Elon Musk bunny-hops on stage to join Trump at scene of assassination attempt
Elon Musk joined Donald Trump on stage at a rally on Saturday night as the former President returned to the scene where he was fired at by a would-be assassin.
In the same spot where a bullet came within an inch of claiming his life just three months ago, Trump stood and raised a clenched first in the air.
It was the defiant pose he had struck, his face bloodied, minutes after a gunman had wounded him at his rally here in Butler, Pennsylvania on July 13, and the crowd screamed its approval.
“Exactly 12 weeks ago this evening, on this very ground, a cold-blooded assassin aimed to silence me,” he told his supporters on Saturday night.
Recalling the moment when gunman Thomas Crooks opened fire that fateful day, the Republican Presidential candidate described how “time stopped as this vicious monster unleashed pure evil from his sniper’s perch, not so far away”.
One of the bullets had grazed his right ear, the first near-fatal attempt on a US president since Ronald Reagan in 1981, and forced him to the ground.
As his secret service unit carried him off the stage, Trump pumped his fist and called “Fight! Fight! Fight!” to the crowd – a potent rallying cry for his bid to return to the White House.
He repeated the maxim as he addressed adoring supporters on Saturday, a dramatic return that had drawn a crowd of tens of thousands to the small, rural town.
A giant US flag fluttering in the wind behind him, Trump, 78, strode back on to the podium and made light of the moment. “As I was saying,” he joked, as if he were resuming his interrupted speech from July.
There were clear differences this time around. The ex-president was speaking from a podium encased in bulletproof glass. The rooftop used by Crooks had been blocked from view by shipping containers and haulage trucks. Stony-faced snipers stood on every vantage point in the vicinity. A surveillance drone flew overhead, a helicopter hummed as it circled the scene.
Trump grew more sombre as the clock struck 6.11pm, the moment the bullets began flying. He called for a minute’s silence in tribute to Corey Comperatore, an engineer and volunteer firefighter who lost his life, and David Dutch and James Copenhaver who were both seriously injured in the shooting.
Tesla founder and X owner Musk later bunny-hopped on stage to join the former president, wearing an all-black Make American Great Again baseball cap.
“We had one president who couldn’t climb a flight of stairs and another who was fist-pumping after getting shot,” the tech entrepreneur told the crowd to rapturous applause.
“The other side,” Musk said, referring to Kamala Harris, “wants to take away your freedom of speech, they want to take away your right to bear arms, they want to take away your right to vote effectively,” he added without backing up the claims.
Later when Trump returned to the podium he told the crowd that Musk had promised him America would “reach Mars” by the end of his term if he is re-elected.
Many of those listening had been in attendance that day. Christopher Wess, described it as a “surreal” event which left him and his family suffering PTSD for a few days afterwards. But the 57-year-old, said it was important to him and his wife to come back and show their support for their favourite president. He said: “A billionaire as he is, who [else] is going to put their life on the line to help the American public?”
Trump had returned to a hero’s welcome. Some of his supporters sported mock bandages over their right ears, in tribute to the dressing that had covered the wound on his ear.
Many more wore T-shirts emblazoned with his bloodstained face and fist pumped in the air. Back in July, the instantly iconic image appeared to have won him the White House. Mr Biden’s re-election bid was imploding after a disastrous debate performance led Democrats to openly speculate on his future. (The Telegraph)
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