Trump survives 'assassination' bid

Butler, Pennsylvania: Former US presidentDonald Trumpsurvived a weekend assassination attempt days before he is due to accept the formal Republican presidential nomination, in an attack that will further inflame the US political divide and has raised questions about the security lapses.

Trump, 78, had just begun a campaign speech in Butler, Pennsylvania, about 50 km north of Pittsburgh, on Saturday when shots rang out, hitting the former president's right ear and streaking his face with blood.

"Fight! Fight! Fight!" Trump mouthed to supporters, pumping his fist, as Secret Service agents rushed him away. His campaign said he was doing well and appeared to have suffered no major injury besides a wound on his upper right ear. The FBI identified 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, as the suspect in what it called an attempted assassination. He was a registered Republican, according to state voter records and had made a $15 donation to a Democratic political action committee at the age of 17.

Law enforcement officials told reporters they had not yet identified a motive for the attack. The shooting occurred less than four months before the November 5 election, when Trump faces an election rematch with Democratic President Joe Biden.

Most opinion polls including those by Reuters/Ipsos show the two locked in a close contest.

The suspect was shot dead by Secret Service agents, the agency said, after he opened fire from the roof of a building about 140 metres from the stage where Trump was speaking. An AR-15-style semiautomatic rifle was recovered near his body.

One person who attended the rally was killed and two other spectators were critically wounded, the Secret Service said.

“In this moment, it is more important than ever that we stand United, and show our True Character as Americans, remaining Strong and Determined, and not allowing Evil to Win,” Trump said on his Truth Social service on Sunday.

Trump left the Butler area under Secret Service protection and later arrived at his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey.

The Secret Service in a statement denied accusations by some Trump supporters that it had rejected campaign requests for additional security. “The assertion that a member of the former President’s security team requested additional security resources that the US Secret Service or the Department of Homeland Security rebuffed is absolutely false,” said Secret Service spokesperson Anthony Guglielmi in a statement. “In fact, recently the U.S. Secret Service added protective resources and capabilities to the former President’s security detail.”

The attack heightened longstanding worries that political violence could erupt during the presidential campaign and after the election. The concerns in part reflect the electorate’s polarization, with the country appearing bitterly divided into two camps with divergent political and social visions.

Americans fear rising political violence, recent Reuters/Ipsos polling shows, with two out of three respondents to a May survey saying they worried violence could follow the election.

While mass shootings are a regular feature of American life, the attack was the first shooting of a US president or major party candidate since the 1981 attempted assassination of Republican President Ronald Reagan.