The FBI named 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks of Bethel Park, Pa., as the suspected shooter in what it described as an assassination attempt on former president Donald Trump at a rally in Butler, Pa., on Saturday.

The Secret Service said its agents “neutralized” the shooter, who is now dead. Trump said in a post on Truth Social that he was “shot with a bullet that pierced the upper part of my right ear.” One spectator was killed, and two others were critically injured.

Relatively little is known about Crooks, though in the coming hours and days, his background and possible motives will be the subject of intense focus by media and law enforcement. Here’s what we know.

Who was Thomas Matthew Crooks?

Crooks was 20 years old and from Bethel Park, Pa. — about 40 miles south of Butler, the location of Saturday night’s Trump rally, the FBI said.

A Thomas Crooks is named in a local media outlet’s list of graduates of Bethel Park High School in 2022 and as one of 20 students to have received a $500 prize for math and science from the school that year. Bethel Park High School did not immediately reply to a request early Sunday for comment.

Crooks was registered as a Republican, according to Pennsylvania’s voter status records.

What do we know about the investigation?

The suspected shooter used an AR-15-style semiautomatic rifle to carry out the attack, a U.S. official and another person familiar with the investigation said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss the early stages of the investigation.

The FBI said as it identified the suspect that this “remains an active and ongoing investigation” and urged anyone with relevant information to submit it to the agency.

In a news conference earlier in the evening, FBI Pittsburgh Special Agent in Charge Kevin Rojek said the agency did not yet know the shooter’s motivation. “Our investigators are working tirelessly to attempt to identify what that motive was,” he said, before Crooks’s identity was released.

Pennsylvania State Police Lt. Col. George Bivens was asked whether the shooter acted alone and responded that it was “too early to say that.”

“It will be some time until we can conclusively … answer that question,” he added.

Bivens described a “chaotic” scene at the rally after shots were fired in the direction of Trump as he was speaking on the rally stage. He said federal and local agencies were working together to interview witnesses and process the crime scene.

BUTLER, Pa. — Former president Donald Trump on Saturday was rushed offstage with blood dripping down his face after a shooting that the authorities called an assassination attempt. One attendee was killed and two others were critically injured at the campaign rally, the Secret Service said, a shocking turn in a tense election season where concerns about violence had already been running high.

During the rally, “a suspected shooter fired multiple shots toward the stage from an elevated position outside of the rally venue,” according to Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi. The suspected shooter is dead, said Guglielmi, who confirmed the other death and injuries.

Trump, in a social media post Saturday night, said he was shot in his upper right ear and offered his thanks to law enforcement. He also extended his condolences to the families of a person who was shot and killed and another who was injured. A campaign spokesman said the former president was taken to a medical facility but is “fine.”

“It is incredible that such an act can take place in our Country,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

The scene unfolded just days before he is set to formally receive the GOP nomination for president at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee — and renewed fears about rising threats of political violence.

At a news conference just before midnight, law enforcement officials said they were still working to determine a motive and were not ready to name the suspect, though they had a tentative identification. FBI special agent Kevin Rojek said investigators consider the shooting an “assassination attempt against our former president Donald Trump.”

Authorities said there would be a lengthy investigation into how the suspect was able to carry out such an attack. Pressed on how the shooter was able to fire multiple times at the venue, Rojek acknowledged: “It is surprising.”

The suspect is a 20-year-old Pennsylvania man, according to a person familiar with the investigation who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss it. The alleged shooter used an AR-15-style semiautomatic rifle to carry out the attack, a U.S. official said, also speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss the early stages of the investigation.

Butler County District Attorney Richard Goldinger said the shooter was on the roof of an office building outside the security perimeter for the event.

Authorities said it was too early to say whether the shooter was acting alone and that they were not ready to release the names of victims, though they said the person killed and the others critically injured were all male adults.

Minutes into his remarks, Trump reached for his right ear and then crouched behind the lectern after the first of several pops, which sent the crowd into a panic. A voice was heard saying, “Get down, get down, get down!” Several more apparent shots followed a couple of seconds later. Audience members screamed, and smoke rose in the air.

Members of Trump’s Secret Service detail rushed in, one yelling, “Hawkeye is here!” as members of the Secret Service’s counterassault team mounted the stage, wearing black tactical gear and pointing rifles at the crowd — trying to give the former president and his detail cover so that agents could rush him to safety.

The crowd roared as Trump and the officers began to maneuver offstage. The former president pumped his fist while walking off with what appeared to be blood dripping down his right ear and streaked across his cheek. A Washington Post photographer observed what appeared to be blood on the riser behind the former president.

Trump’s campaign issued a statement condemning the incident. “President Trump thanks law enforcement and first responders for their quick action during this heinous act. He is fine and is being checked out at a local medical facility,” campaign spokesman Steven Cheung said in the statement. Later in the evening, Trump campaign advisers and Republican Party officials said in a joint statement that Trump looked forward to proceeding with the convention.

At a news conference Saturday evening, President Biden — who was at a church in Delaware during the incident — said he had been briefed and had tried to contact Trump, who he understood to be doing well. “Look, there’s no place in America for this kind of violence. It’s sick,” Biden said. “It’s sick. It’s one of the reasons why we have to unite this country.” Late in the evening, a White House official said Biden and Trump had spoken.

Biden campaign officials said Saturday night that they were working to pull down their television ads as quickly as they could.

Goldinger, the district attorney, said the shooter was on the roof of a nearby office belonging to American Glass Research. William Bellis, chief financial officer at AGR International — which calls American Glass Research a subsidiary and is based in a cluster of buildings closest to the Trump rally — said Saturday night that the company worked with local police beforehand on security concerns. Police blocked off public access to the company’s parking lot, and that space was available for law enforcement use, Bellis said.

Rico Elmore, a former Republican candidate for the Pennsylvania House who spoke ahead of Trump, was feet from the stage when shots rang out. At first, he said it sounded like firecrackers. Elmore, an Air Force guardsman, yelled for people to get down and heard some call for a medic.

About 10 feet from him, to the right of Trump, a man in the audience was bleeding from his head, Elmore said. Before the medical responders could reach the man, Elmore jumped over a barrier and tried to hold the head wound, the blood smearing across Elmore’s white shirt.

“I held his head and keep it in tact but it was just, it was a serious injury,” Elmore said. He didn’t believe the man survived. He said he also saw a woman passed out, but she didn’t appear to be bloodied.

“There was a lot of anger, a lot of fear, a lot of crying. There were a couple people praying,” said Cindy Hildebrand, the chairwoman of the United Republicans of Butler County, who was also at the rally. A woman next to her had a 7-year-old daughter who was up front hanging from a post excited to see Trump. “Now we have a 7-year-old somewhere out there that is just absolutely traumatized.”

As Republicans raised alarms about the vitriol of some opposition to Trump, Hildebrand said her organization received a phone call after the shooting from a woman who said, “He gets what he deserves.”

The crowd evacuated in an orderly manner, some directing anger over what happened at the media. Police told people to leave because the site was an active crime scene.

Dave McCormick, the Republican candidate for Senate in Pennsylvania — who was in the front row — said during an interview on Fox News that he saw a lot of blood and that Trump is “very lucky to be alive.”

Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement that he had been briefed on the shooting and briefed the president. The FBI, ATF, U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Pennsylvania, and the Justice Department’s national security division are working with the Secret Service as other law enforcement agencies, Garland said, adding that “violence like this is an attack on our democracy.”

Pennsylvania Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro said that he was also briefed on the situation and that state police were at the site. “Violence targeted at any political party or political leader is absolutely unacceptable,” Shapiro said in a statement. “It has no place in Pennsylvania or the United States.”

National and world leaders across the political spectrum quickly weighed in with horror at what unfolded and offered well wishes for Trump.

“There is absolutely no place for political violence in our democracy,” former president Barack Obama said in a statement.

“Political violence has no place in our country,” Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) echoed.

Republicans shared images of Trump fist-pumping toward the crowd.

“God protected President Trump,” wrote Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), a vice-presidential contender, in a posting with the picture. Another possible running mate, Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio), also shared the photo.

As information about the violence was just beginning to emerge — with authorities saying little about the details of the incident — some Republicans suggested rhetoric from Democrats was to blame. Rep. Mike Collins (R-Ga.) went further: “Joe Biden sent the orders,” he wrote on X.

There is no evidence that Biden was behind the attack.

Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio), a potential Trump running mate, said in a statement on social media that the shooting was “not just some isolated incident.”

“The central premise of the Biden campaign is that President Donald Trump is an authoritarian fascist who must be stopped at all costs,” Vance wrote. “That rhetoric led directly to President Trump’s attempted assassination.”

Republicans preparing for the convention in Milwaukee gathered around televisions in a hotel lobby after the incident. Charlie Gerow, a Pennsylvania-based GOP strategist, was in the hotel and described an emotional scene with people crossing themselves and looking stunned.

The convention is expected to continue but with additional security, according to an official familiar with the preparations who like others spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private deliberations.

At a moment when threats against elected officials have escalated, presidential historian Tim Naftali said the tone that Trump and other leaders take in the coming days will have an enormous bearing on what happens next.

Describing the country as a “pressure cooker,” Naftali said: “We’ve been turning up the gas — and some kind of political violence seemed increasingly likely.”

“As a country we have been dancing around Pandora’s box,” said Naftali, who teaches presidential studies at Columbia University’s School of International Public Affairs, “and a horrible person today may have opened it.”

Josh Dawsey, Colby Itkowitz, Maeve Reston, Matt Viser, Joyce Lee, Carol D. Leonnig, Perry Stein, Theodoric Meyer, Alex Horton and Shawn Boburg contributed to this report

Law enforcement officials quickly launched an investigation into the Saturday night shooting of Donald Trump as an assassination attempt, offering few details. That did not stop a torrent of unsubstantiated theories from flooding social media and other channels shortly after the event.

Some accounts from the left of the political spectrum immediately claimed that the shooting was a “false flag” operation perpetrated by Trump’s own supporters. Some on the far right accused President Biden of ordering a hit on a political rival.

“Incidents of political violence spawn conspiracy theories and false narratives when people try to spin the event to suit their various agendas,” Megan Squire, deputy director for data analytics at the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Intelligence Project, told The Washington Post. “This incident is no different, with people concocting ‘false flag’ conspiracies and even blaming innocent people for either committing this crime or inspiring it.”

The dynamic is only exacerbated, experts say, by the current political environment where Americans increasingly cannot agree on a common set of facts and exist in alternate — and separate — realities.

Minutes after shots were fired, right-wing social media influencers and elected Republicans began insinuating that powerful figures were responsible, directly or indirectly, for the attempt. Rep. Mike Collins (R-Ga.) posted to X that “Joe Biden sent the orders,” garnering over 4 million views, and later called for Biden to face charges for “inciting an assassination.”

More broadly on social media, a TikTok user who posts under the handle @theoldermillenial.1 told his 1.2 million followers, “I guess because the court cases weren’t going so well, they decided to try a different avenue. Guys, don’t forget, this is what the left is capable of.” Shadow of Ezra, an anonymous conspiracy theorist account on X, wrote that “The Deep State tried to assassinate Donald Trump live on television,” in a post that received over a million views, according to data gathered by Junkipedia, a repository of social media content. A follow-up, describing the shooting as “the price you pay when you take down elite satanic pedophiles,” was viewed more than 2.5 million times.

Many others held Biden, the left wing and the media responsible in spirit for the violence. Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.), whom Trump has mentioned as a possible running mate, said the attempt was “aided and abetted by the radical Left and corporate media.” Nicole Shanahan, the running mate of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and a critic of Trump’s, blamed the “DNC and legacy media” for inciting hysteria, which, she wrote, led to the violence. And Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene wrote on X that Democrats have “wanted Trump gone for years and they’re prepared to do anything to make that happen.”

The word “staged” trended on X in the hours after the shooting, as people online speculated that the scene was fabricated. Thousands of people retweeted unsubstantiated claims that the shots came from a BB gun.

In the heated aftermath, misinformation experts urged the public not to share unconfirmed information online.

“In any fast developing event, there is inevitably a high influx of false or unverified information, especially on social media,” said Graham Brookie, the Atlantic Council’s vice president for technology programs and strategy, in a post on X. “Please exercise empathy and caution as events unfold.”

But far-right channels on encrypted platforms were abuzz with a mixture of shock, rage and conspiracy theories. Triumphant slogans (“You missed!”) and calls for civil war captioned the instantly totemic image of a bloodied but defiant Trump raising a fist with the flag in the background. Without any clear word from authorities on suspects or motives, MAGA extremists instantly embraced the idea of a politically motivated assassination attempt. Disinformation swirled as trolls looked for easy clicks by sharing uncorroborated footage and information about people they claimed to be the assailant.

Some blamed militant antifascists — antifa — while others concocted elaborate explanations involving the Deep State and demons. Several white supremacist accounts held an online discussion on X about how Jews had attempted to assassinate Trump.

“They want a CIVIL WAR. We MUST WIN,” wrote Jackson Lahmeyer, the Oklahoma-based head of the far-right Pastors for Trump group, in an email to subscribers within a couple of hours of the incident.

Pastors for Trump said in the email that the “Deep State FAILED. God’s Hand of Protection is on President Trump.”

Conservative influencer Laura Loomer and radio host Erick Erickson blamed Biden for the shooting, citing his comments days ago to donors that it was time to put Trump “in a bull’s eye.”

The right-wing account Il Donaldo Trumpo posted a photo of John F. Kennedy from the day he was assassinated with the caption, “NOT TODAY, DEEP STATE!!!”

A number of accounts falsely claimed that “antifa extremist Mark Violets” was the shooter at the rally and that he had discussed his plan earlier in a YouTube video. But the video showed the image of a different person who had nothing to do with the shooting.

Internet platforms often struggle to contain viral misinformation about catastrophic events soon after they happen because of the lack of credible information and the time it takes to respond to them, said Katie Harbath, a former Facebook public policy director who is now chief global affairs officer at Duco Experts, a tech consulting firm. “Breaking news situations like this are the hardest for platforms to moderate as facts of what happened are still becoming known and you have to retrain [their algorithms] to look for specific content and let human reviewers know what is or is not okay,” she said.

Among the measures online platforms might be pondering right now include fielding any potential requests from law enforcement for information and looking at images of the shooting to see if any would violate the company’s standards against gruesome content. Policy officials will most likely keep an eye out for information regarding the identity of the shooter in order to lock down his or her account, Harbath added.

AI chatbots had not yet caught up with the events of Saturday night when queried by a Post reporter. Asked whether someone tried to shoot Trump, ChatGPT said “there has not been a recent attempt to shoot” the former president. OpenAI did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Amazon’s Alexa voice assistant had mixed results. It correctly responded to a query about whether Trump was shot by citing a report from Reuters and The Post about the gunfire at the Pennsylvania rally. But when the question was phrased slightly differently, it referenced a 2016 campaign rally event where a man tried to grab a gun from a police officer in an attempt to shoot Trump.

Amazon did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos owns The Washington Post.

As more details about the shooter emerged throughout the evening, seemingly identifying a man who was perched on a rooftop outside the Trump rally, Elon Musk, the billionaire owner of X, posted that either the Secret Service suffered from “extreme incompetence” for allowing him to position himself there or “it was deliberate.”

Paul Penzone (D) the former sheriff of Arizona’s most populous county, Maricopa, where conspiracies and doubts about elections and democratic institutions have flourished in recent years, said that false theories and misinformation significantly affect public emotion and perspective, “and ultimately human behaviors — to the detriment of civil discourse.”

Penzone frequently directed beefed-up security to county officials, election workers and county buildings amid a hostile environment toward public officials in the battleground county. Threats and harassing communications were often traced to conspiracies fueled by misinformation, he added.

Hannah Allam, Yvonne Wingett-Sanchez, Naomi Nix and Susie Webb contributed reporting.

BUTLER, Pa. — Former president Donald Trump on Saturday was rushed offstage with blood dripping down his face after a shooting that the authorities are investigating as an assassination attempt. One attendee was killed and two others were critically injured at the campaign rally, the Secret Service said, a shocking turn in a tense election season where concerns about violence had already been running high.

During the rally, “a suspected shooter fired multiple shots toward the stage from an elevated position outside of the rally venue,” according to Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi. The suspected shooter is dead, said Guglielmi, who confirmed the other death and injuries.

Trump, in a social media post Saturday night, said he was shot in his upper right ear and offered his thanks to law enforcement. He also extended his condolences to the families of a person who was shot and killed and another who was injured. A campaign spokesman said the former president was taken to a medical facility but is “fine.”

“It is incredible that such an act can take place in our Country,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

The scene unfolded just days before he is set to formally receive the GOP nomination for president at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee — and renewed fears about rising threats of political violence.

Butler County District Attorney Richard Goldinger said the shooter was on the roof of an office building outside the security perimeter for the event. The incident is being investigated as an attempted assassination, with the FBI, Secret Service and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives all working on the case, according to two people familiar with the matter.

Minutes into his remarks, Trump reached for his right ear and then crouched behind the lectern after the first of several pops, which sent the crowd into a panic. A voice was heard saying, “Get down, get down, get down!” Several more apparent shots followed a couple of seconds later. Audience members screamed, and smoke rose in the air.

Members of Trump’s Secret Service detail rushed in, one yelling, “Hawkeye is here!” as members of the Secret Service’s counterassault team mounted the stage, wearing black tactical gear and pointing rifles at the crowd — trying to give the former president and his detail cover so that agents could rush him to safety.

The crowd roared as Trump and the officers began to maneuver offstage. The former president pumped his fist while walking off with what appeared to be blood dripping down his right ear and streaked across his cheek. A Washington Post photographer observed what appeared to be blood on the riser behind the former president.

Trump’s campaign issued a statement condemning the incident. “President Trump thanks law enforcement and first responders for their quick action during this heinous act. He is fine and is being checked out at a local medical facility,” campaign spokesman Steven Cheung said in the statement. Later in the evening, Trump campaign advisers and Republican Party officials said in a joint statement that Trump looked forward to proceeding with the convention.

At a news conference Saturday evening, President Biden — who was at a church in Delaware during the incident — said he had been briefed and had tried to contact Trump, who he understood to be doing well. “Look, there’s no place in America for this kind of violence. It’s sick,” Biden said. “It’s sick. It’s one of the reasons why we have to unite this country.” Late in the evening, a White House official said Biden and Trump had spoken.

Biden campaign officials said Saturday night that they were working to pull down their television ads as quickly as they could.

Goldinger, the district attorney, said the shooter was on the roof of a nearby office belonging to American Glass Research. William Bellis, chief financial officer at AGR International — which calls American Glass Research a subsidiary and is based in a cluster of buildings closest to the Trump rally — said Saturday night that the company worked with local police beforehand on security concerns. Police blocked off public access to the company’s parking lot, and that space was available for law enforcement use, Bellis said.

Rico Elmore, a former Republican candidate for the Pennsylvania House who spoke ahead of Trump, was feet from the stage when shots rang out. At first, he said it sounded like firecrackers. Elmore, an Air Force guardsman, yelled for people to get down and heard some call for a medic.

About 10 feet from him, to the right of Trump, a man in the audience was bleeding from his head, Elmore said. Before the medical responders could reach the man, Elmore jumped over a barrier and tried to hold the head wound, the blood smearing across Elmore’s white shirt.

“I held his head and keep it in tact but it was just, it was a serious injury,” Elmore said. He didn’t believe the man survived. He said he also saw a woman passed out, but she didn’t appear to be bloodied.

“There was a lot of anger, a lot of fear, a lot of crying. There were a couple people praying,” said Cindy Hildebrand, the chairwoman of the United Republicans of Butler County, who was also at the rally. A woman next to her had a 7-year-old daughter who was up front hanging from a post excited to see Trump. “Now we have a 7-year-old somewhere out there that is just absolutely traumatized.”

As Republicans raised alarms about the vitriol of some opposition to Trump, Hildebrand said her organization received a phone call after the shooting from a woman who said, “He gets what he deserves.”

The crowd evacuated in an orderly manner, some directing anger over what happened at the media. Police told people to leave because the site was an active crime scene.

Dave McCormick, the Republican candidate for Senate in Pennsylvania — who was in the front row — said during an interview on Fox News that he saw a lot of blood and that Trump is “very lucky to be alive.”

Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement that he had been briefed on the shooting and briefed the president. The FBI, ATF, U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Pennsylvania, and the Justice Department’s national security division are working with the Secret Service as other law enforcement agencies, Garland said, adding that “violence like this is an attack on our democracy.”

Pennsylvania Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro said that he was also briefed on the situation and that state police were at the site. “Violence targeted at any political party or political leader is absolutely unacceptable,” Shapiro said in a statement. “It has no place in Pennsylvania or the United States.”

National and world leaders across the political spectrum quickly weighed in with horror at what unfolded and offered well wishes for Trump.

“There is absolutely no place for political violence in our democracy,” former president Barack Obama said in a statement.

“Political violence has no place in our country,” Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) echoed.

Republicans shared images of Trump fist-pumping toward the crowd.

“God protected President Trump,” wrote Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), a vice-presidential contender, in a posting with the picture. Another possible running mate, Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio), also shared the photo.

As information about the violence was just beginning to emerge — with authorities saying little about the details of the incident — some Republicans suggested rhetoric from Democrats was to blame. Rep. Mike Collins (R-Ga.) went further: “Joe Biden sent the orders,” he wrote on X.

There is no evidence that Biden was behind the attack.

Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio), a potential Trump running mate, said in a statement on social media that the shooting was “not just some isolated incident.”

“The central premise of the Biden campaign is that President Donald Trump is an authoritarian fascist who must be stopped at all costs,” Vance wrote. “That rhetoric led directly to President Trump’s attempted assassination.”

Republicans preparing for the convention in Milwaukee gathered around televisions in a hotel lobby after the incident. Charlie Gerow, a Pennsylvania-based GOP strategist, was in the hotel and described an emotional scene with people crossing themselves and looking stunned.

The convention is expected to continue but with additional security, according to an official familiar with the preparations who like others spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private deliberations.

At a moment when threats against elected officials have escalated, presidential historian Tim Naftali said the tone that Trump and other leaders take in the coming days will have an enormous bearing on what happens next.

Describing the country as a “pressure cooker,” Naftali said: “We’ve been turning up the gas — and some kind of political violence seemed increasingly likely.”

“As a country we have been dancing around Pandora’s box,” said Naftali, who teaches presidential studies at Columbia University’s School of International Public Affairs, “and a horrible person today may have opened it.”

Josh Dawsey, Colby Itkowitz, Maeve Reston, Matt Viser, Joyce Lee, Carol D. Leonnig, Perry Stein, Theodoric Meyer and Shawn Boburg contributed to this report.

Top allies of Donald Trump quickly accused President Biden and his supporters of using rhetoric that led to a shooting and potential assassination attempt Saturday at a Trump campaign rally in Butler, Pa., even as Biden condemned the attack and called on the nation to unite against political violence.

Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio), a potential Trump running mate, said in a statement on social media that the shooting was “not just some isolated incident.”

“The central premise of the Biden campaign is that President Donald Trump is an authoritarian fascist who must be stopped at all costs,” Vance wrote. “That rhetoric led directly to President Trump’s attempted assassination.”

At the time of that statement, there was no public reporting on the motives of the shooter. Trump said he was wounded in his ear at the event, and was rushed from the scene. His campaign released a statement saying “he is fine,” while being checked out at a nearby medical facility.

Chris LaCivita, a top adviser to Trump’s campaign, posted on social media a sentiment similar to Vance’s, blaming the attack on efforts by Trump’s political enemies to disrupt his candidacy. “[W]ell of course they tried to keep him off the ballot, they tried to put him in jail and now you see this …” LaCivita wrote on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, before later deleting the post.

LaCivita’s message pointed to words Biden had used earlier in the week when he told a group of donors about shifting his campaign to attack Trump’s policy record, including his record on abortion and Project 2025, a policy document drafted by some former Trump advisers. “So, we’re done talking about the debate, it’s time to put Trump in a bull’s eye,” Biden had told donors in the private call, which was reported publicly.

After deleting the X post, LaCivita reiterated in a text message to The Washington Post that he doesn’t think Biden “or anyone else” should use words like that.

“For weeks, leftist activists, Democrat donors and now even the president of the United States have made disgusting remarks,” LaCivita wrote. “It’s high time they be held accountable for it.”

“The best way is through the ballot box,” he added. He later posted a similar message on X.

Trump himself often uses inflammatory language, having taken office in 2021 by describing the state of the nation as “American carnage.” He has since called his political enemies “vermin,” described some undocumented migrants as “animals” and warned of a “bloodbath” if he fails to win in November.

Biden announced his 2020 campaign for the presidency by explaining he was motivated by the need to quell the division in the country and prevent the sort of deadly violence that had occurred at a 2017 white nationalist protest in Charlottesville.

“Look, there’s no place for this kind of violence in America. It’s sick. It’s sick. It’s one of the reasons we have to unite this country,” Biden said in remarks at the Rehoboth Beach, Del., police department Saturday. “We cannot be like this.”

The shooting Saturday was universally condemned by political leaders, with former president Barack Obama (D), Vice President Harris (D), Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.), Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and many others releasing statements condemning the violence.

“As one whose family has been the victim of political violence, I know firsthand that political violence of any kind has no place in our society,” former House speaker and member of Congress Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said in a statement. “I thank God that former President Trump is safe.”

Pelosi’s husband, Paul, was attacked in his home by a hammer-wielding assailant in an act of political violence. Last year, at an event in California, Trump made light of that attack. “How’s her husband doing by the way? Does anyone know?” he said to laughs, in reference to Paul Pelosi’s injuries from the attacks.

Other Trump supporters were quick to blame Biden and the media for the shooting Saturday, despite a lack of information about the shooter’s motives.

Rep. Mike Collins (R-Ga.) pointed to the “bull’s eye” comment by Biden earlier in the week.

“Joe Biden sent the orders,” Collins wrote on X. He later added, “The Republican District Attorney in Butler County, Pa., should immediately file charges against Joe Biden for inciting an assassination.”

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) was also quick to place blame. “The Democrats and the media are to blame for every drop of blood spilled today,” Greene wrote on social media. “For years and years, they’ve demonized him and his supporters.”

Greene lost her House committee assignments in 2021 after social media posts from before her time in Congress surfaced that indicated that she had supported political violence. She had liked a post that suggested shooting prominent Democratic leaders and responded approvingly to a commenter who suggested hanging Obama and former secretary of state Hillary Clinton.

She later told the House that her past comments “do not represent me,” and that she had been misled by online communities before winning office.

As the news spread of the shooting at Trump’s rally in Pennsylvania, Ron Kaufman, a Republican National Committee delegate from Massachusetts, described the mood in Milwaukee, where Republicans were gathering for next week’s nominating convention, as one of “shock and disbelief.”

“There’s a feeling,” Kaufman wrote in a text message, “that the Democrats’ constant pounding on President Trump as ‘a threat to democracy’ leads to this.’”

Maeve Reston contributed to this report.

BUTLER, Pa. — The gunshots were high-pitched pops, slight and hollow in the open air.

Donald Trump, the former president set to accept the Republican nomination in five days, was less than 10 minutes into his speech here to a crowd of tens of thousands. A miles-long line of cars crawled for hours to pass through metal detectors and bag inspections, just like any Trump event, until these green fairgrounds became a sea of red hats.

Trump was almost an hour late, and his supporters waited impatiently under the blazing sun and thumping music. In the middle of the crowd, opposite the stage, a platform of TV cameras pointed at the podium, with reporters huddled underneath for shade.

Finally Trump walked out, as usual, to chants of “USA” and marveled: “This is a big crowd. This is a big, big, beautiful crowd.” A bright red MAGA cap shaded his eyes, and his white shirt was open-collared in the heat as he leaned his arms on the lectern.

He launched into his stump speech but quickly got bored with the prepared script. He offered to invite the Republican Senate candidate, Dave McCormick, to speak, but McCormick wasn’t ready.

“You don’t mind if I go off teleprompter, do you?” Trump teased. “Because these teleprompters are so damn boring.” He asked to show “that chart that I love so much,” showing border crossings across his and Joe Biden’s presidencies, and acted amazed that his producers obliged, projecting it onto the giant screens to either side. “Wow, you guys are getting better with time.”

He was pointing to one of the screens, narrating the increase in immigration since he left office in 2021. “Look what happened to our country!”

The pops came in pairs, a burst of five or six total. Trump swatted his ear, as if he heard a mosquito. Then he hunched his shoulders and ducked.

“Get down, get down, get down!” Secret Service agents shouted as they rushed up onto the stage and surrounded him. The crowd screamed. Another burst of popping noises. More screaming. The people in the bleachers behind Trump shuffled, unsure about where to go. The people in chairs or standing crouched or fell to the ground. A dense cloud of smoke hung to the right of the stage, then dispersed quickly.

One more solitary shot.

More suited Secret Service agents rushed the stage, then black-clad men wearing body armor and helmets, and carrying assault rifles. The crowd shouted in confusion.

“Are we good?” one of the officers said, audible from the podium microphone.

“Shooter’s down,” another answered.

“We’re good to move.”

“Are we clear?”

“We’re clear!”

“Let me get my shoes on,” Trump said, as the agents lifted him.

“I got you, sir.”

“Hold on, your head is bloody.”

“Let me get my shoes on,” he said again, as the agents formed a ring around him.

The crowd, seeing him standing, started to cheer.

“Wait,” Trump said, and thrust up a fist. “Fight!” he said. “Fight!”

Then the people roared and chanted again: “USA!”

“We gotta move,” an agent said. Leaning on the agents for assistance, Trump kept his fist raised as he hobbled off the stage, down the stairs and into his black SUV. One black dress shoe remained on the red-carpeted stage.

Officers — Secret Service, county sheriff’s deputies, state troopers, U.S. Department of Homeland Security — started telling the crowd to evacuate, calling the site an active crime scene. The rallygoers walked out, calling and texting family and friends and recording videos. People were shocked but calm.

As people passed the press risers elevating the cameras, some took out their anger on the media.

“You’re not safe. It’s your fault.”

“You wanted political violence, now you got it. Hope you’re all f—ing happy.”

“The shot heard ’round the world.”

“The liberal media is responsible!”

“Every f—ing one of y’all!”

Others sought out the cameras to offer eyewitness accounts, but they were jumbled and sometimes contradictory amid the panic.

The crowd trudged glumly to the parking lot, a few stopping for a last-minute hot dog or snow cone.

A man with a cane cowered behind the bathrooms, vomiting.

They walked to their cars past Trump flags streaming in the wind over a long row of vendors selling MAGA hats and mug shot T-shirts and Trump keychains and vulgar bumper stickers and Trump visors topped with bright orange fake hair.

A man with a bullhorn wearing a homemade “JAN 6 SURVIVOR” shirt called on people to march on Main Street, “peacefully and patriotically,” echoing Trump’s speech on the Ellipse on Jan. 6, 2021. Most everyone ignored him. One young man accused him of being an undercover federal agent and told him to shut up.

They left behind a field strewn with empty plastic water bottles. A giant American flag hoisted from two cranes flapped high above the empty white bleachers bordered with red, white and blue bunting.

A shooting at former president Donald Trump’s campaign rally Saturday evening — which is being investigated as an assassination attempt — upended the already dark and tumultuous race for the White House.

Trump’s campaign said he still plans to attend the Republican National Convention, which is scheduled to begin in Milwaukee on Monday. But the shooting is sure to shift the messaging and tenor — not to mention the security — of the massive gathering where the former president is expected to announce his running mate and try to unify his party and the nation behind his vision of grievance and retribution.

President Biden, speaking from Rehoboth Beach, Del., condemned the shooting. Biden’s campaign, meanwhile, announced it was pausing its communication and pulling down all television ads as quickly as possible.

“There is no place in America for this kind of violence,” Biden said in remarks from the Rehoboth Beach police department. “It’s sick. … It cannot be like this. We cannot condone this.”

Trump had been speaking for less than 10 minutes in Butler, Pa., when several loud pops rang out and the former president put his hand to his right ear, the upper part of which had been pierced by a bullet, he later said on social media. As Secret Service agents encircled the former president, Trump raised his right fist defiantly and scowled, mouthing: “Fight. Fight. Fight.”

Several images of the moment — including one with a blood-streaked Trump in the shadow of an American flag — are already ricocheting around social media, all but certain to prove iconic. Several Republican lawmakers simply posted the photos without any words.

The U.S. Secret Service announced that a suspected shooter had been killed.

The shooter’s motives were unknown late Saturday. But the shooting — whose shock waves are still rippling outward — is certain to scramble the presidential contest, which was already plunged into turmoil just over two weeks ago, when Biden’s halting debate performance raised questions about his age and ability to run a vigorous campaign.

Trump is often most comfortable — and most effective — when playing both martyr and victim, and Saturday’s shooting naturally thrusts him back into that role. Trump immediately put out a statement thanking the Secret Service and law enforcement, expressing his condolences to the other victims and offering a dramatic recounting of the moment.

“I was shot with a bullet that pierced the upper part of my right ear,” he wrote. “I knew immediately that something was wrong in that I heard a whizzing sound, shots, and immediately felt the bullet ripping through the skin. Much bleeding took place, so I realized then what was happening. GOD BLESS AMERICA!”

The images of Trump in the immediate aftermath of the shooting are likely to become iconic, said Douglas Brinkley, a presidential historian at Rice University.

“There’s something in the American spirit that likes seeing fortitude and courage under pressure and the fact that Trump held his fist up high will become a new symbol,” Brinkley said. “By surviving an attempted assassination, you become a martyr, because you get a groundswell of public sympathy.”

The violence, at least for the moment, seemed to overtake the previously dominant narrative of the campaign: the Democratic disarray following Biden’s debate performance and many Democrats’ desire that he step aside for a younger candidate.

But it also likely complicates Biden and his team’s calculations going forward. Speaking to donors Monday on a private phone call, Biden said it was time to train his focus on Trump.

“I have one job, and that’s to beat Donald Trump,” he said. “I’m absolutely certain I’m the best person to be able to do that. So, we’re done talking about the debate, it’s time to put Trump in a bull’s eye.”

Trump had yet to be discharged from the hospital when Republicans began saying that Biden’s rhetoric had led to Saturday’s violence.

Rep. Mike Collins (R-Ga.) pointed to Biden’s remarks — specifically about putting Trump in the bull’s eye — and blamed Biden for the violence.

“Joe Biden sent the orders,” Collins wrote on social media Saturday night, shortly after the shooting.

The America First Policy Institute, a key outside group that seeks to elevate the policies embraced by Trump, held a virtual prayer vigil at 9 p.m. Saturday night. Religious leaders offered prayers. One said that there was no question that God had intervened to spare Trump’s life. Another thanked God that Melania Trump is not a widow.

As he led a prayer on behalf of the rally attendee who lost their life, Frank Pavone, the national director of Priests for Life, spoke of the attack on Trump as an attack on “all of us,” echoing Trump’s routine claims of martyrdom.

“We recall the words that President Trump always says to us: It’s not that they are coming after him,” Pavone said. “They are coming after us — all of us — he’s just standing in the way.”

Brinkley said that the timing of the shooting — on the eve of the Republican convention in Milwaukee — underscores similarities between Trump and former president Theodore Roosevelt, who in 1912 was seeking to return to the presidency, and was shot while campaigning in Milwaukee.

Brinkley said that Roosevelt, who was shot in the chest, declared, “It takes more than a bullet to kill a Bull Moose” and “kept on speaking, delivering a stemwinder before he went to the hospital.”

“The timing of Trump, going to Milwaukee, where Theodore Roosevelt was shot — Trump has the biggest possible stage,” Brinkley said.

Steve Schmidt, a former Republican strategist and prominent Trump critic, agreed.

“The political consequences of this assassination attempt will be immense, and they will benefit Donald Trump, who just responded to being shot in the exact same way that Teddy Roosevelt did,” Schmidt wrote on social media.

Isaac Arnsdorf, Maeve Reston and Michael Scherer contributed to this report.

President Biden met with key Democrats on Saturday afternoon to urge them to back his reelection efforts, but some lawmakers came away from the meetings frustrated that the president did not directly answer some of their questions, according to several lawmakers on the calls.

Rep. Jared Huffman (D-Calif.), a member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus who was on the group’s virtual call with Biden, said he asked the president if he’d be willing to convene with several top Democrats, like former presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (N.Y.), Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (N.Y.) and former Rep. Nancy Pelosi (Calif.). If those leaders suggested that Biden should “pass the torch” in “the interest of saving democracy,” Huffman asked, would the president do it?

“He didn’t really give much of an answer,” Huffman said. “He frankly left me a little bit unsure of whether he continues to have an open mind about a course correction and whether we run a winning trajectory, or whether he has closed off any further consideration of it.”

Huffman said he was also able to ask the president if his own “feistiness and tenacity along with his close circle of advisers and family were maybe preventing him from objectively assessing the damage from the debate.”

“He obviously doesn’t think so,” Huffman said of the president’s response.

Democrats are facing an increasingly perilous situation as lawmakers continue to fret publicly and privately that Biden cannot defeat presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump, who they say would be catastrophic and a threat to democracy. In the face of that opposition, Biden delivered a fiery speech at a campaign rally in Detroit on Friday evening, doubling down on his commitment to continuing his campaign.

Biden also met virtually on Saturday with members of the New Democrat Coalition, according to the Biden-Harris campaign. The group represents almost 100 House Democrats who range from the liberal and moderate wings of the caucus and are often most likely to work across the aisle in negotiations. The meeting is significant since most of the 21 House Democrats who have come out publicly against Biden are part of the group. The president joined both meetings from his beach house in Rehoboth Beach, Del., where he is spending the weekend before he departs for a trip to Texas and Nevada on Monday.

During the 45-minute call with New Democrats, Biden opened with brief, seemingly scripted remarks acknowledging peoples’ concerns, according to two people familiar with the call. Reps. Marc Veasey (D-Tex.), Jason Crow (D-Colo.) and Chrissy Houlahan (D-Pa.) asked questions, all three challenging him to address issues about worsening polls showing Democratic candidates being dragged down by the president. They also expressed concerns about his abilities, the two people familiar said.

Crow asked Biden to address voters’ worries about reports that he told a group of Democratic governors that he needed to get more sleep and stop scheduling events past 8 p.m., which he argued could be a national security threat, according to the two people. Biden responded with disbelief that a lawmaker would challenge him on his national security credentials given his many years of experience and work on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, one of the people said. These people spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the private calls.

Biden also told members, many of whom are in tough races, that he understood if they needed to break with him to win their elections. Several members felt the president did not directly answer their questions.

Rep. Ann Kuster (D-N.H.), the chair of the New Democrat Coalition, said in a statement members had “a candid, respectful and productive conversation with the President about how to win over disaffected voters and boost turn out in swing districts.”

“Moving forward we expect President Biden to do everything in his power to demonstrate to the American people that Democrats will keep the White House and flip the House in November,” Kuster said.

Schumer also met in person with Biden on Saturday in Rehoboth Beach. “I sat with President Biden this afternoon in Delaware; we had a good meeting,” he said in a statement.

The Congressional Progressive Caucus remains split on supporting Biden, similar to the other factions. But Biden has a key group of support within the CPC: members of the progressive “Squad,” including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (N.Y.), who believe Democrats should rally around Biden to not lose sight of what they say is the threat of Trump.

One influential member of the CPC, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), strongly endorsed Biden’s reelection bid in an op-ed published online Saturday in the New York Times. Sanders urged his fellow liberals to “learn a lesson from the progressive and centrist forces in France who, despite profound political differences, came together this week to soundly defeat right-wing extremism.”

Biden met with the Congressional Black Caucus on Monday night and the campaign arm of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus on Friday to try to shore up support from key Democratic constituencies.

The president in recent days has tried to address concerns about his physical and mental fitness head-on.

During a stop to visit campaign organizers in a Detroit suburb on Friday, he told supporters, “I promise I’m okay.” He held a rare solo news conference on Thursday and took questions from reporters for an hour in an effort to prove he could handle unscripted settings. He demonstrated the depth of his foreign policy knowledge but had a few verbal stumbles.

But Biden was perhaps most impassioned during a campaign rally in Michigan on Friday, where he addressed a crowd of more than 2,000 energetic supporters who chanted “don’t you quit” and “we’ve got your back.” He delivered his most forceful defense yet of his candidacy there, where he charged that Trump was getting a “free pass” and unspooled a list of factors he said disqualified Trump from serving as president again.

Biden accused journalists and pundits of fixating on his verbal slip-ups while ignoring Trump’s criminal conviction and the accusations of sexual assault and rape against him.

“Mr. Trump raped her,” Biden, emphasizing the word “raped” as he read from a judge’s ruling in a case in which Trump was found civilly liable of defaming writer E. Jean Carroll after she accused him of assaulting her years ago. “Many people understand the word ‘rape.’”

Democrats have feverishly debated whether Biden should stay in the presidential race — now less than four months away — as time quickly runs out to replace him with another candidate if he were to step aside. Concerns about Biden’s mental acuity and physical stamina were brought to the forefront after his June 27 debate performance, in which he struggled to complete thoughts and finish sentences.

Many Democrats fear that Biden cannot beat Trump but have not publicly come forward, and time is quickly running out to put a new candidate, such as Harris, at the top of the ticket.

Over the past week, Harris has made several public appearances before influential groups of Black women to mobilize behind the Biden-Harris ticket and leading various campaign rallies. But she has been deliberate in not mentioning the rising chorus of complaints against Biden’s efforts to stay in the race.

Biden, for his part, has insisted at every turn he will not step aside. At the Detroit rally on Friday, he reiterated that Democratic primary voters had chosen him and complained that “elites” were trying to undo their will.

“You’ve probably noticed there’s been a lot of speculation lately: ‘What’s Joe Biden going to do? Is he going to stay in the race? He’s going to drop out,’” Biden said. “Here’s my answer: I am running, and we’re going to win.”

Marianna Sotomayor contributed to this report.