secret Service for saving his life on 13 July and again from another assassination attempt two weeks ago.

“They were on top of me so fast, they were on top of me, and there was not even a moment of doubt in their minds,” he said. “In that moment, those agents displayed a devotion to duty that cannot be described, and they did it yet again less than three weeks ago, when they really did a fantastic job.”

The Secret Service is currently under investigation for security failures on 13 July.

Trump has begun addressing rally-goers in Butler. Beginning with: “And, as I was saying”, Trump briefly continued with the point he had been making on 13 July about border crossings before a gunman opened fire on him.

The former president continued: “Exactly 12 weeks ago, this evening, on this very ground, a cold-blooded assassin aimed to silence me and to silence the greatest movement, Maga, in the history of our country.”

Trump takes the stage in Butler, Pennsylvania

As rally-goers in Butler, Pennsylvania, wait for Trump to take the stage, Kamala Harris is in Charlotte, North Carolina, visiting a donation center after Hurricane Helene devastated the state.

Amid widespread misinformation, the White House and Fema are attempting to quell the spread of rumors about the availability of disaster relief.

Scott Presler, a conservative activist, has joined Eric and Lara Trump on stage at the Trump rally in Butler, encouraging attendees to register to vote. Presler is specifically addressing Pennsylvania’s union workers, Amish community, hunters, sorority sisters and fraternity brothers, asking them to vote for Trump.

Lara Trump, chair of the Republican National Committee, joined her husband, Eric Trump, on stage at the Trump rally in Butler.

“This is no longer a fight between Republican versus Democrat, left versus right. It is good versus evil,” she said. “And if you had any question whether God exists, and he performs miracles, we got our answer here on July 13, right here in Butler, Pennsylvania.”

Echoing Vance’s language referring to Trump as a messianic figure, Lara Trump continued: “He spared Donald Trump’s life because he was not finished with Donald Trump. And he did it not once, but twice. And I’ve said it time and time again, but now you feel it more than ever: Donald Trump was made for such a time as this.”

Lara Trump went on to speak about her work “making sure that we have free, fair and transparent elections, that only legal citizens are voting in our elections here in the United States of America”. She added: “If you’re an illegal citizen voting in our election, we’ll track you down and prosecute you to the full extent of the law and you’re leaving this country,” before encouraging the crowd gathered in Butler to register to vote.

Although Trump and Republicans have claimed that massive numbers of non-citizens are voting in US elections, there is no proof that non-citizens are voting, or even registering to vote, in any meaningful numbers.

Eric Trump and his wife, the RNC co-chair Lara Trump, are speaking at the Trump rally in Butler.

“This is a big family. They tried to take away someone we all love,” Eric Trump said. “They’ve tried to get my father every single second since he went down that golden escalator. Lara and I have witnessed it every single day. They tried to smear us. They tried to bankrupt us. They came after us.

“And then guys, they tried to kill him. They tried to kill him, and it’s because the Democratic party, they can’t do anything right.”