Sam Hancock
Live page editor, in Washington DC

Donald Trump today returned to the same rural farm show ground in Butler, Pennsylvania, where an assassination attempt was carried out on him three months ago.

He started light-heartedly, opening with the line "As I was saying...", suggesting he was going to pick up where he left off. But Trump then recalled how in those moments it felt like "time stood still", before inviting Elon Musk to join him on stage and asking him to speak.

The former president went on to make various claims - about crime and immigration, "sex change operations" and people he described as "illegal aliens" - all of which our BBC Verify colleagues fact-checked.

Meanwhile, Vice-President Kamala Harris has been in North Carolina, receiving an update on Storm Helene recovery efforts. She rounded off her visit by helping survivors and volunteer workers prepare care packages for those in need.

We're going to end our live coverage there, but you can read more about Trump's rally in our main news story. If it's the latest political analysis you're after, the BBC's Anthony Zurcher has delved into so-called October surprises. Or if you like investigative journalism, read our correspondent Marianna Spring's take on how social media assassination conspiracies are uniting pro- and anti-Trump voters.

Fact-checking Musk's claim about gun rightspublished at 01:47 British Summer Time 6 October

01:47 BST 6 October

By Lucy Gilder

Shortly after Donald Trump welcomed him on stage, Elon Musk made several claims about Kamala Harris’s policy proposals.

He said: "The other side … want to take away your right to bear arms"

This is false. Kamala Harris has not said she wants to remove gun ownership rights if she becomes president.

She has said she would ban assault weapons and high-capacity magazines and require universal background checks.

Harris, who has said she is a gun owner, told Oprah Winfrey earlier this year: "I’m in favour of the Second Amendment, and I’m in favour of assault weapons bans".

Former president Donald Trump opened his Butler rally earlier by recalling the events of 13 July when, at the same location, 20-year-old Thomas Crooks tried to kill him.

He recalled how time seemed to "stand still" and remembered Corey Comperatore, a retired fire chief in the crowd who was shot and killed.

Watch his opening remarks below:

Has Harris let in '21 million illegal aliens'?published at 01:17 British Summer Time 6 October

01:17 BST 6 October

By Lucy Gilder

Earlier, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump said of his Democratic opponent Kamala Harris: "She let in 21m illegal aliens from all over the world".

Trump did not say where this figure comes from, but it is not supported by official data or estimates.

There have been more than 10 million encounters of people trying to cross illegally at US borders under the Biden-Harris administration.

Numbers have risen to record highs but have dropped significantly in recent months.

A report published by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) earlier this year estimated that the number of illegal immigrants living in the US, as of January 2022, being 11 million - it believes they have arrived over decades.

We've mentioned a few times today that the July assassination attempt on Donald Trump was one of two in this election campaign. Here's a bit more on the second:

• A gunman hid for nearly 12 hours in bushes before Donald Trump played an unscheduled game of golf at his oceanfront club in Florida on a Sunday in September
• The former president was on the fifth fairway at 13:31 local time (18:31 BST), an area adjacent to busy roads near Palm Beach International Airport, when a member of his protection detail spotted a rifle poking out of foliage by the sixth hole
• A Secret Service agent opened fire in the direction of the suspect, who was about 300-500 yards away and did not have a clear line of sight to Trump, federal investigators said
• The suspect - who investigators say did not fire any shots - was equipped with two digital cameras, a black plastic bag of food, an SKS-style semi-automatic rifle - a weapon with a range of nearly 440 yards - and a scope to magnify its lens
• Ryan Routh has been charged over the incident and has pleaded not guilty. If convicted, he faces a maximum sentence of life in prison on the assassination charge

Fact-checking Trump’s claim about 13,099 murdererspublished at 00:51 British Summer Time 6 October

00:51 BST 6 October

By Lucy Gilder

Speaking about crime and immigration in the US, Donald Trump said earlier that there have been "13,099 murderers let in over the last short period of time".

This figure comes from newly-released data from US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). It said there were this number of non-citizens convicted of homicide on its database, as of July 2024, but not detained by them.

But it is misleading to say they’ve all been "let in over the last short period of time".

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) - which oversees ICE - has said the data “includes individuals who entered the country over the past 40 years or more, the vast majority of whose custody determination was made long before this administration”.

After more than 90 minutes on stage for his return appearance to Butler, Donald Trump signs off with promises for his possible second term.

"Everyone will prosper, every family will thrive," he says. "We need the American dream back."

He continues: "From this day forward we will always put America first, and we will take back and save the United States."

Cheers and applause ring out as Trump waves to supporters, with YMCA playing to those still at the Butler Farm Show grounds.

Image source, Getty Images

Rebecca Hartmann
Travelling with the vice-president

Image source, Reuters

Here in North Carolina, Kamala Harris is continuing to meet volunteers who are working to help areas affected by Storm Helene.

"We’re just surviving," Angelica Wind tells the vice-president and Democratic presidential nominee. "There’s still a lot of folks missing and a lot of people grieving and hurting."

Wind is one of several volunteers who's formed a small assembly line at a donation centre, which is collecting and sorting all sorts from canned food to diapers.

Harris, joining that line, prepares care packages with items such as deodorant and soap - and hears about people's experiences during the storm.

Melissa Funderbark, a volunteer truck driver, tells Harris she helped bring supplies to nearby Morganton where the water had only just come back on but was "black and dirty". "It's been challenging. But in Northern Carolina, we run into the fire not away from the fire."

"We need to make sure people don’t forget about us because this is going to be a recovery for a very long time," Wind says to Harris, to which the VP replies: "We’re here for the long haul."

Image source, Getty Images

Back inside the rally, Trump is talking about Storm Helene, which tore through the US's south-east last weekend and killed more than 160 people.

He says, if elected, he will work the worst-affected states to rebuild communities.

The former president criticises the Biden-Harris administration and their response, calling it the "worst response" since Hurricane Katrina - when George W Bush was president.

As we've been reporting, Vice-President Harris is in North Carolina today - one of the areas badly hit by the storm - where she's been meeting officials for an update on recovery efforts.

It's her second trip this week to assess Helene's damage.

Fact-checking Trump's claims about sex change operations for 'illegal aliens'published at 00:17 British Summer Time 6 October

00:17 BST 6 October

By Lucy Gilder

A short while ago, Trump was talking about the Harris campaign and said: "Who wants sex change operations for illegal aliens?"

This is a claim he makes repeatedly - it refers to an answer Kamala Harris gave to a questionnaire, external in 2019, drawn up by a civil rights group.

It was sent to all candidates in the 2020 presidential campaign and one of the questions was whether they would use their authority as president to ensure that transgender people in prison and immigration detention would have access to "treatment associated with gender transition, including all necessary surgical care".

Harris replied that she would.

But the Harris campaign has said this "is not what she is proposing or running on" in this election - so it’s misleading for Trump to suggest that she is.

Regan Morris
Reporting from the rally in Butler

I’m at a party with locals just outside the gates next to the building where Thomas Crooks fired at Donald Trump in July.

I agreed not to take any photos here but the biggest applause so far at this rally was when Trump thanked local police and medics for their efforts on that day.

The local police were initially vilified after the shooting and many locals think that was unfair.

The Secret Service were in charge that day and many here feel angry that the professionalism of local officials was questioned.

A little earlier, Donald Trump made reference to polling, claiming he's doing better than his Democratic opponent Kamala Harris.

Right now the polls are very tight in the seven states considered battlegrounds in this election, with just one or two percentage points separating the candidates.

Those states are: North Carolina - where Harris is today -Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, where Trump is.

The graph below shows the latest polling data in these areas - you can learn more about the key issues for each of them here.

As Trump looks on, Elon Musk praises the former president.

"The true test of someone’s character is how they behave under fire," Musk says, commending his friend for "fist-pumping after being shot".

"President Trump must win to preserve the constitution, he must win to preserve democracy in America," he says. "This is a must-win situation."

Iona Hampson
Reporting from the rally in Butler

Musk arrives on stage to chants of Elon.

The crowd are quiet and taking in every word of the man who's platform X (formerly Twitter) has become a crucial mouthpiece to the Make American Great Again (Maga) movement.

Tesla founder and the owner of X, Elon Musk, has just been invited to join Donald Trump on stage.

Stay tuned for more.

Trump has taken a lengthy pause in proceedings and called for a doctor, apparently to attend to a crowd member.

It's unclear what has happened, but we know it's a hot day and many Trump supporters have been there for hours. Our reporter Bernd Debusmann Jr said earlier that thousands had started arriving from as early as 09:30 local time (14:30 BST). Trump took to the stage just before 18:00.

In the stands behind Trump, water bottles are dispersed through the crowd.

After several minutes, the audience breaks into a spontaneous rendition of the national anthem.

Image source, Reuters / Corey Comperatore

When gunshots rang out at the Butler rally, 50-year-old volunteer fire chief Corey Comperatore died trying to shield his family from the bullets.

Comperatore's daughter Allyson later wrote on social media about how her father had thrown her and her mother to the ground and "shielded my body from the bullet that came at us".

"He truly loved us enough to take a real bullet for us. And I want nothing more than to cry on him and tell him thank you."Allyson described her father as the "best dad a girl could ever ask for" and said he "could talk and make friends with anyone".

“This feels like a terrible nightmare but we know it is our painful reality," Comperatore's sister Dawn wrote on Facebook.

He was said to be an avid Donald Trump supporter and to have been excited to attend the Pennsylvania rally where he was later killed. The gunfire also wounded Trump, 57-year-old David Dutch and 74-year-old James Copenhaver.

Trump is speaking about Corey Comperatore, the former volunteer fire chief who was shot and killed during his July rally in Butler.

"He's become somewhat of a folk hero," Trump says. "Our beautiful Corey."

Comperatore's family - his wife, Helen, their two daughters and his sister - are backstage at the rally.

Trump pays tribute to Helen before asking the crowd to participate a moment's silence "12 weeks to the minute" of the shooting.

Trump begins by recalling some of his remarks from 13 July and the moment the attempted assassin fired eight shots.

"As I was saying..." he tells the crowd, while the chart which was visible on the screen at the time is displayed once more.

The crowd cheer at the defiant move.

"For 15 seconds, time stood still," Trump says of the attempt on his life. "This vicious monster unleashed evil ... the villain did not succeed in his goal."

Image source, Reuters

Donald Trump has now arrived at the rally in Butler.

He's taking the floor on a platform where he narrowly survived an assassination attempt back in July.

We'll bring you the latest right here, stay tuned.