Former President Donald Trump returns to Pennsylvania Wednesday — just weeks after a failed assassination attempt in Butler County.
Trump is expected to address a crowd at the Harrisburg Farm Show Complex around 6 p.m. The indoor event will require all attendees to enter through a security checkpoint. Campaign representatives have not shared details about other speakers, though doors for the event open four hours before Trump’s remarks are scheduled to begin.
Spokespersons for Republican U.S. Reps. Mike Kelly and Dan Meuser, and U.S. Senate candidate Dave McCormick did not immediately respond to messages asking if they would attend the Harrisburg rally. The men all attended the Butler County rally on July 13, when 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks of Bethel Park opened fire on the crowd, hitting Trump in the ear. Gunfire also struck three other men attending the rally, killing one of them and seriously wounding the others.
It’s also the first time Trump will visit Pennsylvania since President Joe Biden decided to withdraw from the 2024 presidential race. Trump’s speech in Butler lasted only minutes before Crooks fired an AR-15-style rifle from a nearby rooftop. U.S. Secret Service gunmen shot and killed Crooks moments later.
Congressmen from the House Homeland Security Committee visited the Butler County Fairgrounds last week, raising doubts about rally security. And on Monday, Kelly was named leader of a task force that will investigate the assassination attempt. Kelly represents Butler County and parts of northwestern Pennsylvania.
On his social media website, Trump last week vowed to return to Butler, though he shared no other details.
The Harrisburg rally site is less than three miles from the state Capitol. The Philadelphia field office of the Secret Service, along with Capitol police, state troopers and local police departments, will handle security for the event.
“The Capitol Police work in close coordination with our local, state, and federal law enforcement partners to provide the Harrisburg community with a coordinated public safety presence that keeps employees and visitors in Commonwealth facilities safe and secure,” a Capitol representative said in a statement Tuesday.
A spokesperson for the Secret Service's Philadelphia field office declined to comment on event security.
