US presidential election: Donald Trump revisits the rally shooting range in Butler, Pennsylvania, with Elon Musk and JD Vance

Donald Trump will defiantly return Saturday to the small Pennsylvania town where an assassin tried to shoot him during a rally attended by thousands of supporters.

The former president will appear alongside JD Vance, his running mate in the November election, as well as family members of those injured in the July 13 attack, first responders and tech billionaire Elon Musk.

Trump has repeatedly insisted he wanted to return to the scene of the shooting that left one man dead and two people present wounded before the sniper was shot.

“Butler has become a pretty famous place — it’s like a monument now,” the Republican candidate said at a recent rally in Milwaukee.

Trump’s campaign team said he “took a bullet for democracy” in Butler and that he would speak behind protective glass when he returned.

The former president was on a sweltering field six minutes into a campaign speech, turning his head to look at a graph of immigration statistics when eight shots rang out.

Trump winced, grabbed his ear and ducked behind his podium as Secret Service agents flooded the outdoor stage.

Surrounded by bodyguards and with blood running down his face, Trump raised his fist and chanted “fight, fight, fight” at the crowd – giving his campaign a now-iconic image.

“The first thing I said was, ‘How many people are dead?’ Because, you know, we had a huge crowd as far as the eye could see,” Trump said recently.

In fact, his first words picked up by the stage microphone were “Let me get my shoes,” confirmed by witness Erin Autenreith, who was sitting in the front row.

GLOBAL SHOCK

There was shock across the political spectrum, and President Joe Biden joined a number of world leaders in reaching out to Trump to wish him well.

The shooting sparked calls from all sides to turn down the heat on an overheated campaign – but the lull was brief and tensions simmered.

Although his ear was apparently grazed by one of the bullets fired by Thomas Crooks from an AR-15 rifle, Trump was otherwise unharmed.

The Secret Service, whose job it is to protect presidents, candidates and foreign dignitaries, was heavily criticized for failing to secure the building from which the shots were fired, just a few hundred feet from the stage.

The attempt on the business mogul’s life was the first in a series of dramas that have rocked the race for the White House, capped by Biden’s surprise withdrawal and replacement by Vice President Kamala Harris as the Democratic nominee.

Then on September 15, a man was arrested after he was seen at Trump’s golf course in Florida with a rifle and a GoPro camera in what the FBI said was a second assassination attempt.

Some Trump supporters have claimed wild conspiracy theories, arguing alongside Trump that Democratic rhetoric that the former president was a threat to U.S. democracy was actually an incitement to violence.

Merchandise vendors at Trump rallies persevered, producing T-shirts and collectibles to celebrate his seemingly miraculous escape.

The Butler shooting killed rally attendee Corey Comperatore, a fire chief who authorities said died while protecting family members. Two other passers-by were hit and sustained injuries.

“We will be there on Saturday. It’s going to be a really big event and it’s going to be special. I think we’re going to celebrate Corey’s life. And I want to celebrate the two gentlemen who were hit really badly,” Trump said in Milwaukee.