President Donald Trump during Monday’s inauguration speech said that he believes that a survived assassination attempt in July 2024 at a rally was a sign by God to “make America great again.”
Trump survived a shooting during a 2024 campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, that injured his right ear and left one man dead and two others injured. In the incident, Trump turned his head slightly as the bullet passed by his head but struck him in the ear.
In the speech on Monday, Trump said he believes he was saved from the assassination attempt on him for a reason.
“Just a few months ago, in a beautiful Pennsylvania field, an assassin’s bullet ripped through my ear, but I felt then, and believe even more so now, that my life was saved for a reason. I was saved by God,” he said, recounting the incident.
“I was saved by God to make America great again.”
It was the first such assassination attempt targeting Trump in two months. In September 2024, Trump’s Secret Service detail confronted who the FBI later said was a would-be assassin, Ryan Routh, near his Florida golf course with a rifle.
Prosecutors later said that Routh was going to shoot Trump and cited a note that Routh left with an acquaintance months prior. Routh never took a shot and fled the scene in a vehicle before he was arrested hours later.
The shooter who fired at Trump in Butler was later identified as Thomas Matthew Crooks, a 20-year-old Pennsylvania man who was later shot and killed by responding Secret Service agents. FBI officials have yet to reveal his motive, if any, and few details about Crooks have been released to the public. His family has not issued a statement on the incident.
Days after the Butler assassination attempt, the president told a crowd: “I’m not supposed to be here tonight. Not supposed to be here ... I thank you, but I’m not, and I'll tell you, I stand before you in this arena only by the grace of Almighty God.
“Behind me and to the right was a large screen that was displaying a chart of border crossings under my leadership. The numbers were absolutely amazing. In order to see the chart, I started to, like this, turn to my right, and was ready to begin a little bit further, turn, which I’m very lucky I didn’t do, when I heard a loud whizzing sound and felt something hit me really, really hard on my right ear.
“I said to myself, ‘Wow, what was that? It can only be a bullet,’ and moved my right hand to my ear, brought it down. My hand was covered with blood. It was just absolutely blood all over the place. I immediately knew it was very serious, that we were under attack. And in one movement, proceeded to drop to the ground. Bullets were continuing to fly, as very brave Secret Service agents rushed to the stage, and they really did, they rushed to the stage.”
Also in the inauguration speech, Trump previewed actions he would quickly take. Those included issuing orders on illegal immigration and the border, drilling for energy sources, providing back pay to troops fired over vaccine mandates, and more.
