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‘We Will FEAR NOT’: Trump Calls for Unity, Prays for Victims After Rally Shooting

‘It was God alone who prevented the unthinkable from happening’

Published: July 14, 2024
  |   By Chris Karr
‘We Will FEAR NOT’: Trump Calls for Unity, Prays for Victims After Rally Shooting

Former President Donald Trump called for unity and offered prayers for victims of a shooting that occurred during a rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday.


In a statement posted to Truth Social early Sunday morning, Trump issued his second direct response to an assassination attempt that left the former president’s right ear damaged and two individuals, including the shooter, dead.

“Thank you to everyone for your thoughts and prayers yesterday, as it was God alone who prevented the unthinkable from happening,” he wrote. “We will FEAR NOT, but instead remain resilient in our Faith and Defiant in the face of Wickedness.”

“Our love goes out to the other victims and their families,” Trump continued. “We pray for the recovery of those who were wounded, and hold in our hearts the memory of the citizen who was so horribly killed.”

“In this moment, it is more important than ever that we stand United, and show our True Character as Americans, remaining Strong and Determined, and not allowing Evil to win,” he concluded. “I truly love our Country, and love you all, and look forward to speaking to our Great Nation this week from Wisconsin.”


A turbulent 2024 presidential election season reached a new level of pandemonium after Trump became the target of the first assassination attempt against a current or former president in over four decades.

At around 6:15 p.m. on Saturday, a lone gunman fired multiple shots at Trump as the former president was speaking at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.

Trump ducked behind his podium after he heard bullets flying around him, only to emerge from a pack of Secret Service agents with blood splattered on his face and right ear. He then hoisted a fist into the air and chanted “Fight, fight, fight!” as he was whisked away from the stage.


"I was shot with a bullet that pierced the upper part of my right ear. I knew immediately that something was wrong in that I heard a whizzing sound, shots, and immediately felt the bullet ripping through the skin," he wrote after the incident. "Much bleeding took place, so l realized then what was happening. GOD BLESS AMERICA!"

The shooter, later identified by the FBI as 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks from Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, was killed by a Secret Service sniper.

An unnamed attendee at the rally was also killed, and two others are reportedly injured.

Photos and videos posted on X appear to show Crooks on the roof of a building less than 200 yards from where Trump spoke, aiming what CBS News described as “an AR-15 style rifle” at the former president.




"We noticed the guy crawling, bear-crawling, up the roof of the building beside us," one rally-goer told the outlet. "We're standing there, we're pointing at the guy crawling up the roof. He had a rifle, we could clearly see him with a rifle."

Daily Mail reports that Crooks was a registered Republican who donated $15 to the ActBlue political action committee on January 20, 2021 – the day of President Joe Biden’s inauguration.

“According to Pennsylvania's public court records, Crooks had no criminal history and officials claimed they are still working towards identifying a motive behind the shooting,” per the outlet.

“The FBI has assumed the role of the lead federal law enforcement agency in the investigation of the incident involving former President Donald Trump that occurred,” the agency said in a statement, urging anyone with information that could aid its investigation to call the FBI tip line.

The shooting was condemned by Biden on Saturday night.

“I’m praying for him and his family and for all those who were at the rally, as we await further information. Jill and I are grateful to the Secret Service for getting him to safety,” he said. "There’s no place for this kind of violence in America. We must unite as one nation to condemn it.”

World leaders, including Ukrainian President Vlodomyr Zelensky, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and French President Emmanuel Macron, also echoed Biden’s sentiments.

"I just spoke to my father on the phone and he is in great spirits," Donald Trump Jr. told Fox News Digital. "He will never stop fighting to save America, no matter what the radical left throws at him."

“President Trump showed an incredible amount of strength last night,” Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) wrote on X Sunday morning. “Our prayers are with him, all the rally attendees, those who were injured, and the family of the individual who lost their life. Congress will conduct a full investigation of the tragedy to determine where there were lapses in security.”


Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) called for a Senate hearing on the matter before the August recess.

“It is a miracle that President Trump is alive and well but absolutely inexcusable that the deranged would-be assassin had a direct line of sight to the former president and the leading candidate for President of the United States,” Scott said in a statement quoted by The Hill. “The U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs (HSGAC) has an oversight responsibility and an obligation to the American people to demand answers from DHS and the U.S. Secret Service on how this happened and what steps are being taken to investigate this assassination attempt and make sure it never happens again.”

Editor's Note: The title of this article has been edited post-publication to correct a syntactical error

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