Ten days later the director of the Secret Service, Kimberly Cheatle, resigned and the agency remains under heavy pressure to prevent any further incidents.
Trump and his campaign have tried to argue that dire Democrat warnings about the former president representing an existential threat to US democracy amounted to incitement to violence.
In the immediate aftermath of the Butler shooting, all sides urged a lowering of the political temperature, but the respite was short-lived and Trump in particular was quick to revert to the highly inflammatory rhetoric and personal attacks that have always marked his campaign style.
The former president still rejects his defeat to Biden in 2020 and has so far refused to commit to accepting the eventual result in November.
This despite being indicted over what prosecutors allege was a “private criminal effort” to subvert the 2020 election that culminated in his supporters storming the Capitol.
Asked on Friday about the possibility of further election-related violence, Biden made his doubts clear.
“I’m confident it will be free and fair. I don’t know whether it will be peaceful,” he told reporters.
