Elon Musk revealed on Thursday night that he will be present at Donald Trump’s rally on Saturday in Butler, Pennsylvania, which is the location of the former president’s first assassination attempt in July.
“I will be there to support!” Musk wrote in response to Trump’s post on X, two minutes after it was posted. Trump teased that the second Butler rally will be “historic.
Following the July 13 assassination attempt by 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, who hit Trump in the right ear with eight gunshots fired into the crowd, the CEO of Tesla and owner of X backed the former president.
Later on that day, Musk referred to Trump as “tough” after witnessing the Republican nominee raise his fist in the air while being brought by Secret Service escort off the platform.
Given that Musk formerly supported Democrats before endorsing Trump, his endorsement was noteworthy. The billionaire hinted at a last-minute presidential endorsement in March when he declared he was “leaning away from Biden.” Musk is now firmly in favor of Trump running for reelection.
Musk’s visit to Butler was not made public. However, the Secret Service has stated that it will be on high alert and collaborate with local and state law enforcement to enhance security for the much-anticipated event.
The federal agency “has made comprehensive changes and enhancements to our communications capabilities, resourcing, and protective operations,” Secret Service chief of communications Anthony Guglielmi told a Pittsburgh ABC affiliate.
We are coordinating closely with the Pennsylvania State Police as well as local law enforcement in and around Butler Township. We are also leveraging other federal security resources to expand personnel and technology,” Guglielmi said, without providing details on the security enhancements.
At the same location as the first Butler rally, Trump’s campaign event will take place at the Butler Farm Show grounds.
Leslie Osche, the chairwoman of the Butler County Commissioners, expressed her “confidence” in the heightened security.
Trump has been most closely aligned with billionaire businessman Elon Musk throughout his 2024 campaign, and now a Musk-backed organization is in charge of running the former president’s ground operations in the seven battleground states that will likely determine who will occupy the White House in January.
Trump’s “wider ground game operation in crucial battleground states is now largely outsourced to America Pac, the political action committee backed by” Musk, The Guardian reported, citing multiple sources.
The Trump campaign initially anticipated having multiple PACs engaged in get-out-the-vote efforts. However, with just six weeks until the election, only America PAC has a significant presence, employing 300 to 400 paid and part-time individuals to knock on doors in each of the seven battleground states, according to sources who spoke with the outlet.
America PAC is also the only organization—whether affiliated with the Trump campaign or not—that aims to conduct three “passes” of homes belonging to likely Trump voters in every battleground state before Election Day.
Turning Point Action, led by Charlie Kirk and supported by the Trump campaign, has a smaller footprint, operating in Arizona, Wisconsin, and two specific districts in Michigan and Nevada, after removing Georgia from its initial list.
As a result, America PAC now represents a significant portion of the essential but often overlooked work of door-knocking and canvassing Trump voters in battleground states to encourage them to return their ballots, The Guardian reported.
The effort to bring on the Musk-backed PAC hasn’t been without problems, however. Last week, America Pac fired the company it had retained in Arizona and Nevada to do door-knocking and canvassing.
The decision to terminate the September Group had detrimental effects for Trump, as America PAC lost several days of canvassing while searching for a replacement company and also lost some of the approximately 300 individuals they had hired in each state.
The Trump campaign denied having a reliance on America PAC, stating that it had more than 27,000 volunteers working as Trump 47 Captains, a program allows dedicated Trump supporters to receive exclusive MAGA merchandise as they help increase voter registrations.
“Team Trump has hundreds of staff and offices mobilizing hundreds of thousands of volunteers across the country. That’s why everyone wants to take credit for our groundbreaking, data-enhanced, people-powered operation,” Karoline Leavitt, a Trump spokesperson, said in a statement.
The America PAC ground game operation was slow to start after abandoning its initial plans, only ramping up its hiring efforts last month.
However, it has since grown significantly, the outlet reported. By partnering with canvassing vendors in each battleground state, America PAC’s operation now includes hundreds of paid and part-time employees engaging in an unusually aggressive get-out-the-vote effort, according to sources who spoke to The Guardian.
