Attack on ex-president What we know about the assassination attempt on Trump - and what we don't know
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, bleeding from the ear, is brought to safety by Secret Service agents. (July 13, 2024)
Image: Keystone/AP Photo/Evan Vucci
Security personnel help Donald Trump off the stage.
Image: Keystone/AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar
Secret Service agents protect Donald Trump.
Image: Keystone/AP Photo/Evan Vucci
Donald Trump ducks away and is protected by Secret Service agents.
Image: Keystone/AP Photo/Evan Vucci
According to a spokesman, Trump is "fine".
Image: dpa
Trump is escorted off the stage by security personnel.
Image: Keystone
Trump is led off the stage.
Image: Keystone/AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar
Trump's ear is bleeding.
Image: Keystone/AP
Secret Service agents run to Trump after shots are fired on stage.
Image: Keystone/AP Photo/Evan Vucci
Trump's security personnel react immediately.
Image: Keystone/AP
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, bleeding from the ear, is brought to safety by Secret Service agents. (July 13, 2024)
Image: Keystone/AP Photo/Evan Vucci
Security personnel help Donald Trump off the stage.
Image: Keystone/AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar
Secret Service agents protect Donald Trump.
Image: Keystone/AP Photo/Evan Vucci
Donald Trump ducks away and is protected by Secret Service agents.
Image: Keystone/AP Photo/Evan Vucci
According to a spokesman, Trump is "fine".
Image: dpa
Trump is escorted off the stage by security personnel.
Image: Keystone
Trump is led off the stage.
Image: Keystone/AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar
Trump's ear is bleeding.
Image: Keystone/AP
Secret Service agents run to Trump after shots are fired on stage.
Image: Keystone/AP Photo/Evan Vucci
Trump's security personnel react immediately.
Image: Keystone/AP
After shots were fired at an appearance by Donald Trump, it is clear that the suspected shooter and an audience member are dead. The Secret Service has released details of the crime.
No time? blue News summarizes for you
- Donald Trump was injured in a gun attack at a campaign rally in the US state of Pennsylvania.
- The former US president was shot in the ear.
- Bodyguards brought him to safety.
- The suspected perpetrator was shot dead.
- One participant in the rally died and two others were seriously injured.
- Law enforcement officials are apparently investigating an attempted assassination.
This article was last fully updated on July 15, 2024 at 3:36 am.
A gunman has shot former President Donald Trump at a campaign event in the state of Pennsylvania. The 78-year-old was injured in the incident on Saturday (local time). Here is an overview of what we know and the aspects that are still unclear:
How bad is Trump's injury?
Trump wrote on Truth Social, the platform he co-founded, that a bullet had hit him in the upper part of his right ear. Upright and supported by Secret Service security guards, he left the stage with a bleeding ear. He raised his fist in the air. Trump was medically examined. A few hours later, his campaign team released a video showing him coming down the stairs on the plane as it arrived in the state of New Jersey.
Was Trump lucky in his misfortune?
It's still too early to say for sure. But his statements initially suggested that he was only slightly injured in the ear by a bullet. A bullet that was a few centimetres out of place could therefore - in the worst case - have hit him directly in the head.
Who fired the shots at Trump?
The FBI identified the suspected shooter as Thomas Matthew Crooks, a 20-year-old man from near Pittsburgh in the state of Pennsylvania. His home in Bethel Park is about 75 kilometers south of the attack site in Butler. He was killed by security forces in Butler. Media reports suggested that he was quickly shot by snipers. However, the Secret Service did not initially release any details about the shooter's killing.
What was the perpetrator's motive?
There was initially no definite information on this. According to US media, the shooter is said to have been registered as a Republican in the electoral register, but he is also said to have donated 15 dollars to a Democratic group at least once. Investigators are likely to take a close look at the man's mental state, his finances and his online activities, among other things. Investigators also reportedly found explosive devices - or at least parts of them - in the perpetrator's car and at his home.
How did the perpetrator manage to shoot Trump?
The suspected gunman opened fire from an "elevated position" outside the venue. Videos suggested that he fired from a nearby rooftop. According to US media, investigators recovered a semi-automatic AR-15 rifle at the scene, which was probably legally purchased by his father. It was initially unclear how much ammunition the suspected shooter was carrying. It was also not initially known how experienced he was in handling the weapon.
Were the security measures sufficient?
Former President Trump is protected by the Secret Service - but the security measures are not as extensive as for a sitting president. In the coming weeks and months, we can expect a detailed review of the operation in Butler. A key question is likely to be whether the security staff should have (better) controlled the "elevated position" with an apparently direct line of sight to Trump on the podium, even though it was outside the event grounds.
According to officials, the building on which the alleged shooter had positioned himself was a matter for the local security authority, as it was outside the event grounds. It was their job to secure it. Four sniper teams were deployed on Saturday: two from the Secret Service and two from local law enforcement.
Who else was injured in the attack?
One bystander was killed in the attack, two others were injured and were initially in a critical condition. According to the police, the victims were adult men. Panic broke out in the audience after the incident. The venue was evacuated.
Will Trump continue his election campaign?
Trump wants to defeat Democratic incumbent Joe Biden in the presidential election in early November - less than four months away - and secure another term in office. This Monday (July 15), the Republican Party convention begins in Milwaukee, where Trump is to be officially chosen as his party's candidate for the election. The convention is to take place as planned. This was announced by the party and Trump's campaign team in a joint statement. So everything points to Trump continuing his election campaign.
Will Trump use the assassination attempt for his election campaign?
Trump has always staged himself as a martyr and as someone who his political opponents are trying to get out of the way by any means necessary. He has already successfully used the four criminal proceedings against him to mobilize his supporters and collect donations. He may therefore also be trying to systematically use the attack for his own purposes. A few hours after the shots were fired in Butler, his team sent out the first campaign text message with the words: "I will never give up" - and a direct link to the donation website.
Is Trump's election victory now more likely?
We don't know. Immediately after the event, there were initially no new polls that allowed an assessment of the impact of the attack on voters. Among Republicans, who generally like Trump anyway, he could find even more support in the future. Whether undecided voters - or even some Democrats - will now be more enthusiastic about him, however, remains to be seen.
How does Biden react?
The US President strongly condemned the attack on Trump. "I am grateful to hear that he is safe and well," he said immediately after the incident. He said he was praying for him and Trump's family and for everyone at the rally. This kind of violence has no place in America. He later appeared in front of the cameras and said. "This is sick, this is sick." According to the White House, Biden and Trump spoke personally on the phone.
Could the attack lead to further violence?
We do not know. The forthcoming political reactions are also likely to play a role: Will politicians try to use the act of violence to incite their supporters? In any case, US Vice President Kamala Harris already warned of an escalation of violence after the attack. "We must all condemn this heinous act and do our part to ensure that it does not lead to further violence", the Democrat warned on X.
1865: Abraham Lincoln - killed: Abraham Lincoln was the first US president to be killed by assassination. While attending a special performance of the comedy "Our American Cousin" at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C., he is shot in the back. The perpetrator is John Wilkes Booth, an actor and fanatical supporter of the Confederates, who had been defeated in the Civil War two days earlier. Booth shoots the president in the head at close range with his single-shot pistol. Lincoln is brought unconscious into a neighboring building and given medical treatment. The next morning, Lincoln is dead. As it turns out, the assassination is part of a conspiracy against several members of the US government. Lincoln's assassin Booth is later shot dead, four co-conspirators, including a woman, are hanged three months later.
Image: Imago/Kena Images
1881: James Garfield - killed: The assassination attempt on American President James Garfield also ends fatally. On July 2, 1881, six months after his inauguration, Garfield was shot at a train station in Washington, D.C.. His murderer, Charles Guiteau, a 39-year-old lawyer and former supporter of his, is said to have been dissatisfied with not getting a job in Garfield's administration. Other sources describe him as mentally disturbed. The American doctor and inventor Alexander Graham Bell tried to find and remove the bullet in Garfield's chest using a specially developed device. In vain: the president died of blood poisoning a few weeks later and Guiteau was executed in June 1882.
Image: Imago/Gemini Collection
1901: William McKinley - killed: US President William McKinley is shot at close range in Buffalo, New York, in September 1901. After a speech at the Pan-American Exposition, he was shaking hands with several people when the anarchist Leon Czolgosz pointed a gun at him and pulled the trigger. At first it appears that the injuries are not fatal, but then gangrene sets in and McKinley dies. Assassin Czolgosz is executed in the electric chair.
Image: Imago/Gemini Collection
1912: Theodore Roosevelt - survived: This X-ray shows Roosevelt's chest after the attempted assassination in October 1912. "Teddy", as Roosevelt was also known, is attacked in Milwaukee shortly before an election campaign appearance. By this time, he had already served two terms as president and was running again as an independent candidate. Roosevelt is not seriously injured: a spectacle case and the folded manuscript of his speech muffle the shot. The perpetrator, John Schrank, is arrested and spends the rest of his life in psychiatric hospitals.
Image: Imago/UIG
1933: Franklin D. Roosevelt - survived: Donald Trump speaks under a huge photo of President Franklin Roosevelt during an event to mark the 75th anniversary of D-Day. A few weeks before being sworn in as president, Roosevelt is giving a speech from the back of his open car in Miami in February 1933 when five shots are fired. Roosevelt is not hit, but the mayor of Chicago, Anton Cermak, who is speaking to Roosevelt, is injured and dies 19 days later. The perpetrator is sentenced to death.
Image: imago images/ZUMA Press
1950: Harry S. Truman - survives: In November 1950, Truman is staying at Blair House opposite the White House when two gunmen break in. Truman is not injured in the assassination attempt, but a White House police officer and one of the assailants are killed in the exchange of gunfire and two other White House police officers are wounded. The shooter, Oscar Collazo, is sentenced to death. In 1952, Truman commutes the sentence to life imprisonment. The photo shows the assassin Oscar Collazo, who is taken to an ambulance seriously injured.
Image: Imago/Granger Historical Picture Archive
1963: John F. Kennedy - killed: The photo shows the Kennedys in Dallas in their open vehicle a few minutes before the fatal shots are fired at the motorcade. Two rifle shots are fired during the assassination. Lee Harvey Oswald is arrested as a suspect and killed two days later in police custody by nightclub owner Jack Ruby. More than 2000 books have been written about the assassination - and yet the murder remains a mystery to this day: conspiracy theories were soon circulating, but all the evidence pointed back to a single perpetrator with a thirst for revenge.
Image: imago images/Everett Collection
1968: Robert F. Kennedy - killed: Robert F. Kennedy, brother of the assassinated President John F., is shot dead as a US presidential candidate in 1968 at the age of 42 at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles by a 24-year-old Palestinian named Sirhan Sirhan. The seriously injured Kennedy is said to have whispered in the ear of the paramedics who rushed to lift him from the floor onto a stretcher: "Don't lift me." His last words before he lost consciousness. Despite a four-hour operation, his condition remained critical. Kennedy is pronounced dead 26 hours after the assassination.
Image: Imago/Pond5 Images
1972: George C. Wallace - survives: Like Trump, George Wallace is a presidential candidate, but for the Democrats. In 1972, he is shot at a campaign event in Maryland. As a result, he is paralyzed from the waist down. Wallace wins the primaries in Maryland, Michigan, Tennessee and North Carolina and speaks in a wheelchair at the Democratic National Convention in Miami in the summer of 1972. However, he is not nominated as a presidential candidate.
1975: Gerald Ford - survived: Not quite as close as Trump: The photo shows Ford flinching when shot during the assassination attempt by Sara Jane Moore. The bullet, fired from a distance of twelve meters, misses Ford by just twelve centimeters. Ford is doubly lucky: this is the second assassination attempt within three weeks. In the first attempt, Charles Manson supporter Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme points a semi-automatic weapon at him. However, the gun does not go off.
Image: imago images/Everett Collection
1981: Ronald Reagan - survived: President Reagan has just given a speech at the Hilton Hotel in Washington D.C. and waves to his fans on his way to the motorcade. Then shots are fired. Seconds after the shots are fired, reporters and Secret Service agents manage to push the assassin to the ground and hold him down. Reagan narrowly escapes with his life, three other people are injured. The criminal proceedings against the assassin Hinckley later end with an acquittal by reason of insanity. Shortly before the emergency operation in hospital, the Republican Reagan is said to have asked the surgical team: "Please tell me you're all Republicans."
Image: Imago/Everett Collection
2005: George W. Bush - survived: George W. Bush visits Georgia in 2005 and takes part in a rally in Tbilisi with the then President Mikhail Saakashvili when a hand grenade is thrown. The grenade missed Bush by about 100 meters and did not explode, although it was live. A red handkerchief wrapped tightly around it is said to have prevented the safety lever from being released. The Georgian assassin Vladimir Arutyunian is sentenced to life imprisonment.
Image: Wikipedia
2011: Barack Obama - survived: A man from Idaho shoots at the American president's official residence from a parked car. The bullets narrowly miss the guards. Unlike their younger daughter Sasha, the incumbent President Barack Obama and his wife were not in the White House at the time. After his arrest, Oscar Ortega-Hernandez admits that he wanted to kill Barack Obama. He is sentenced to 21 years in prison for attempted murder. As with Trump, the assassination attempt led to discussions about the role of the Secret Service, which was also accused of failure at the time.
Image: Imago/ABACAPRESS
2024: Donald Trump - survived: On July 13, a young American carries out an attack on Donald Trump at an election rally in Pennsylvania. Trump survives the attack with minor injuries to his right ear. One spectator is killed and at least two other people are seriously injured. The 20-year-old perpetrator, Thomas Matthew Crooks, is shot dead at the scene by the Secret Service.
Image: AP
1865: Abraham Lincoln - killed: Abraham Lincoln was the first US president to be killed by assassination. While attending a special performance of the comedy "Our American Cousin" at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C., he is shot in the back. The perpetrator is John Wilkes Booth, an actor and fanatical supporter of the Confederates, who had been defeated in the Civil War two days earlier. Booth shoots the president in the head at close range with his single-shot pistol. Lincoln is brought unconscious into a neighboring building and given medical treatment. The next morning, Lincoln is dead. As it turns out, the assassination is part of a conspiracy against several members of the US government. Lincoln's assassin Booth is later shot dead, four co-conspirators, including a woman, are hanged three months later.
Image: Imago/Kena Images
1881: James Garfield - killed: The assassination attempt on American President James Garfield also ends fatally. On July 2, 1881, six months after his inauguration, Garfield was shot at a train station in Washington, D.C.. His murderer, Charles Guiteau, a 39-year-old lawyer and former supporter of his, is said to have been dissatisfied with not getting a job in Garfield's administration. Other sources describe him as mentally disturbed. The American doctor and inventor Alexander Graham Bell tried to find and remove the bullet in Garfield's chest using a specially developed device. In vain: the president died of blood poisoning a few weeks later and Guiteau was executed in June 1882.
Image: Imago/Gemini Collection
1901: William McKinley - killed: US President William McKinley is shot at close range in Buffalo, New York, in September 1901. After a speech at the Pan-American Exposition, he was shaking hands with several people when the anarchist Leon Czolgosz pointed a gun at him and pulled the trigger. At first it appears that the injuries are not fatal, but then gangrene sets in and McKinley dies. Assassin Czolgosz is executed in the electric chair.
Image: Imago/Gemini Collection
1912: Theodore Roosevelt - survived: This X-ray shows Roosevelt's chest after the attempted assassination in October 1912. "Teddy", as Roosevelt was also known, is attacked in Milwaukee shortly before an election campaign appearance. By this time, he had already served two terms as president and was running again as an independent candidate. Roosevelt is not seriously injured: a spectacle case and the folded manuscript of his speech muffle the shot. The perpetrator, John Schrank, is arrested and spends the rest of his life in psychiatric hospitals.
Image: Imago/UIG
1933: Franklin D. Roosevelt - survived: Donald Trump speaks under a huge photo of President Franklin Roosevelt during an event to mark the 75th anniversary of D-Day. A few weeks before being sworn in as president, Roosevelt is giving a speech from the back of his open car in Miami in February 1933 when five shots are fired. Roosevelt is not hit, but the mayor of Chicago, Anton Cermak, who is speaking to Roosevelt, is injured and dies 19 days later. The perpetrator is sentenced to death.
Image: imago images/ZUMA Press
1950: Harry S. Truman - survives: In November 1950, Truman is staying at Blair House opposite the White House when two gunmen break in. Truman is not injured in the assassination attempt, but a White House police officer and one of the assailants are killed in the exchange of gunfire and two other White House police officers are wounded. The shooter, Oscar Collazo, is sentenced to death. In 1952, Truman commutes the sentence to life imprisonment. The photo shows the assassin Oscar Collazo, who is taken to an ambulance seriously injured.
Image: Imago/Granger Historical Picture Archive
1963: John F. Kennedy - killed: The photo shows the Kennedys in Dallas in their open vehicle a few minutes before the fatal shots are fired at the motorcade. Two rifle shots are fired during the assassination. Lee Harvey Oswald is arrested as a suspect and killed two days later in police custody by nightclub owner Jack Ruby. More than 2000 books have been written about the assassination - and yet the murder remains a mystery to this day: conspiracy theories were soon circulating, but all the evidence pointed back to a single perpetrator with a thirst for revenge.
Image: imago images/Everett Collection
1968: Robert F. Kennedy - killed: Robert F. Kennedy, brother of the assassinated President John F., is shot dead as a US presidential candidate in 1968 at the age of 42 at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles by a 24-year-old Palestinian named Sirhan Sirhan. The seriously injured Kennedy is said to have whispered in the ear of the paramedics who rushed to lift him from the floor onto a stretcher: "Don't lift me." His last words before he lost consciousness. Despite a four-hour operation, his condition remained critical. Kennedy is pronounced dead 26 hours after the assassination.
Image: Imago/Pond5 Images
1972: George C. Wallace - survives: Like Trump, George Wallace is a presidential candidate, but for the Democrats. In 1972, he is shot at a campaign event in Maryland. As a result, he is paralyzed from the waist down. Wallace wins the primaries in Maryland, Michigan, Tennessee and North Carolina and speaks in a wheelchair at the Democratic National Convention in Miami in the summer of 1972. However, he is not nominated as a presidential candidate.
1975: Gerald Ford - survived: Not quite as close as Trump: The photo shows Ford flinching when shot during the assassination attempt by Sara Jane Moore. The bullet, fired from a distance of twelve meters, misses Ford by just twelve centimeters. Ford is doubly lucky: this is the second assassination attempt within three weeks. In the first attempt, Charles Manson supporter Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme points a semi-automatic weapon at him. However, the gun does not go off.
Image: imago images/Everett Collection
1981: Ronald Reagan - survived: President Reagan has just given a speech at the Hilton Hotel in Washington D.C. and waves to his fans on his way to the motorcade. Then shots are fired. Seconds after the shots are fired, reporters and Secret Service agents manage to push the assassin to the ground and hold him down. Reagan narrowly escapes with his life, three other people are injured. The criminal proceedings against the assassin Hinckley later end with an acquittal by reason of insanity. Shortly before the emergency operation in hospital, the Republican Reagan is said to have asked the surgical team: "Please tell me you're all Republicans."
Image: Imago/Everett Collection
2005: George W. Bush - survived: George W. Bush visits Georgia in 2005 and takes part in a rally in Tbilisi with the then President Mikhail Saakashvili when a hand grenade is thrown. The grenade missed Bush by about 100 meters and did not explode, although it was live. A red handkerchief wrapped tightly around it is said to have prevented the safety lever from being released. The Georgian assassin Vladimir Arutyunian is sentenced to life imprisonment.
Image: Wikipedia
2011: Barack Obama - survived: A man from Idaho shoots at the American president's official residence from a parked car. The bullets narrowly miss the guards. Unlike their younger daughter Sasha, the incumbent President Barack Obama and his wife were not in the White House at the time. After his arrest, Oscar Ortega-Hernandez admits that he wanted to kill Barack Obama. He is sentenced to 21 years in prison for attempted murder. As with Trump, the assassination attempt led to discussions about the role of the Secret Service, which was also accused of failure at the time.
Image: Imago/ABACAPRESS
2024: Donald Trump - survived: On July 13, a young American carries out an attack on Donald Trump at an election rally in Pennsylvania. Trump survives the attack with minor injuries to his right ear. One spectator is killed and at least two other people are seriously injured. The 20-year-old perpetrator, Thomas Matthew Crooks, is shot dead at the scene by the Secret Service.
Image: AP