Former President Donald Trump has canceled a plan to scale back his attendance at the Republican National Convention, which begins Monday in Milwaukee, Wis., following the assassination attempt Saturday during a rally in Butler, Pa.
Earlier reports said Trump was considering shaving a couple of days off his rally attendance, where he is scheduled to speak on Thursday, the final night of the convention, but he has changed his mind.
“Based on yesterday’s terrible events, I was going to delay my trip to Wisconsin, and the Republican National Convention, by two days, but have just decided that I cannot allow a ‘shooter,’ or potential assassin, to force change to scheduling, or anything else,” Trump posted on social media. “Therefore, I will be leaving for Milwaukee, as scheduled, at 3:30 P.M. TODAY. Thank you! DJT.” Not long after, he added: “UNITE AMERICA!”
Trump delivered another uplifting message to his supporters and the rest of the country via his Truth Social platform following the attack.
“Thank you to everyone for your thoughts and prayers yesterday, as it was God alone who prevented the unthinkable from happening. We will FEAR NOT, but instead remain resilient in our Faith and Defiant in the face of Wickedness,” he wrote.
“Our love goes out to the other victims and their families. We pray for the recovery of those who were wounded, and hold in our hearts the memory of the citizen who was so horribly killed. 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. I truly love our Country, and love you all, and look forward to speaking to our Great Nation this week from Wisconsin,” Trump added.
Later, Trump also noted that he wasn’t going to change his plans to attend the Republican National Convention, which begins on Monday. He is scheduled to address the convention on Thursday.
“Based on yesterday’s terrible events, I was going to delay my trip to Wisconsin, and The Republican National Convention, by two days, but have just decided that I cannot allow a ‘shooter,’ or potential assassin, to force change to scheduling, or anything else,” he wrote on Truth Social.
Over the weekend, the U.S. Secret Service and local law enforcement officials stated they have no intentions of altering the security protocols for the RNC, which is being held in Milwaukee
Police reaffirmed their faith in the security system currently in place and declared that their security perimeter will not change despite Saturday’s attempted assassination.
“We’re not anticipating any changes to our operational security plans for this event,” said the Secret Service’s RNC coordinator, Audrey Gibson-Cicchino. She declined to answer several questions about Saturday’s events in Pennsylvania, citing her RNC-specific jurisdiction.
“Gibson-Cicchino emphasized that the security planning in Milwaukee has been underway for 18 months and has already been designated the highest level of security event. Pressed about specific threats to this week’s gathering, Michael Hensle, the FBI’s special agent in charge in Milwaukee, said that there is ‘no known specific articulated threat to the RNC during or any specific individual attendee’ but that there are higher levels of online ‘chatter’ about the assassination attempt,” NBC News
FBI Deputy Director Paul Abbate stated during a separate news briefing earlier on Sunday that since the incident, there have been more online threats of violence, which were already on the rise.
Police Chief Jeffrey Norman stated that the city is not allowed to ban guns anywhere in Milwaukee under those state restrictions due to the likelihood of guns in the soft security perimeter surrounding the Fiserv Forum arena, where the convention will take place—a result of Wisconsin’s open-carry legislation.
“We as a city cannot legislate out of that,” Norman said of the state’s open-carry allowances, adding that from a “law enforcement aspect, we have to operate within those guidelines.”
