Trump assassination attempt: Ex-US president says he will go back to the place where he was shot

Former United States president and current Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, who survived an assassination attempt last month, said on Monday (Aug 12) that he would go back in October to the same place where he was shot.

Trump was shot on July 13 while he was addressing a rally inButler, Pennsylvania. The shooter, identified as Thomas Crooks, was shot dead by Secret Service agents. Trump was not seriously wounded but was injured in his right ear.

'We're going back to Butler...'

During a social media discussion with billionaire Elon Musk on X, Trump said on Monday, "...we're going back toButlerand we're going to come back in October. We're all set up and the people are fantastic inButler. It's a big, it's a great area."

The discussion on X was hit by a massive cyber attack. Musk blamed the difficultieson a distributed denial-of-service attack, a type of cyber attack in which a server or network is flooded with traffic in an attempt to shut it down, though his claim was not confirmed.

More than 1 million people were listening as the conversation started, according to a counter on X.

Talking about the day when he was shot, Trump said there was a small group of people behind him and his team in the grandstand.

"And you look at it as it was taking place and normally they'd be running. They didn't leave, they saw that I was hurt. They saw a lot of blood and they saw that I went down. And it's almost like they wanted to be with me," the Republican presidential candidate added.

A warning by local police before assassination attempt

Last week, the Secret Service's Acting Director Ronald Rowe said thatlocal police in Pennsylvania warned that there was a man with a gun on a roof before the July 13 attempted assassination ofDonaldTrump, but the message did not reach its agents on time.

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Local authorities and Secret Service agents were using different communications channels, which prevented the warning from getting through before Crooks opened fire, Rower told reporters.

"In the final 30 seconds - which has been the focus of what happened before the assailant opened fire - there (were) clearly radio transmissions that may have happened on that local radio net that we did not have," he added.

(With inputs from agencies)