Donald Trump narrowly escaped assassination.

Early Saturday evening at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, the former president was looking to his right, referring to a massive Jumbotron chart of illegal immigration data, when multiple shots rang out. Trump immediately winced and raised his right hand to his right ear before ducking down behind the lectern. Secret Service agents quickly rushed the stage and covered the former president.

The difference between life and death is sometimes a matter of inches, and this was just such a case. Had the former president not providentially turned his head to the right when he did, had he not been looking in that direction, toward the shooter, our nation would be in a very different place right now. “The most incredible thing was that I happened to not only turn but to turn at the exact right time and in just the right amount,” Trump reflected Sunday afternoon.

In addition to the bullet that nicked the top of Trump’s ear, a remarkable photo appears to show one of the bullets streaking past his head.

Astounding photo captured by @nytimes photographer Doug Mills, showing a bullet flashing past President Trump. He came so close to being killed. pic.twitter.com/yRdX5OunHq

— Piers Morgan (@piersmorgan) July 14, 2024

After confirming that Secret Service snipers had killed the would-be assassin, the agents helped Trump to his feet and surrounded him, at which point he said, “Wait, wait,” and forced his way back toward the lectern. He then defiantly and reassuringly pumped his fist toward the crowd while yelling, “Fight, fight, fight!” The agents then led Trump toward an awaiting vehicle, and he continued to pump his fist toward the crown amid spontaneous chants of “USA! USA! USA!”

As the AP reports: “The shooter was engaged by members of the U.S. Secret Service counterassault team and killed, according to two officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the ongoing investigation publication.” Apparently, the shooter — since identified by the FBI as 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania — was on a rooftop approximately 130 yards from the stage and was firing an AR-platform rifle. There is also a deeply disturbing report that multiple eyewitnesses saw the shooter on the roof with a rifle and were yelling and pointing him out to police and the Secret Service “for two to three minutes” before the shots rang out.

The head of the Secret Service and the leader of this security detail should resign https://t.co/ihlEC5NP1w

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 14, 2024

Another eyewitness, Timothy Ford, appeared on Fox News Sunday morning and said, “I saw for three minutes, maybe four minutes … there [were] 20 Secret Service agents running around like chickens with their heads cut off in that field, and you’re telling me snipers on the barn can’t see this guy at 100 yards? Doesn’t add up to me.”

One rally attendee, former fire chief Corey Comperatore, died heroically while shielding his wife and daughter. Two other men are fighting for their lives and were both upgraded from critical to stable condition Sunday afternoon.

Donald Trump, meanwhile, avoided assassination by literally an inch. That the Secret Service allowed a man with a rifle to position himself on a roof just 130 yards from the former president and fire off even a single round is a catastrophic and deeply unsettling failure.

“There is much we do not know about who knew what and when, and armchair analysis about negligence is speculation,” said our Mark Alexander, adding, “But this is NOT speculation: An assailant was able to shoot at a former president (and current leading presidential campaign contender), firing several rounds from a distance that clearly was in a kill range for any assailant with modest ability. At least one of those bullets slightly wounded Trump, but the trajectory was just a few millimeters from being a fatal shot. That is a Secret Service security protocol failure.”

(Alexander, who has experience with presidential protection details, has posted his detailed analysis here.)

Indeed, why the Secret Service allowed a would-be assassin to take such an advantageous position and why its snipers didn’t acquire and engage the shooter long before he nearly altered the course of history are questions that congressional investigators will no doubt be asking. “I have already contacted the Secret Service for a briefing and am also calling on Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle to appear for a hearing,” said House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY).

Late Sunday afternoon, the AP reported: “One local police officer climbed to the roof and encountered Crooks, who pointed his rifle at the officer. The officer retreated down the ladder, and Crooks quickly took a shot [sic — he took multiple shots] toward Trump.”

“FBI personnel are on the scene in Butler, Pennsylvania, and the FBI will continue to work jointly with the U.S. Secret Service as the investigation moves forward,” an FBI spokesman said. Early Sunday morning, during a press conference with Pennsylvania State Police, the FBI offered little additional information. Asked why there were no Secret Service representatives at the press conference, the FBI special agent in charge of the Pittsburgh field office said, “The Secret Service wasn’t available for the press conference at this time.”

Soon afterward, the bureau released the name of the assailant, and NBC News reported the following: “Pennsylvania voter records listed a Thomas Matthew Crooks with the same address and birth date as a registered Republican, though it was not clear from the records when that was put in place. Federal Election Commission donor data also listed a Thomas Crooks of Pennsylvania as having given $15 to ActBlue, a political action committee that backs Democrats, in June [sic] 2021.”

Shortly afterward, NBC News removed the information about the political donation to the Democratic PAC, which had actually been made on January 20, 2021, the day of Joe Biden’s inauguration. That left only the information about Crooks being a “registered Republican.” This seems to us a sickening — albeit not surprising — piece of journalistic bias.

Law enforcement reports indicate that the weapon Crooks used was purchased legally by his father and that Crooks had explosives inside his car, which was parked near the rally, and bomb-making materials at his home. A former high school classmate painted a brief but all-too-familiar picture of the assailant in a Fox News interview: “He was bullied, sat alone at lunch, pretty much that.”

“There is no place in America for this kind of violence,” declared Joe Biden in a mumbling condemnation shortly after the attack. He added, “It’s sick. It is one of the reasons we have to unite this country. … But the idea — the idea that there’s political violence or violence in America like this is just unheard of. It was just not appropriate. And we — everybody — everybody must condemn it. Everybody.”

One wonders how long it will take for Biden to spin this attack as a “gun problem” to advance his leftist gun control agenda.

Former President Barack Obama posted his thoughts via X: “There is absolutely no place for political violence in our democracy. Although we don’t yet know exactly what happened, we should all be relieved that former President Trump wasn’t seriously hurt, and use this moment to recommit ourselves to civility and respect in our politics. Michelle and I are wishing him a quick recovery.”

Novelist Stephen King, though, whose Trump hatred is a matter of record, couldn’t bring himself to console the families of the dead and the gravely wounded. Nor could he wish the former president well, or even simply remain silent. Instead, he blamed the victim: “An AR-15 style semiautomatic rifle was used in the Butler shooting. These are the guns the Republican party — and Trump — want to protect.”

But the very worst of us came out in the form of a since-deleted post from a staffer of Mississippi Democrat Congressman Bennie Thompson: “I don’t condone violence but please get you some shooting lessons so you don’t miss next time ooops that wasn’t me talking.”

Staffer for Congressman Bennie Thompson (D-MS) 👇🏻 pic.twitter.com/yVqm75yV3S

— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) July 14, 2024

That disgraceful Democrat staffer is, rightfully, now a former staffer.

Former Trump Attorney General William Barr, who has had his disagreements with his former boss, reacted angrily to this latest example of political violence from the Left: “The Democrats have to stop their grossly irresponsible talk about Trump being an existential threat to democracy. He is not.”

The Biden campaign has wisely yanked down its Trump-hating advertisements, like the one released on Thursday that called the former president “a dictator” and “a threat to freedom in the United States.”

As for the Democrats’ vile eight-year-long campaign to Hitlerize and otherwise dehumanize Trump and his supporters — including Biden’s recent exhortation on a campaign call “to put Trump in a bullseye” — those chickens have finally come home to roost. Here, historian Victor Davis Hanson covers the waterfront:

In a wider sense, if the common referent day after day on the Left is that Trump is another Hitler (cf. a recent The New Republic cover where Trump is literally photoshopped as Hitler), then it seems reckless not to imagine an unhinged or young shootist believing that by taking out somewhat identical to one of the greatest mass murderers in history, he would be applauded for his violence? …

If ad nauseam, a Joy Reid is screaming about Trump as a Hitlerian dictator (“Then let me know who I got to vote for to keep Hitler out of the White House”) or Rachel Maddow is bloviating about studying Hitler to understand Trump, then finally the message sinks in that a mass murderer is about to take power — unless….

Fox News’s Brit Hume, who was a member of the Capitol Hill press corps on March 30, 1981, when a would-be assassin nearly killed President Ronald Reagan, offered this sobering assessment: “You know, you’re hearing this said that violence is un-American. The sad truth is that violence is not un-American. There’s been a ton of it throughout our history, and a lot of it in recent history. … It would be lovely if we could hope that it would change in some permanent way, but I think it’s too early to get our hopes up.”

“Pray for President Trump,” said Florida Republican Congressman Byron Donalds. “Pray for the Trump family. Pray for our nation. Together we will prevail.”

Shortly before 9 p.m. Saturday, Trump himself released the following statement from a Pennsylvania hospital via his Truth Social account: “I want to thank The United States Secret Service, and all of Law Enforcement, for their rapid response on the shooting that just took place in Butler, Pennsylvania. Most importantly, I want to extend my condolences to the family of the person at the Rally who was killed, and also to the family of another person that was badly injured. It is incredible that such an act can take place in our Country. … I was shot with a bullet that pierced the upper part of my right ear. I knew immediately that something was wrong in that I heard a whizzing sound, shots, and immediately felt the bullet ripping through the skin. Much bleeding took place, so I realized then what was happening. GOD BLESS AMERICA!”

“I am thinking of you, now, my fellow Americans,” began a one-page statement from former First Lady Melania Trump, who added that “the fabric of our gentle nation is tattered, but our courage and common sense must ascend and bring us back together as one.” She concluded by commending “those of you who have reached out beyond the political divide — thank you for remembering that every single politician is a man or a woman with a loving family.”

Early Sunday morning, the former president posted again: “Thank you to everyone for your thoughts and prayers yesterday, as it was God alone who prevented the unthinkable from happening. We will FEAR NOT, but instead remain resilient in our Faith and Defiant in the face of Wickedness. Our love goes out to the other victims and their families. We pray for the recovery of those who were wounded, and hold in our hearts the memory of the citizen who was so horribly killed. In this moment, it is more important than ever that we stand United, and show our True Character as Americans, remaining Strong and Determined, and not allowing Evil to Win. I truly love our Country, and love you all, and look forward to speaking to our Great Nation this week from Wisconsin.”

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Updated as the story and reactions to it continue to develop.