Fateful PA Trump rally was moved from originally proposed location: Report

There has been exhaustive discussion and investigation over the past week about the attempt on former President Donald Trump's life at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania, which also killed a spectator and seriously injured two others.

According to TribLive.com, it has since emerged that the ultimately disastrous event was held at the Butler Farm Show's fairgrounds rather than at the Pittsburgh-Butler Regional Airport, which was originally designated as the venue of choice.

Original location choice denied

As the outlet noted, when seeking to plan its July 13 event in the Keystone State, the Trump campaign originally targeted the airport facility as its preferred location.

According to Mike Walsh, chairman of the Butler County Airport Authority, officials from the Trump camp reached out “about a month and a half ago” with some potential dates for the rally.

The campaign's desire to use the airport facility was perhaps informed by its prior experience hosting a similar event there back in October of 2020, during Trump's last presidential campaign.

However, Walsh was forced to inform the former president's team that the airport had already been booked for July 13 by a well-loved local organization.

Given that the Penn Township Volunteer Fire Company was already set to host its yearly Mega Cruise that day, reportedly one of the organization's most significant fundraisers, airport leadership decided it could not grant Trump's request.

Split-second turn spares Trump

Another late-breaking decision related to Trump's Butler rally proved far more momentous than the choice of an alternative event site, however, and it had to do with the former president's posture while standing on the dais.

As Newsweek reported, Trump has indicated his belief that the only reason he survived the would-be assassin's gunfire is the fact that he happened to turn his head at a slight angle at “the exact right time.”

Recounting the moment he shifted his gaze to look upward at an on-screen graphic about immigration, Trump declared, “The most incredible thing was that I happened to not only turn but to turn at the exact right time and in just the right amount.”

Speaking of the bullet that grazed his ear, he added, “If I only half-turn, it hits the back of the brain. The other way goes right through [the skull]...[t]he chance of my making a perfect turn are probably one tenth of one percent, so I'm not supposed to be here.”

Echoing the notion that Trump's escape from near death was the work of some sort of providential force was former White House physician and current Congressman Ronny Jackson who said in a Saturday update on the former president's condition, “It is an absolute miracle he wasn't killed.”