Opinion: Trump’s ‘revival’ in Butler could be what seals his victory

If former President Donald Trump wins a second term in November, his triumphant return to Butler, Pennsylvania — the site of the first assassination attempt he survived thanks to a fortuitous head turn — could be what puts him back into the White House.

The second Butler rally was a revival, in multiple definitions of the word. It was an improvement. A return. A religious gathering, highlighted by deep excitement.

There was opera singer Christopher Macchio on hand to belt out beautiful renditions of “Ave Maria” and Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah.” There was a touching tribute to Corey Comperatore, the Trump supporter who was killed at the July rally. And there was Trump’s speech, interspersed with a giddy Elon Musk literally jumping for joy.

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Trump is, first and foremost, a brilliant marketer and adept showman. He had a hit TV show, after all. He understands theatrics and how they can deepen the emotional connection with an audience.

But Saturday’s rally was about substance as much as style. It featured calls by Musk and others to register, vote and vote early if you have to, and appeals by Trump to broaden his base and rise above partisanship.

Journalist Salena Zito literally wrote the book on the MAGA movement after covering Trump in 2016, when she published “ The Great Revolt ” a couple of years later. She was at the Butler rally in July, and again over the weekend. “It was a historic occasion,” she told me. “Everything about this was unprecedented.”

Zito arrived around 6:40 a.m., and there was already an hour wait to get in. She talked to many people who were at the first rally, and others who were the “pilgrimage people” — coming in from California, North Carolina and more.

She talked with Musk backstage and compared Trump’s appeal to the billionaire entrepreneur’s. “Elites tend to be very confused why working and middle class people are drawn to [Musk],” she told me. “But those people don’t see him as elitist billionaire, they see him as someone who made it. And makes things. People admire people who make things, in the same way they admire Donald Trump for how he builds things.”

She described the rally as “spiritual.”

“There was a higher presence that was there,” she said. “It doesn’t matter what your religion was.”

One of the few intellectually curious establishment media reporters covering Trump on the trail, Shawn McCreesh of the New York Times, wrote a typically excellent dispatch from Butler, describing it as “a religious event as much as a campaign rally” based on his conversations with those in the crowd.

Fox News’s Dave Marcus felt it too. “There was something of a sense of solemnity about it,” he told me. “Especially for the people who had been present at the first one.”

Marcus has been on the trail for months, reporting and talking to voters. He saw in Butler many of the same things he’s seen for months. He wrote about the rise of the Gen Z Trump supporter — even more so than the millennial Trump supporter — and the large number of young people in the crowd on Saturday.

Marcus has seen a notable shift in the “toxicity” of Trump when it comes to rally attendees. “In ’16 and ’20 there was a definite sense a lot of Trump supporters didn’t talk about it at work, didn’t talk about it at the BBQ. There was a thing of like, ‘I can finally talk about this,’” he told me. “That’s abated a little bit. One of the things I’ve noticed is, notwithstanding the continued attempt to talk about Jan. 6, my sense is Trump is far less toxic.”

Based on Marcus’s conversations with voters, one moment stands out as a momentum-shifter, and it’s one the legacy press largely ignored — the endorsement of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. “If RFK Jr. can bring these people over to Trump, that seems like a pretty big deal,” he said.

It is noteworthy that the RFK endorsement in August — the day after the DNC — was highlighted by theatricality and showmanship as well, with a rock-concert atmosphere. The former Democrat used the occasion to debut his “Make America Healthy Again” alignment with MAGA.

Another element that Marcus and Zito noted should raise red flags for those who want Vice President Kamala Harris to win in November. Butler, like many of Trump’s rallies, was organic.

Marcus described how “Harris is always busing people in with matching T-shirts” to her events, There was a conspicuous lack of buses in Butler. Zito said that Harris’s rallies are “invite-only” — meaning there’s no way to gauge spontaneous support, or win over new supporters and convince undecideds.

Butler was about more than winning votes. It was about celebrating the survival of a literal near-death experience. It was a fist-pumping show of defiance. In that sense, Trump’s Butler revival could serve not only as one of the most iconic moments of 2024, but also as the lasting memory of the MAGA movement as a whole.

Win or lose on Nov. 5, Trump and his supporters will always have Butler — the miracle they witnessed in July, and the brave return in October.

Steve Krakauer, a NewsNation contributor, is the author of “Uncovered: How the Media Got Cozy with Power, Abandoned Its Principles, and Lost the People” and editor and host of the Fourth Watch newsletter and podcast.

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