Trump Goes Back to Butler
The former president returned to the scene of the crime Saturday, and a massive crowd met him there.
An estimated 1.8 million Purple Hearts have been awarded to American warriors since George Washington ordered the medal into being in 1782.
American presidents don’t rate the award, which is meant for military members who’ve been injured or killed in combat, through an act of terrorism, or even by friendly fire. But that doesn’t mean that the presidency isn’t extremely hazardous duty. Four of our presidents — Lincoln, Garfield, McKinley, and Kennedy — were shot and killed in the line of duty, meaning that the assassination rate for our presidents is just under 10%. In addition, Ronald Reagan narrowly avoided that fate, and both Theodore Roosevelt and Donald Trump were wounded in assassination attempts while they were no longer in office. Attempts have been made on other presidents, too.
We mention this because on Friday, at a town hall event in Fayetteville, North Carolina, a Vietnam-era Marine identified only as “Dwight” presented his Purple Heart to Trump. “I couldn’t think of anybody more deserving,” the Marine said in a letter to Trump. “You took it, you laid down there, you got back up, and the first words out of your mouth were ‘fight, fight, fight.’”
“I would be honored if you would accept this small token I received as a young Marine in Vietnam,” the letter continued. “My wife and I both thought it appropriate. God bless you, your family, and the United States of America.”
“I got very lucky,” Trump said, reflecting on his razor-thin escape in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13. “And maybe it wasn’t so much luck. Maybe it is something else, right? Maybe there’s something else up there.”
Whether Providence or spectacular luck, Trump was back in Butler a day later, there at the scene of the crime that took the life of a heroic 50-year-old father and husband named Corey Comperatore, and gravely wounded David Dutch, 57, and James Copenhaver, 74.
“Not sure total crowd size but it might be largest I’ve ever seen,” posted NBC News reporter Jake Traylor. “Most folks I spoke with in the crowd said Trump is here to finish what he started.” Take a look:
BREAKING: The NBC News reporter covering Trump’s Butler rally says the crowd is the largest he has ever seen
— George (@BehizyTweets) October 5, 2024
“Not sure total crowd size but it might be largest I’ve ever seen. Most folks I spoke with in the crowd said Trump is here to finish what he started.”
IT’S YUGEE!!! pic.twitter.com/DzPYBMLZek
If Trump has been made more cautious by the recent attempts on his life, he isn’t tipping his hand. Indeed, he seems more determined than ever to defy the deranged Democrats and leftists who think our nation would be better off if he’d been assassinated, and the equally twisted mainstream media that somehow blames Trump for all this.
Still, this event was different than the first. Elon Musk was there, saying, “This is no ordinary election. This is a must-win situation.”
And, as The Wall Street Journal noted: “The rally grounds had a feeling of a major music festival, with massive lines for food vendors and portable toilets. People laid on the grass in the sun and cheered as parachuters descended from a cloudless blue sky, AC/DC’s ‘Back in Black’ blaring over the public address system. But there was also a significant security presence, including sniper teams on rooftops. A row of white tractor trailers were lined up around the perimeter, and Trump spoke from behind bulletproof glass.”
“As I was saying…” Trump began in reference to the moment when, during the assassination attempt, he turned his head to look at a jumbo screen with a graph that detailed our nation’s illegal immigration plight. It reminded us of the grit and good humor of Ronald Reagan, who, on March 30, 1981, just before being wheeled into the operating room at George Washington University Hospital, said to the medical team, “I hope you are all Republicans.”
Trump noted that he’d been saved “by the hand of providence and the grace of God,” then paused at 6:11 p.m., at the moment when the shooting had begun in July. Trump paid his respects to Corey Comperatore, and to David Dutch and James Copenhaver, and to those who were first on the scene. “This field is now a monument to the valor of our first responders, to the resilience of our fellow citizens,” he said.
“Outwardly,” reports, The Wall Street Journal, “Trump doesn’t seem fazed by the experience, but he does wonder what could have been. Recently he asked a group of law-enforcement officers if they would have missed the shot, as the 20-year-old shooter on the warehouse roof did. No, one officer told him. Trump sort of laughed, according to a person who witnessed the recent interaction, and said, ‘Crazy, right?’”
Crazy indeed. “It was awful,” said a 64-year-old former police officer named Don Vogel. “This man has gone through so much for us. They’ve never let him go from day one. It just breaks my heart.”
The Butler community has been hurting since July 13. “I’ve consulted with, at least, like 500 people since this has happened,” said registered nurse Shanea Clancy, who, as the AP reports, “runs a mental health consulting service in Butler County and has seen people more anxious since the shooting.” Clancy says some residents show signs of post-traumatic stress disorder.
No doubt Butler is still hurting. But perhaps Trump’s return there, and the massive crowd that came to see him, can help coax the healing process forward.
