BUTLER, Pa. — The gunshots were high-pitched pops, slight and hollow in the open air.
Donald Trump, the former president set to accept the Republican nomination in five days, was less than 10 minutes into his speech here to a crowd of tens of thousands. A miles-long line of cars crawled for hours to pass through metal detectors and bag inspections, just like any Trump event, until these green fairgrounds became a sea of red hats.
Trump was almost an hour late, and his supporters waited impatiently under the blazing sun and thumping music. In the middle of the crowd, opposite the stage, a platform of TV cameras pointed at the podium, with reporters huddled underneath for shade.
Finally Trump walked out, as usual, to chants of “USA” and marveled: “This is a big crowd. This is a big, big, beautiful crowd.” A bright red MAGA cap shaded his eyes, and his white shirt was open-collared in the heat as he leaned his arms on the lectern.
He launched into his stump speech but quickly got bored with the prepared script. He offered to invite the Republican Senate candidate, Dave McCormick, to speak, but McCormick wasn’t ready.
“You don’t mind if I go off teleprompter, do you?” Trump teased. “Because these teleprompters are so damn boring.” He asked to show “that chart that I love so much,” showing border crossings across his and Joe Biden’s presidencies, and acted amazed that his producers obliged, projecting it onto the giant screens to either side. “Wow, you guys are getting better with time.”
He was pointing to one of the screens, narrating the increase in immigration since he left office in 2021. “Look what happened to our country!”
The pops came in pairs, a burst of five or six total. Trump swatted his ear, as if he heard a mosquito. Then he hunched his shoulders and ducked.
“Get down, get down, get down!” Secret Service agents shouted as they rushed up onto the stage and surrounded him. The crowd screamed. Another burst of popping noises. More screaming. The people in the bleachers behind Trump shuffled, unsure about where to go. The people in chairs or standing crouched or fell to the ground. A dense cloud of smoke hung to the right of the stage, then dispersed quickly.
One more solitary shot.
More suited Secret Service agents rushed the stage, then black-clad men wearing body armor and helmets, and carrying assault rifles. The crowd shouted in confusion.
“Are we good?” one of the officers said, audible from the podium microphone.
“Shooter’s down,” another answered.
“We’re good to move.”
“Are we clear?”
“We’re clear!”
“Let me get my shoes on,” Trump said, as the agents lifted him.
“I got you, sir.”
“Hold on, your head is bloody.”
“Let me get my shoes on,” he said again, as the agents formed a ring around him.
The crowd, seeing him standing, started to cheer.
“Wait,” Trump said, and thrust up a fist. “Fight!” he said. “Fight!”
Then the people roared and chanted again: “USA!”
“We gotta move,” an agent said. Leaning on the agents for assistance, Trump kept his fist raised as he hobbled off the stage, down the stairs and into his black SUV. One black dress shoe remained on the red-carpeted stage.
Officers — Secret Service, county sheriff’s deputies, state troopers, U.S. Department of Homeland Security — started telling the crowd to evacuate, calling the site an active crime scene. The rallygoers walked out, calling and texting family and friends and recording videos. People were shocked but calm.
As people passed the press risers elevating the cameras, some took out their anger on the media.
“You’re not safe. It’s your fault.”
“You wanted political violence, now you got it. Hope you’re all f—ing happy.”
“The shot heard ’round the world.”
“The liberal media is responsible!”
“Every f—ing one of y’all!”
Others sought out the cameras to offer eyewitness accounts, but they were jumbled and sometimes contradictory amid the panic.
The crowd trudged glumly to the parking lot, a few stopping for a last-minute hot dog or snow cone.
A man with a cane cowered behind the bathrooms, vomiting.
They walked to their cars past Trump flags streaming in the wind over a long row of vendors selling MAGA hats and mug shot T-shirts and Trump keychains and vulgar bumper stickers and Trump visors topped with bright orange fake hair.
A man with a bullhorn wearing a homemade “JAN 6 SURVIVOR” shirt called on people to march on Main Street, “peacefully and patriotically,” echoing Trump’s speech on the Ellipse on Jan. 6, 2021. Most everyone ignored him. One young man accused him of being an undercover federal agent and told him to shut up.
They left behind a field strewn with empty plastic water bottles. A giant American flag hoisted from two cranes flapped high above the empty white bleachers bordered with red, white and blue bunting.