Donald Trump will visit Harrisburg for first Pa. rally since assassination attempt. Here’s what to expect.

Former President Donald Trump will be in Harrisburg on Wednesday for his first rally in the commonwealth since the attempted assassination against him at his Butler County rally earlier this month.

The rally will be located indoors at Harrisburg’s Pennsylvania Farm Show Complex. The former president was heeding safety recommendations from the Secret Service to stop holding outdoor rallies, until he decided over the weekend that he would resume outdoor events.

Trump is scheduled to start speaking at 6 p.m., with doors opening at the complex four hours prior, according to the event page.

The Harrisburg rally comes less than three weeks after Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, of Bethel Park, Pa., used an AR-15 style rifle and opened fire on the outdoor campaign rally in Butler. Trump’s ear was grazed by a bullet, while Corey Comperatore, a former Buffalo Township fire chief, was killed and two other men were wounded.

Nearly two weeks after the shooting, Trump promised to return to Butler for a rally in the near future. He wrote on Truth Social he wants to return to Butler for a rally to honor Comperatore and the two individuals who were injured.

No further details about Trump’s potential return to Butler were provided by his campaign.

Trump wouldn’t be able to stay away from Pennsylvania for long as Vice President Kamala Harris — the presumptive Democratic nominee and Trump’s new opponent since President Joe Biden dropped out of the race — is closing in on the former president’s polling leads in the commonwealth and nationwide.

This will be Trump’s first visit to the crucial battleground state since Biden withdrew his reelection bid.

Here’s what to know ahead of Trump’s rally in Harrisburg.

Early last week, Trump team sources told NBC News that he planned to cease holding outdoor rallies after the Butler shooting, and favor more indoor rallies, like the upcoming one in Harrisburg. The sources said the former president could still be involved in smaller outdoor events or larger rallies where entrances are more controlled, and there is not high ground nearby.

Then on Saturday, Trump came out in full support of resuming his outdoor events, writing in an all-caps message on Truth Social that “Secret Service has agreed to substantially step up their operation. They are very capable of doing so. No one can ever be allowed to stop or impede free speech or gathering!!!”

John Sancenito, a security expert and president of Information Network Associates, told ABC27 that he expects security to exceptionally increase during Trump’s visit to Harrisburg on Wednesday and added that the event being indoors makes for a safer environment for both the former president and attendees.

The Butler County rally was the Secret Service’s “most significant operational failure” in decades, according to Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle, who resigned from her position last week after testifying during a heated Congressional hearing about the agency’s security failures during the July 13 rally.

Crooks was able to scale a nearby building, despite being spotted by law enforcement more than 30 minutes beforehand and was able to fire several rounds from the building’s roof less than 150 feet away from the stage where Trump was speaking.

Attendees at the Butler rally told The Inquirer that security measures at the Butler rally were similar to what they had experienced at other Trump rallies. Rallygoers went through bag-checks and metal detectors and noted a large police presence. Items such as firearms, weapons, explosives, umbrellas, and laser pointers were also prohibited.

Trump’s trip to Harrisburg on Wednesday will be his sixth visit to the commonwealth this year, and second time visiting Harrisburg and the Pennsylvania Farm Show Complex.

In February, Trump spoke to thousands of supporters at a gathering for the National Rifle Association at the Great American Outdoor Show, an expo hosted annually by the NRA at the complex.

His appearance at the NRA expo was his first visit to Pennsylvania, a crucial battleground state, in 2024. He spent much of his speech jolting between promises to support gun rights and making other unfounded criticisms of Biden and Democrats.

So far, Butler County has remained the only Pa. county visited by Trump that the former president won in 2020.

This will be Trump’s first time making his case against Harris in Pennsylvania since she became his new opponent when Biden dropped out of the race on July 21 and endorsed her. It will also be Trump’s first rally in the commonwealth since Gov. Josh Shapiro became one of the top contenders in Harris’ search for a running-mate.

Trump has already started to sharpen his verbal attacks of Harris at rallies or events since she became the presumptive nominee. Speaking at a conference in West Palm Beach, Fla., on Friday, Trump accused Harris of wanting to implement left-wing policies in the country and even said she was a “bum” to his audience at the religious-focused event hosted by conservative advocacy group Turning Point Action.

At a rally in North Carolina on July 24 – his first campaign event since Biden dropped out of the race — Trump also continued the much-exhausted strategy of purposely mispronouncing Harris’ first name dozens of times.

But Trump could also mention Shapiro, who could be an anxiety-inducing addition to a Harris ticket for Pa. Republicans.

Shapiro is widely popular in the key swing state and has garnered the votes of moderates and Republicans in all three of his past statewide elections. The governor touts his ability to reach across the aisle, serving as the chief executive for the only state with a divided legislature.

Shapiro has avoided speculation about whether he’ll be Harris’ running mate, but he has been a top surrogate for Harris in the commonwealth. In Carlisle, Pa., on Saturday, Shapiro reiterated what he sees as the differences between Harris and Trump. The event was originally supposed to be a canvas kick-off, but quickly turned into a small rally in a county that Trump won by 10 points in 2020.

Harrisburg represents yet another opportunity for Trump to chip away votes from counties that Democrats won in 2020 and 2016, especially as Harris starts to narrow in on Trump’s lead in Pennsylvania and nationwide.

A Fox News poll on Friday showed Harris and Trump tied among Pennsylvania voters at 49% each. An April poll from Fox between Biden and Trump had the two candidates at 48% each.

Though Dauphin County, where Harrisburg is located, has become more blue over the years, Trump has been focusing a lot of his efforts on Pa. counties and demographics that Biden won in 2020 in an effort to carve out as many people as possible from the Democrats’ voter base.

Biden beat Trump by 8.5 percentage points in Dauphin County in 2020, on his way to narrowly winning the state by roughly 1 percentage point. Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had won Dauphin County by nearly 3 points in 2016 when Trump won statewide. Trump will likely need to improve on his 2020 numbers in the county to beat Harris.

Harrisburg is also represented by U.S. Rep. Scott Perry (R., Pa), one of Trumps’ allies who is facing a competitive reelection bid of his own.

Perry, who has served the 10th Congressional District, which includes Dauphin County, in the U.S. Congress since 2019, is now facing a challenge from Democrat Janelle Stelson, a Lancaster County resident and former news anchor at WGAL.

With Stelson’s candidacy, Democrats now see Perry’s seat as vulnerable. A poll from Franklin & Marshall College showed Perry with a 45% to 44% lead over Stelson with 11% undecided. Stelson also outraised Perry, doubling what he brought in over the past three months, the Pennsylvania-Capital Star reported.