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WILKES-BARRE, Pa. ― Reminders of former President Donald Trump’s near assassination were everywhere among the MAGA faithful.
A T-shirt with an image of Trump with two middle fingers in the air and the words “You missed.” Others showing a bloodied Trump seconds after the bullet grazed his ear, a fist raised in defiance.
Trump sauntered onto the stage for the Aug. 17 event to the tune of Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless the USA.” The crowd erupted.
At later rallies – when Trump ventured outdoors again – he’d speak behind bulletproof glass. But not on this night, just a month after the shooting, as he packed a 10,000-capacity arena.
His address would last 103 minutes. He would go after his Democratic opponent Kamala Harris 58 times by name. He would even denounce those prosecuting him in court.
One name went unspoken: Thomas Matthew Crooks.
Crooks is the name Trump seemingly refuses to speak in public – even as he prepares to revisit the scene of the crime for the first time, with another rally in Butler, Pennsylvania scheduled for Saturday.
That silence isn’t an accident, said Fred C. Trump III, the nephew of the former president, in an interview with USA TODAY.
“If he finds a way to use that shooter to his benefit he’s going to do it,” said Fred C. Trump III, who wrote a book critical of his uncle, “All in the family: The Trumps and how we got this way.”
He believes Trump “would have used it already” if he thought highlighting the shooter was to his political advantage.
In the 12 weeks since the July 13 shooting in Butler, Pennsylvania, Trump has spoken publicly at least 51 times at rallies, town halls, press conferences and other events. He has brought up the shooting at 31 events, a USA TODAY analysis found. But in those mentions, he has only ever alluded to Crooks by vaguely referring to him as a “lunatic,” a “very disturbed guy” or an “evil assassin.”
To be sure, in the three months since Crooks’ attack, both Trump and the campaign have been forced to adjust to an increasingly dangerous landscape. From hacked emails to poisoning threats to assassination plots including those by foreign adversaries like Iran – and a security ring closing in to keep them safe.
Against this backdrop, not much is known about the effect the assassination attempt has had on Trump.
Some close to the campaign have told reporters the shooting “weighs on him” heavily. During a rally in Long Island last month, Trump appeared to get nervous when he mistook someone approaching the stage. He brushed it off, acknowledging, “I got a little bit of a yip problem here.”
Another person close to the campaign told USA TODAY the subject hadn’t come up in recent conversations. “He seems to be fine,” that person said.
A Trump campaign official said the former president hasn’t mentioned Crooks because “he’s dead” and doesn’t pose a threat.
Trump’s mantra: ‘Make them pay’
Trump’s standard playbook when attacked is to “hit back ten times harder,” said Barbara Res, who worked as executive vice president for the Trump Organization and his since written a book critical of Trump.
“He’ll even say it; you take out a pistol and he has a howitzer, there’s no comparison,” Res said, adding Trump’s approach to opponents is “to make them pay.”
Trump’s actual opponents in the worlds of politics, business and legal prosecutions have often been on the receiving end of angry speeches, acid tweets and accusatory “truths” on his personal social media platform, often propelling them into the spotlight.
But the troubled gunman who came within millimeters of taking his life hasn’t been part of Trump’s public conversation.
A source close to the campaign said Trump should be wary of giving Crooks a platform.
“If you’re the president of the United States… I think the experts would say there’s a danger you’re encouraging other copycats,” that person said.
In the past, Trump has been accused of amplifying other actions that resulted in violence, including the Jan. 6 attacks on the Capitol and the 2017 clash between white supremacists and counter protesters in Charlottesville, Virginia.
On the day of the assassination attempt, Trump’s first pronouncement came over Truth Social at 8:42 p.m. local time: “Nothing is known at this time about the shooter, who is now dead.”
He added: “I knew immediately that something was wrong in that I heard a whizzing sound, shots, and immediately felt the bullet ripping through the skin.”
The FBI identified Crooks as the shooter on July 14 at 1:32 a.m. Later that morning, Trump posted, “it was God alone who prevented the unthinkable from happening.”
He would not speak publicly about the incident until the evening of his nomination speech, July 18, five days later.
Trump allies blame Democrats for attack
While Trump convalesced and called for unity in his Truth Social posts, his allies started casting blame.
Donning a blue suit with an American flag pin on the lapel, House Speaker Mike Johnson went on NBC’s Today show after the shooting and said Trump was a victim of incendiary rhetoric.
“There’s no figure in American history, at least in the modern era, maybe since Lincoln, who’s been so vilified and really persecuted by the media, you know Hollywood elites, political figures, even the legal system,” Johnson said.
Trump’s allies zeroed in on Biden and Democrats.
Top Trump adviser Chris LaCivita blamed “leftist activists, Democratic donors” and Biden for “disgusting remarks” about Trump, implying they put him at risk.
Ohio U.S. Sen. JD Vance, who would go on to become Trump’s running mate, said the Biden campaign’s portrayal “led directly to President Trump’s attempted assassination.”
The failure of the U.S. Secret Service – on Biden’s watch – to identify Crooks as a threat ahead of Trump’s appearance drew the most ire. The agency’s head resigned on July 23.
Within 48 hours of the shooting, the FBI interviewed nearly 100 people. But the political pronouncements of the shooting moved faster than the investigation, which still hasn’t identified Crooks’ motive.
Trump’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., told a crowd gathered in a brewery on the outskirts of the Republican National Convention in downtown Milwaukee that he expected a new, more moderate tone from his dad.
“I think these are momentous occasions that change people permanently,” Trump Jr. said.
On July 18, Trump took the convention stage at the Fiserv Forum.
A large white bandage covered his wounded ear, inspiring many in the crowd to wear bandages in solidarity. Speaking out for the very first time, he said he would only talk about it once. Recounting the experience was all-too painful.
“It was a warm beautiful day in the early evening in Butler Township in the Great Commonwealth of Pennsylvania,” the former president began.
Then the bullets started flying, blood started flowing and God, he said, intervened.
“There was blood pouring everywhere, and yet in a certain way I felt very safe because I had God on my side,” he said.
Trump hasn’t stopped his retelling of the story.
Trump’s hero story
On the campaign trail, Trump tells of travails. Of bravery. Of heroism.
His retelling includes Corey Comperatore, the former firefighter killed by a bullet meant for Trump. It lauds the Butler rally crowd for not running when the bullets started flying, the “amazing” doctors who saved the lives of injured victims.
Comperatore’s firefighter jacket and helmet were on stage at the Republican National Convention with Trump, who pointed to them as the crowd chanted “Corey, Corey.” He laid his hands on the jacket like a healer about to perform a miracle and anointed the helmet with a kiss.
Trump would go on to make more than four dozen public appearances. Away from the former president’s spotlight, Crooks’ life quietly came more into focus.
Testifying in front of Congress on July 24, FBI Director Christopher Wray described Crooks, 20, as a “loner” who had little interaction “face to face or digitally with a lot of people.” He liked video games and was a “fairly avid shooting hobbyist,” Wray said.
Crooks was a registered Republican who once donated $15 to a liberal group. He excelled in school and had no criminal record. Some classmates said he was bullied, and the FBI reported that he searched on his phone for “major depressive disorder” shortly before the shooting.
Investigators were working hard to dig up more information about him, Wray said. Understanding what drove him is in the public interest
In a call with reporters in late August, FBI Special Agent Kevin Rojek said investigators still hadn’t found a motive for the shooting and described Crooks’ political philosophy as “a mixture” of ideologies.
“We’ve seen no definitive ideology associated with our subject, either left-leaning or right-leaning,” he said.
How much Trump had been told about Crooks’ background prior to his interview with the FBI is unclear.
The former president met with the FBI to discuss the shooting for the first time in early August, telling reporters at an Aug. 8 press conference that “the FBI came to see me about the shooter. I think they’ve done a very good job.” He didn’t go into detail about what was said.
Asked what questions or information the FBI sought; FBI Assistant Director Robert Wells said it would be the same as any other victim interview.
“Just like any other witness to the crime, as well as get his perspective on what occurred to him during that event,” Wells said.
The FBI and the Pennsylvania State Police also discussed Crooks’ background at the meeting with Trump.
“Agents took the time to provide the former president with an in-depth briefing on the investigation and answered his questions regarding the attempt on his life,” Wells said.
Trump never talked about any of it in his public appearances. A source with knowledge of FBI procedures said the agency never tells a victim whether to name a shooter or not, but that a general policy among victims’ advocates is not to name gunmen to avoid aggrandizing them.
The assassination attempt would become a staple on Trump’s stump. From Michigan to Florida to North Carolina, his role would evolve from survivor to martyr.
“I took the bullet for democracy,” Trump said, adding: “I might have taken it because of their rhetoric,” referring to Democrats.
Instead of talking about Crooks, Trump named other criminals, including undocumented immigrants. He accused Biden and Harris of giving them free rein.
In North Carolina, Trump mentioned Shawn Michael Tillman, who shot and killed a man on a train platform in St. Paul, Minnesota in May 2022. Weeks before the shooting, Tillman was released on bail with help from a nonprofit that Harris promoted in 2020. Back then, the organization was providing legal aid to people detained during protests in the wake of George Floyd’s murder at the hands of the police.
In Michigan, Trump highlighted the murder of a woman by a man who entered the U.S. illegally. He also repeatedly mentions the high number of shootings in Chicago.
Then another potential assailant emerged that his campaign was ready to talk about.
A foiled assassination plot, a different reaction
He was hiding in the bushes near the sixth hole.
Trump was a few hundred yards away on the fairway at Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach.
As a man poked his rifle barrel out of the bushes, a Secret Service agent noticed the gun and opened fire. The man, who never had Trump in his line of sight, dropped the weapon and fled on foot to his vehicle, driving off in the black Nissan SUV, authorities say. Ryan Routh, the suspect, was quickly pulled over on the interstate and apprehended.
Routh, 58, donated to Democrats and supported causes embraced by the Democratic Party. He denounced Trump as “brainless,” after once supporting him, writing in a self-published book that the Iranians “are free to assassinate Trump.” He has a long criminal history.
Blame flew fast. This time, the would-be assassin’s name was everywhere.
Trump’s running mate JD Vance was quick to delve into Routh’s background in a post on X that named him and highlighted his contributions to Democrats running for federal office.
His name is Ryan Routh, and he donated 19 times to Democrat causes and zero to Republican ones,” Vance wrote. “How do you think the Democrats and their media allies would respond if a 19-time Republican donor tried to kill a Democratic official?”
Donald Trump Jr. tied Routh’s alleged actions to criticism his father is a threat to democracy. “This has been the main message of the Democratic Party for 8 years now,” Trump’s son wrote. “Ryan Wesley Routh heard their message loud and clear!”
The former president didn’t hold back either.
“Because of this Communist Left Rhetoric, the bullets are flying, and it will only get worse!” Trump said the day after Routh was arrested, blaming Democratic rhetoric from Harris and others for what happened at his golf club.
A day later, Trump shared an article focused on Routh’s activities overseas — he traveled to Ukraine to support the country in the war with Russia in 2022 and 2023. He was flagged by U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials last year when he returned home to Hawaii.
The contrast with Crooks was stark.
“Crooks is dead. He is no longer an active threat to President Trump or anyone. Routh is alive and therefore it’s worth discussing why he did this as the investigation into his motives continues,” a Trump campaign official told USA TODAY in an email explaining the different responses.
Res, the former Trump employee turned critic, believes Trump hasn’t mentioned Crooks because there’s no political gain, otherwise he “absolutely” would.
Trump’s attacks against adversaries are meant to intimidate and exact revenge, she said.
Crooks was killed by a Secret Service counter sniper.
“It’s behind him,” Res said of Trump and the Butler shooting. “He got what he could out of it. What’s the point of going after him (Crooks)? He’s got nothing to gain and who knows, he could have something to lose.”
Routh also may present a clearer political target than Crooks, one who is easier to tie to the left.
“We had a lot more to go on, we knew a lot more about this guy,” former Trump White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer said of Routh.
For Trump, it’s “a clear shot, no pun intended,” Spicer said. “I don’t think anyone wondered what his deal was.”
Crooks’ background as a registered Republican gun hobbyist “makes it less easy” to talk about him, Spicer said.
To do so would mean talking about access to guns. About resorting to violence. And talking about young men, who have been flocking to Trump in a race that’s in a dead heat.
Routh has pleaded not guilty to attempted assassination and related charges.
Trump supporters react to questions about Crooks
Country music blasted over loudspeakers in Wilkes-Barre. Groups of young men gathered around pickup truck tailgates drinking beer.
Lewis Yost, 55, stood outside smoking a cigarette before heading into the arena. A retired corrections officer from New York, he didn’t know what to make of Crooks.
“I’m still trying to understand what his motive was,” Yost said. “I don’t understand what he was trying to accomplish. It doesn’t make sense to me… None of it makes sense.”
When it came to Crooks, Trump supporters were all over the map.
Some were suspicious about the circumstances surrounding the shooting, as was the case of Billy Gray, 50, a Navy veteran and air conditioning duct installer from Tyler, Texas.
“I think it was a government setup. Our government killed Kennedy didn’t they? What’s the easiest way to get your opponent out of the way?” Gray said. “Can’t run if you’re dead.”
But God had saved Trump from Crooks, said 22-year-old Timothy Denhollander, from Pittstown, New Jersey.
Denhollander, a devout Christian who said he lives at home with 13 siblings, wore a shirt to the rally with an image of Trump pumping his fist after being shot in Butler, blood streaked across his face.
“God turned his head just enough to just clip his ear a little bit,” he said.
Others implied no good could come from talking about Crooks. What if the discussion veered into gun control?
“You can’t blame the guns,” said Charles Langan, 26.
Many of the Wilkes-Barre rallygoers knew little about Crooks and were fine with that.
The less focus on the shooter, the better, they said. Don’t give him the attention he craved.
So, Trump will keep hitting the campaign trail and, if recent history is an indicator, will keep telling a story about a shooting.
