After assassination attempt: Trump: Will continue to campaign outdoors

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has announced that he will continue to hold outdoor rallies despite security concerns during the US election campaign. The Secret Service has agreed to significantly increase its protection, Trump wrote on his online platform Truth Social. He is “very well able to do this”. Freedom of speech and assembly must not be stopped or restricted by anything or anyone.

Trump had previously announced that he wanted to return to the site of the assassination. He would go back to Butler, Pennsylvania, to hold a “big and wonderful” rally there. “What a day it will be – fight, fight, fight!” wrote the Republican in capital letters. He did not provide any further details about the timing.

Two weeks ago, a gunman opened fire at an outdoor campaign event and shot the 78-year-old. The perpetrator was killed by security forces. One visitor died and two others were injured. Trump was injured in the right ear. He wants to move back into the White House for the Republicans after the election on November 5. He was US President from 2017 to 2021.

Trump is angry about FBI chief

The Republican had taken aim at FBI chief Christopher Wray in a series of posts on Truth Social on Friday (local time). The reason was a statement by the FBI chief before a congressional committee in which he refused to commit himself to whether Trump was injured in the ear by a bullet or shrapnel. Trump wrote: “No, unfortunately it was a bullet that hit my ear, and it hit hard. There was no glass or shrapnel.” Wray’s vague statements would damage the FBI.

Trump’s former personal physician from his time in the White House, Ronny Jackson, also spoke out and said in a letter: “There is absolutely no evidence that it was anything other than a bullet.” As he worked as an emergency physician in the US Navy for more than 20 years, he has treated many gunshot wounds in his career.

FBI responds with statement

Finally, the FBI responded with a statement. “What struck former President Trump in the ear was a whole bullet or a bullet that had been broken up into smaller pieces, fired from the deceased’s rifle,” the agency said. Trump then wrote on Truth Social: “I assume this is the best excuse we’re going to get from Director Wray, but it is fully accepted!”

After the assassination, pictures of Trump with blood on his ear and some blood on his face – and with his fist clenched at the same time – went around the world. After the attack, Trump shouted “Fight, fight, fight!”, which has now become a kind of motto for his supporters.

Secret Service apparently suggested Trump perform in halls

Most recently, the New York Times reported that the Secret Service had advised Trump’s campaign team not to hold any more large outdoor events in the future. It was completely unclear where the campaign event announced by Trump in Butler would take place. Since the assassination, Trump had only appeared in large halls. Another rally was planned for this Saturday (local time).

At the beginning of the week, the head of the Secret Service, Kimberly Cheatle, resigned from her post, bowing to bipartisan calls for her resignation. The Secret Service had failed to do its job on the day of the assassination, she said.

The former president wore a white bandage on his ear for several days after the attack. At the Republican Party convention in Milwaukee, which took place immediately after the attack, some supporters also stuck a kind of bandage on their ears in solidarity. Trump has now announced that he wants to remember the dead firefighter and the two injured at the planned event in Butler. The Republican kissed the victim’s firefighter’s helmet on stage during his speech at the convention.