One year after a would-be assassin’s bullet grazed President Donald Trump at a Pennsylvania rally, supporters are marking the day as a miracle, while critics say the nation is still reckoning with how it happened.
The July 13, 2024, shooting in Butler killed 50-year-old firefighter Corey Comperatore and wounded two others. Trump, then the Republican nominee, was struck in the ear as he stood onstage. His bloodied image, fist raised as Secret Service agents rushed him away, became a symbol of survival and, for many, divine intervention.
One of his biggest supporters Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene has said multiple times that Trump should not have survived, but he did because “God protected him.”
If President Trump had been tragically assassinated one year ago today in Butler, Pennsylvania, we would not be seeing the fulfillment of these extraordinary policies.
Thankfully God spared President Trump from the assassin’s bullets! 🙏 pic.twitter.com/9FefhFx7JG
— Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene🇺🇸 (@RepMTG) July 13, 2025
That belief has become widespread among Trump’s base and helped fuel his return to the White House. At rallies, supporters often reference “God’s hand” and treat the near-miss as a sign of destiny.
Trump himself has leaned into that framing, calling the day “a turning point” and frequently invoking faith and providence in speeches. “I believe I was spared for a reason,” he said last month.
Behind the symbolism, though, questions remain. A sweeping Secret Service review identified 46 failures including ignored rooftop threats and communication breakdowns. Six agents were suspended, the director resigned, and half of the recommended reforms have been implemented.
Comperatore’s widow, Helen, has publicly blasted the agency’s performance, calling it “garbage.” “My husband did everything right,” she said. “They didn’t.”
According to The Washington Post, Aaron Zaliponi, a local SWAT officer and Army veteran, says he fired the “ninth shot” from approximately 115 yards away, striking the gunman’s rifle and halting the attack. “I just got you,” Zaliponi recalled, convinced his shot hit the rifle and caused the shooter to stop firing.
Further reporting notes that while no forensic evidence definitively confirms a hit, congressional investigators and local officials “acknowledge his action may have saved lives.” Meanwhile, President Trump has praised Zaliponi as “a patriot who may have saved many lives,” according to a White House spokesperson .
In Butler, residents held a moment of silence Saturday at a memorial for Comperatore. For them and the nation, the day remains a flashpoint of grief, resilience, and what might have been.
