Trump, urging unity after shooting, heads to GOP convention after night in N.J.

A motorcade left Trump’s golf club and residence in Bedminster, N.J., late Thursday afternoon and drove toward Newark Liberty International Airport, where Trump’s plane awaited.

“President Trump is on his way to Milwaukee,” Dan Scavino, a Trump adviser, wrote on X on Sunday afternoon. “Wheels up to the Great State of Wisconsin!”

Trump has not made any public remarks since the Secret Service rushed him offstage shortly after shots were fired at his rally in Butler, Pa., around 6:12 p.m. on Saturday. But he’s posted on social media and said earlier that he looked forward to addressing the country from Wisconsin, where he is set to formally receive the GOP nomination for president this week. His latest social media post echoes statements from campaign officials that the Republican National Convention, slated to begin Monday, will go on as planned.

Trump’s plane arrived at Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey early Sunday after the shooting, according to flight records. In Bedminster, N.J., police guarded the entrance to his golf club and residence, prohibiting any vehicle from idling anywhere near the gate. The officers directed press to the parking lot of a library nearly four miles from the entrance of Trump National Golf Club Bedminster.

A driver in a red convertible with its top down and a pair of American flags perched on top of it cruised by and honked at the scattering of media.

The FBI is investigating the Saturday evening shooting at Trump’s campaign rally as an assassination attempt and have identified the suspected gunman as 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks of Bethel Park, Pa. Trump said he was struck in his right ear, and officials said one attendee was killed and two others were critically injured.

Trump’s campaign increased security Saturday night, and political leaders urged each other to dial back heated political rhetoric. Top Trump advisers told staffers to stay away from the campaign’s offices in Washington and West Palm Beach on Sunday as security at those locations was assessed.

“We are enhancing the armed security presence with 24/7 officers on-site. Additional security assessments will be in place,” Trump campaign advisers Chris LaCivita and Susie Wiles wrote in a joint memo obtained by The Washington Post and first reported by Politico.

“We also urge you to recognize the political polarization in this heated election,” they added. “If something looks or feels off, please flag it immediately for leadership or an on-site security team.”

LaCivita and Wiles also advised staffers not to comment publicly on the shooting and said the Republican convention would “continue as planned.”

Authorities said they cannot yet speak to the shooter’s motive. As they raced to learn more, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said that Congress would investigate any potential lapses in security that allowed the attack.

“In the meantime, we’ve got to turn the rhetoric down,” Johnson urged on NBC’s “Today” show on what he called a “surreal” morning. Like other Republicans, Johnson noted President Biden’s recent call to put Trump in a “bull’s eye” — saying he knows that Biden “didn’t mean what is being implied there” but also believes “that kind of language on either side should be called out.”

“So, we’re done talking about the debate, it’s time to put Trump in a bull’s eye,” Biden had told donors.

Leaders across the political spectrum, including Biden, condemned the rally shooting. Biden’s campaign rushed to take down its television ads afterward.

Trump’s defiant response to the shooting — he pumped his fist and shouted “fight!” before being rushed offstage — triggered deep emotions in his supporters. “I look at him, and I feel proud,” said Patty Harnish, a 58-year-old Dollar General sales associate in Butler, where the rally took place.

She held up the morning paper. There was Trump on the front page, blood streaking his face, fist raised in the air.

“He’s like: Screw you,” she said as customers trickled into the store Sunday a few miles from where bullets flew at the former president. “I can’t be stopped. I still have another ear.” She’d been surprised by the heft of her emotions, she said, after feeling so disconnected from politicians for decades. She hasn’t cast a vote in 28 years since backing Bill Clinton, she said, and now, “It’s Trump.”

Paquette reported from Butler. Jacobs reported from Bedminster. Amy B Wang contributed to this report.