Around 6 p.m. on July 13, former President Donald Trump took the stage at his rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. The crowd of thousands, many of whom awaited Trump’s arrival for several hours in the humid midsummer sun, erupted in a “USA, USA” chant. Through a sea of phones, signs and flags, Josh Minsky said he saw the former president in person for the first time.
“This is the guy that I’m willing to put in hours, days of my life probably into his campaign. He’ll never know my name, but I will do it for him because I do believe in the governing philosophy that he has,” Minsky, a senior neuroscience major, said. “It gives you hope again, like all of this is real, like this is a real movement and it’s pretty incredible.”
Having settled into the crowd hours earlier, Minsky was eager to see the former president. But about ten minutes into the moment he had been waiting for, Minsky said he heard “popping sounds.”
“It just sort of catches your ear,” Minsky said. “It was really when people start screaming, ‘He’s been hit, someone’s been hit’ that I’m like ‘Oh shit.’”
The popping sounds Minsky heard were gunshots, and one bullet hit Trump in his right ear. The FBI is currently investigating the incident as an attempted assassination. Minsky, president of the College Republicans at Pitt, was a volunteer at the rally and watched the day unfold.
Amid crowd screams of “Call a medic,” “There’s blood everywhere” and the sound of gunshots from nearby armed officers, Minsky said he and his friend, who he came to the rally with, dropped to the floor and laid flat on the wet grass. Minsky remembers speaking to his friend on the ground while uncertainty filled the air around them.
“We’re like, ‘What the hell, this is insane,’” Minsky said. “There’s cheering and people are getting rushed out, but I was just looking around and seeing everything. Some of the people are standing up screaming to get [the shooter], some of them are cheering for Trump, some people are just cowering on the ground.”
After a few minutes, Minsky said they stood up and followed the mass exodus of attendees walking back to their cars. When he rose off the ground, Minsky said he saw EMTs tending to a man about five feet away from him. He believed the man he saw was Corey Comperatore, a 50-year-old former fire chief who was shot and killed at the rally.
“There’s someone dead feet away from me. There’s people crying, I mean someone got murdered in front of us,” Minsky said. “It was a guy. He looked bald to me, but he was covered in blood [so] I really couldn’t tell.”
When Minsky received an invitation to volunteer as part of the event staff a week before the Butler rally, he accepted and said he saw the opportunity as a “once-in-a-lifetime experience.”
“I have never been to a Trump rally and this might be my last opportunity to go because, come December, [the rallies] are gone, whether he wins or loses,” Minsky said. “So it was a really special thing, I really wanted to go because of that. Just to experience it one time.”
The morning of the rally, Minsky said he carpooled with a friend to make the hour-long drive. Wearing a gray polo, khakis, tennis shoes and a MAGA hat, Minsky said the two were feeling “excited.”
“We were just talking about what we were going to see at the rally,” Minsky said. “We were volunteering there so [we were wondering] are we going to meet Trump? Who are we going to see? Who are we going to be stationed with? What’s this going to be like? A lot of questions are buzzing through your head when you’re doing something like this.”
When they arrived, Minsky’s friend parked his car in a dirt lot and hopped out. Although it was “the middle of nowhere” and he didn’t have an internet connection, he described the atmosphere as “very familial.”
“The second you pull in, there’s vendors, food and everyone is excited. Everyone’s windows are painted. It’s kind of like you’re in your senior year of high school and everyone paints their cars. The word ‘Trump’ is everywhere,” Minsky said. “I’ve never experienced such passion for Trump. You see it online, but in person is very different.”
Minsky noted, however, that the police presence felt light.
“There’s one volunteer directing traffic. I talked with him afterward and he wasn’t even a volunteer. He just took initiative to direct traffic because no one was doing it,” Minsky said. “It was very hectic, and there were no police. This is something I really sensed. There were very little police in the entire area.”
Walking past the vendors, Minsky remembered the air smelling of “fair food” like corn dogs and lemonade. He said he handed out water and socialized with rally-goers before meeting with his volunteer coordinator and beginning his work — verifying wristbands for front-row seating.
“I was one of the first ones there. I was right next to the stage, [about] a 30-second walk from the stage. I was letting all of the VIP candidates sit down,” Minsky said. “It’s easier said than done, because it’s good for like the first 30 minutes and then thousands of people start pouring in, and it’s 90 degrees and everyone wants to sit down.”
After his row of guests was seated, Minsky said he and his friend took their place in the audience. They stood next to a set of risers near “military police,” according to Minsky, waiting through the afternoon among other cramped attendees.
Back in Pittsburgh, Mary Boyd, communications director for the College Democrats at Pitt, was downtown eating dinner with her friends when she said she saw the news of the shooting
“We’re just talking over dinner and they actually had CNN playing anyway, so the Trump rally was on the screen during the whole time we were there,” Boyd, a junior political science and communication major, said. “All of a sudden, I look up at the screen, it’s right in front of me, and I see ‘Trump shot at rally’ and I was like, ‘Oh my God guys, do you see this?’”
Boyd said she was additionally shocked that the shooting took place in Butler, where she has family and visited a week before the shooting.
“You drive through Butler and you see Trump signs everywhere,” Boyd said. “Given the political positionality of Butler, I think I was just most shocked that it would happen there of all places.”
As he left the rally and made his way to the parking lot, Minsky said he saw abandoned vendor booths and overheard numerous rumors about what just occurred.
“I talked to a lot of people walking to the car because everyone had different things that they were saying, but generally, everyone was in shock,” Minsky said. “No one really knew at the time. We have no internet.”
Although he couldn’t send texts, Minsky said he was able to receive messages from family and friends.
“We’re really just trying to get in contact with our family. We’re on our phones trying to tell them that we’re okay,” Minsky said. “I knew they were worried, I just couldn’t say anything.”
When they entered their car, Minsky said he and his friend mostly reflected in silence.
“The one thing I do remember [talking about] was, ‘That was so close to us.’ We could have been hit,” Minsky said. “We could not have ran, there [was] nowhere to go. It was pretty crazy. It’s just a helpless feeling.”
After leaving the parking lot, Minsky said he regained internet connection and was able to see the news that Trump was shot. While his friend was on the phone with their mom and girlfriend, Minsky said he sat silently, staring out the car window.
“This is such a historical event,” Minsky said. “I mean, we witnessed something crazy, probably one of the craziest things in the 21st century. No one’s ever going to forget this, and we saw [it].”
When reflecting on what this event means for the country, Boyd said she saw the possibility of more political violence in the future as “frightening.”
“The fact that something like this hasn’t happened in so long I think speaks volumes to our current state of politics and the current state of the country today,” Boyd said. “I think this event has really brought to everyone’s attention how intense and polarized politics has gotten in the past couple years.”
Minsky said he believes politicians have “divided” Americans and need to stop engaging in “fearmongering.”
“People should just vote how they want to vote, and that mindset needs to come back,” Minsky said. “The country cannot stand for this. It physically cannot. We are more divided than ever, and that’s what I took away from this.”
In the aftermath of the shooting, Governor Josh Shapiro released a series of tweets addressing the situation.
“As we wait to learn more from the investigations, I am mindful of just how painful and shocking this event is to so many of our fellow Pennsylvanians,” Shapiro said. “Violence targeted at any political party or political leader is absolutely unacceptable.
A joint statement on social media from Pitt College Democrats and Republicans condemned political violence and encouraged “positive forms of civic engagement.”
“Our hearts go out to the families of the victims and all others affected by the shooting, especially members of our Pitt community who were in attendance,” the statement read. “As we campaign in the fall, we will do so in a way that is constructive and furthers the interests of our fellow citizens and classmates. What we all say and do in the next few months matters. Real violence or the threat of it and hostility towards the other side have absolutely no place at Pitt, Pennsylvania, or the nation.”
When he returned home from the rally at around 8:30 p.m., Minsky said he felt exhausted. That night, he said he had dreams reliving the experience.
“Being on the ground when there’s gunshots replays in my head. It still does,” Minsky said. “It’s hard for me to focus on work when I keep thinking about it.”
Although it was his first Trump rally, Minsky said he and his friend agreed they both weren’t likely to attend another.
“I think we’ve had enough Trump rallies for a lifetime,” Minsky said.