Trump returned to Butler, the scene of his first assassination attempt. What’s changed?

Donald Trump returned to the Butler, Pennsylvania venue where he survived an assassination attempt three months ago — but the 2024 race has dramatically changed since then.

July 13 — the day that a lone gunman opened fire at the Butler rally, killing one, and injuring others, including the former president — marked a pivotal moment in the highly contested race.

Since then, President Joe Biden dropped out, a heavily scrutinized Secret Service identified its failures and underwent sweeping changes, Trump picked JD Vance as his running mate, enthusiasm for Vice President Kamala Harris grew and Trump lost his lead in the polls, and yet another alleged attempt on Trump’s life unfolded on September 15 at his Florida golf course.

The image of Trump triumphantly pumping his fist in the air with blood dripping across his face seems to have faded amid the race’s many fluctuations.

At Saturday’s rally, the GOP nominee made sure to remind voters of that moment.

“When I got up I asked whether or not anybody was killed,” he said. “I assumed that there would be a lot because I heard the bullets winging right over my head.”

He explained to NewsNation earlier this week why he felt compelled to return.

“I’m going back to Butler because I feel I have an obligation to go back to Butler. We never finished what we were supposed to do,” he said. “I said that day, when I was shot, I said: ‘We’re coming back. We’re going to come back.’ And I’m fulfilling a promise. I’m fulfilling, really, an obligation.”

While the campaign told CNN that this rally will be “different,” the former president himself earlier this week vowed that the campaign event will pick up right where it left off a few months ago: “I think I’ll start the speech by saying, ‘As I