Former President Donald Trump has said he will continue holding outdoor rallies after the Secret Service warned him to stop following his assassination attempt.
On Saturday morning he was reacquired its Truth Social platform and insisted that a bullet would not stop him from organizing another open-air rally.
In all caps, Trump wrote: “I will continue to hold open air rallies, and the Secret Service has agreed to significantly increase their operation. They are very capable of doing so. No one should ever stop or obstruct free speech or assembly!!!”
Trump’s announcement comes just hours after it was confirmed he will return to the scene of his shooting for a “large and magnificent gathering.”
“I’m headed back to Butler, Pennsylvania for a big and beautiful rally, honoring the soul of our beloved firefighter hero, Corey, and those brave patriots who were wounded two weeks ago. What a day it will be – fight, fight, fight! Stay tuned for details,” He wroteagain in capital letters, on Friday.
Former President Donald Trump has hit back at the Secret Service after he said he would continue hosting outdoor rallies even after he was shot (pictured) in Butler, Pennsylvania two weeks ago
On Saturday morning, he took to his podium again and insisted that a bullet will not stop him from organizing another outdoor rally.
The presidential candidate, who will be questioned by the FBI about the assassination attempt, did not indicate when the meeting would take place.
At a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, just two weeks ago, 20-year-old registered Republican and Biden donor Thomas Matthew Crooks opened fire on the presidential candidate.
A bullet hit Trump in the ear as Secret Service agents protected him. Corey Comperatore, a 50-year-old retired fire chief for Buffalo Township, was killed while two other men were left in critical condition.
The FBI has not yet received a victim impact statement from Trump as the agency gathers evidence to investigate the horrific incident, an official said.
The agency’s director, Christopher Wray, sparked a storm of protest Wednesday when he testified to lawmakers on Capitol Hill that there were still “some questions” about whether the former president was hit by a bullet or shrapnel.
“With respect to former President Trump, there is a question as to whether the man’s ear was hit by a bullet or shrapnel,” Wray said.
“I don’t know at this point if that bullet, besides causing the scraping, went anywhere else.”
The presidential candidate has since given extensive accounts of the moment he was shot and was seen with a bandage over his ear.
In a later statement, Trump attempted to clarify Wray’s comment.
On Friday, Trump confirmed on his platform Truth Social that he will return to the site where he was shot for a “BIG AND BEAUTIFUL RALLY”
Trump immediately denied the suggestion that he had been hit by shrapnel, saying he had been hit by “a bullet that hit my ear, and it hit me really hard.”
He posted on his Truth Social: ‘There was no glass, there was no shrapnel. The hospital called it a “bullet wound to the ear”, and that’s what it was. No wonder the once legendary FBI has lost the trust of America!’
The former president’s campaign also pushed back against the idea that Trump was hit by shrapnel and not a bullet.
“Anyone who believes this conspiracy theory is either mentally ill or is knowingly spreading falsehoods for political reasons,” Trump campaign adviser Steven Cheung told CNN.
Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle, who resigned Monday after appearing before Congress, was shot to pieces by lawmakers during a hearing about the attempted assassination of Trump.
Furious Democrats and Republicans peppered the embattled Cheatle with questions about how would-be assassin Crooks was able to open fire on the former president.
She dodged direct questions about whether she denied Trump a larger protective detail, whether she focused on diversity and inclusion in her appointment, and she reiterated that there should not have been an officer on the shooter’s roof during the brutal hearing on Capitol Hill.
20-year-old registered Republican and Biden donor Thomas Matthew Crooks opened fire on the presidential candidate on July 13. Corey Comperatore, 50, was killed while two other men were left in critical condition
In a stunning moment, Cheatle also admitted that her officers on the scene had been alerted two to five times as many times as the number of times a “suspicious person” had been reported before Trump took the stage.
Cheatle had previously insisted she was the best person to lead the scandal-plagued agency, even as she admitted she was “fully responsible” for the massive security failure.
Trump recently revealed what he really thinks of the Secret Service and even revealed another glaring omission that day.
He said the Secret Service failed to warn him about his attacker, despite agents receiving disturbing messages from rally attendees before Trump even appeared on stage.
Trump told Fox News host Jesse Watters that “nobody had named the shooter,” despite the fact that he was under surveillance “for an hour” before the shooting.
“There were mistakes made,” Watters told Trump. “They had this guy under surveillance for an hour beforehand. Nobody told you you couldn’t go on stage?”
“Nobody mentioned it,” the former president responded. “Nobody said it was a problem.”
‘[They] could have said, ‘Let’s wait 15, 20 minutes, 5 minutes.’ Nobody said… I think that was a mistake,” he added.
Trump, and the rest of the United States, later wondered how Crooks had gotten onto the roof in the first place.
“How did somebody get on that roof?” Trump asked. “And why wasn’t he turned in, because people saw him on that roof.”
Trump revealed that security guards were alerted to someone with a gun on the roof before he even walked onstage. They didn’t stop him.
“When you hear Trumpers screaming, the woman in the red shirt, ‘There’s a man on the roof,’ and other people, ‘There’s a man on the roof and he’s got a gun,’ … that was quite a thing before I got on stage. And I thought someone would do something about it,” Trump said.
In the weeks following the shooting, Trump wore a large white bandage over his injured ear. He has since covered his ear with a band-aid. (Pictured: Trump on July 18 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin)
He is set to headline a rally in St. Cloud, Minnesota, on Saturday, along with his running mate, Sen. J.D. Vance. (Pictured: Trump and Vance on Fox News Hosts’ Jesse Watters Show)
Trump suffered a minor injury, but the outcome could have been much worse if he hadn’t turned his head slightly at the last moment.
The former president attended every day of the Republican National Convention with a large white bandage over his injured ear, and then wore a bandage for several days.
His former doctor and now congressman, Ronny Jackson, released a detailed report on Trump’s health on Saturday.
“He will undergo further evaluations, including a comprehensive hearing test, if necessary. He will follow up with his primary care physician as directed by the physicians who initially evaluated him,” Jackson said.
He will headline a rally in St. Cloud, Minnesota, on Saturday, along with his running mate, Senator JD Vance.
Trump announced a rally for Wednesday in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, in the center of the state.
Since the July 13 shooting, the Republican candidate has held all of his campaign events indoors.