(NewsNation) — Elon Musk joined Donald Trump at his rally Saturday in Butler, the Pennsylvania city where the Republican presidential nominee survived an assassination attempt earlier this year.
“I will be there to support!” Musk wrote on his social platform X on Thursday in a retweet of Trump’s own promotion of the rally. The SpaceX and Tesla CEO will be among special guests in attendance, Trump’s campaign confirmed Friday.
He took the stage on Saturday to praise the GOP presidential nominee and slam Democrats he claimed “want to take away your right to vote, effectively.”
“The true test of someone’s character is how they behave under fire. We had one president who couldn’t climb a flight of stairs and another who was fist pumping after getting shot,” Musk said, swiping at President Biden.
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Saturday’s rally took place at the same property where a gunman’s bullets grazed Trump’s right ear and killed his supporter, Corey Comperatore. The shooting left multiple others injured. At 6:11 p.m., the Republican nominee asked for a moment of silence to commemorate Comperatore and those injured.
Trump noted it was “12 weeks to the minute that the shooting began.” A bell tolled out and “Ave Maria” began playing over the speakers.
Prior to Trump’s entrance, his running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, made reference to the attempted assassination, joining in on the Democratic blame-game.
“Even after that terrible assassination attempt that took one man’s life and nearly took many others, they continue to use dangerous, inflammatory rhetoric,” Vance said. “The media has continued to call Donald Trump, the guy who actually won his primary, a threat to Democracy.”
Where are Trump, Harris, Vance and Walz campaigning today?
Vance then criticized Vice President Harris for saying Trump had attacked the foundations of American democracy.
“And I think you all were join me in saying to Kamala Harris, how dare you talk about threats to democracy, Donald Trump took a bullet for democracy, what the hell have you done,” Vance said.
The FBI said in July that the attempted assassin was Thomas Crooks. The Secret Service shot and killed the 20-year-old seconds after Trump was shot. The attack is the most serious attempt to assassinate a president or presidential candidate since Ronald Reagan was shot in 1981.
The Hill contributed to this report.