Elon Musk plans to join other MAGA World stars at Donald Trump’s rally on Saturday at the site where a shooter wounded the former president in an assassination attempt in July.
The world’s richest man will be making his first campaign trail appearance alongside Eric Trump and his wife, Lara Trump, the co-chair of the Republican National Committee. JD Vance is also scheduled to be there, as are some Trump loyalists in Congress, including Rep. Ronny Jackson, Trump’s former White House physician who examined Trump’s gunshot wound.
In a post on Trump’s X account late Thursday, the Republican nominee touted his forthcoming event as “HISTORIC!” Replying to the tweet, Musk wrote: “I will be there to support!”
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On July 13, gunman Thomas Matthew Crooks opened fire at a stage where Trump was speaking. Trump suffered a wound to his ear, while three rally attendees were also hurt—including one fatally. Crooks was killed by counter snipers.
The family of Corey Comperatore, the firefighter who was killed while shielding them, will be among Trump’s special guests. Comperatore’s sister told KDKA that Trump plans to meet with the family ahead of the rally and may honor them onstage.
Trump’s team is suggesting the event is symbolic of a serious mission bigger than the former president himself. The rally will take place at the Butler Farm Show, “on the very same ground where he took a bullet for democracy,” the Trump campaign noted.
A campaign statement added that it will be the former president’s first visit to the site since the attack during which he was “saved in what the world has recognized as an act of divine providence.”
Immediately after the attack, Musk publicly endorsed Trump and has since become one of his most high-profile advocates. The SpaceX mogul hosted a glitch-riddled live interview with Trump in August and has repeatedly attacked Vice President Kamala Harris as posing a catastrophic threat to the country, telling his 200 million X followers last week that Trump is “the only way” to save American democracy.
Elon Musk threw his support behind Trump after the attempt on the former president’s life in July.
Marc Piasecki/Getty ImagesTrump, who continues to falsely insist that he won the 2020 election, has welcomed Musk’s support. He’s said he would make Musk the head of a new government efficiency commission if he wins in November and has spoken to his supporters about the importance of “making life good” for people like Musk.
The mutual affection comes after Musk previously said would vote for Trump’s rival for the Republican nomination, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, in 2024. Trump has also denigrated Musk in the past, calling him a “bulls—t artist” at a 2022 rally and bragging that, during a White House meeting, Trump could have ordered Musk to “‘drop to your knees and beg’” while asking for help on his subsidized projects, “and he would have done it.”
The Secret Service, which came under intense scrutiny after the attempted assassination of Trump in July, has since stepped up its security measures of the former president. An agent shot at an alleged gunman who targeted Trump during a second apparent assassination attempt at his golf course in Florida last month.
Asked in a NewsNation interview this week if he was concerned about safety ahead of his return to Butler on Saturday, Trump said: “Well, I’m always worried.”
