As it happened, Trump at a lectern, a head shot from his right side, hitting the top of his ear, Secret Service reacting.
https://x.com/Acyn/status/1812249329203286464
Secret Service statement on the shooting (secondary source, don't have a timestamp):
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https://www.fbi.gov/news/press-releases/fbi-statement-on-incident-in-butler-pennsylvania
FBI Statement on Incident in Butler, Pennsylvania
Update: July 13, 2024, 10 p.m. EST:
The FBI has assumed the role of the lead federal law enforcement agency in the investigation of the incident involving former President Donald Trump that occurred earlier today in Butler, Pennsylvania.
Special agents of the FBI Pittsburgh Field Office responded immediately, to include crisis response team members and evidence response technicians.
We will continue to support this investigation with the full resources of the FBI, alongside our partners at the U.S. Secret Service and state and local law enforcement. Anyone with information that may assist with the investigation is asked to call our tip line at 1-800-CALL-FBI.
Initial Statement:
FBI personnel are on the scene in Butler, Pennsylvania, and the FBI will continue to work jointly with the U.S. Secret Service as the investigation moves forward.
Biden statement on C-SPAN A two-and-a-half min. video.
From that background readers can search for current information. While we are all grateful Trump only lost part of his right ear, the impact of a shot that close to being fatal likely has Trump thinking of firearm regulation, and luck.
Crabgrass has its considerations. Wishing Trump well and as painless a recovery as possible, the major impression Crabgrass takes is, Biden walked steadly to the lectern, no tie, and gave a teleprompter-free statement, not hesitant, fully cogent, every word appropriate and no surplus words nor pauses. The man is fine. The horse shit over his age and competence needs to end. For this emergency moment it appears he was not, in Clyburn's words, over-prepared to a "preparation overload" and issued a proper statement, declined to speculate while awaiting learning the facts, and exited after indicating he'd contact Trump, which he apparently did.
Yes, there was no death threat before the shooting, but it was a surprise it was Trump who was shot at given all of the death threats various officials have received over their having done their jobs. And then this shooting with no prior notice.
Re Trump, there is this. An order against Trump in his litigation telling him not to incite bad passions, (or read it otherwise). If this post appears unsympathetic to Trump it is so because he has mouthed off in the past in ways inviting violence, so his being victim of violence is earned blowback. Think otherwise if you wish.
That said, violence and threats of violence reject the rule of law, which, is an aim and not a fully met desire. Law as applied can be criticized, but the closest thing to a totally free and unfettered market (as preached by some to be desirable), is the street gang protecting its turf, and we are as a people better in general than that.
Rule of law, when understood as a good to aim for, includes regulating the otherwise unfettered will of players in commerce, which includes government structure and personnel, as necessary, with adequate funding for such regulartory purposes; and hence proving that Project 2025 is ill-thought-out, radically defective, and dangerous.
Having diverged from the assassination attempt, there is no regret over the divergence. That attempt can serve as a wake-up call to some who think too simplistically, and as such there is that minor silver lining to the cloud of evil that has been wrongly directed against Donald Trump.
UPDATE: BBC has extended coverage, where readers starting here can review several interlinked items. The gunman was on a roof outside of the venue, reportedly about 200 meters away from Trump. The gunman was a 20 yr old from the area, who was shot dead by a Secret Service sniper on another roof. That BBC link has a drone view of the venue, empty of people, but marked to show detail. One bystander was killed, two others seriously wounded, all male.