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Elon Musk accompanies Donald Trump on stage

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump returned Saturday to the site of a campaign rally where he was nearly assassinated in July, calling his would-be assassin an “evil monster.” He also invited billionaire Elon Musk to the stage at Pennsylvania's Butler, saying he was an “incredible guy.”

“Like I said,” Trump said as he began speaking behind bulletproof glass, pretending to continue a speech that was interrupted when he was struck in the ear by a bullet on July 13.

“Exactly 12 weeks ago this evening, a cold-blooded assassin tried to silence me on these grounds,” he told thousands of his supporters.

The gunman, identified as 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, had climbed to a nearby roof and had a direct view of where Trump was speaking. He was then shot by a secret service agent.

With blood dripping down his face, Trump raised his fist and shouted at his supporters to “Fight, fight, fight” – an image that went viral on social media.

During Saturday's rally, Musk praised Trump and took a swipe at US President Joe Biden.

“We had a president who couldn’t climb the stairs and another who pumped his fist after a shooting,” he said.

It was the first time Musk, the owner of the social media platform X, attended a Trump election rally since endorsing him on July 13.

Trump “must win to preserve democracy in America,” Musk said, calling the 2024 U.S. presidential election the “most important election of our lifetime.”

“The true test of a person’s character is how they behave under fire,” he said.

“Call on everyone you know and everyone you don’t know to register to vote,” he told Republican supporters. “If they don’t, this will be the last election. That’s my prediction.”

“Fight, fight, fight, vote, vote, vote,” he said at the end of his nearly seven-minute speech.

JD Vance, Trump's vice presidential nominee, also spoke at the rally, which took place exactly a month before the November 5 presidential election.

“Donald Trump took a bullet for democracy. “What have you done?” Vance said in an apparent attack on Democratic candidate Kamala Harris.


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