Bernd Debusmann Jr
Reporting from the rally in Butler

Image source, Reuters

Ahead of today's rally, we heard quite a bit about the enhanced security posture of the Secret Service and other police forces who began planning for the event as long as two weeks ago.

Here at the rally, Secret Service agents are stationed both inside and outside the security perimeter, where attendees are being searched before they enter.

The wider area includes the rooftop of a glass company warehouse from where Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, fired at Trump, narrowly missing him. One person was killed and two seriously wounded in the shooting.

Much of the security presence - such as increased drone flights - are unseen.

From what I can see, the most obvious change is the number of counter-sniper teams posted on rooftops. The ones by the back parking lot are dressed in green fatigues, identifying them as state or local officers rather than the black-clad secret service. They have been scanning the crowd, with rifles next to them resting on bipods.

There's also considerably more state troopers than when I was last here in July, mostly walking back and forth along the line of people waiting to get in.

Image source, Getty Images

Donald Trump should be taking the stage any minute now, but before that we're hearing from his son Eric Trump and his daughter-in-law Lara, who is the co-chair of the Republican National Committee.

Both offer a defiant message, and their assessment of the options for American voters next month.

This is an election of "good vs evil," Lara says to a cheering crowd. "And good will win."

Will Grant
Reporting from the rally in Butler

As we've been reporting, some of the thousands of Trump supporters at today's rally were also here in July - but others were motivated to come as a result of it.

"I felt obligated to turn out because it’s close to home," says Carrie Cross, a one-time Democratic Party voter who has supported Donald Trump since 2016. "I felt this was a historic moment, an Abraham Lincoln type situation. "I don’t know what’s happening in this country that they would try to kill a great man."

The idea that God stepped in to protect Trump two months ago is also a prominent belief among the supporters present.

"He had a saving grace that day," Rose Jericho tells me. "God shined a light on him to be able to get us where we need to be."

Carrie and her group of friends are confident that Trump can harness the attempt on his life to secure the White House, even though they acknowledge the race will be extremely tight.

"Everybody was like 'Oh, we’ve got this in the bag.' But it ain’t like that no more," argues Sam Vazquez. "We can’t just sit back and watch everything happen. We’ve got tell our friends to come out, to organise a tailgate party for Trump and get out there and vote."

Rebecca Hartmann
Travelling with the vice-president

Here in North Carolina, Vice-President Harris has received a briefing from officials on the situation following Storm Helene.

She says she came here to meet people who are doing "God’s work on the ground" - and that it's all people can do to bring federal and local resources together in a way that is coordinated with one purpose: to bring relief and support for those most in need.

Harris thanks members of the National Guard on the tarmac and recognised that many of those doing this work have been affected by Storm Helene themselves.

"We have to recognise and thank them for the nobility of their work and their calling," she says.

Harris adds that she's working to find out what more the Biden administration can do for federal aid - including funding to assist with rebuilding parts of the I-40 highway which remain closed.

Want to know more about the race for the White House?

the BBC's North America correspondent Anthony Zurcher makes sense of that - and much more - in his weekly US Election Unspun newsletter.

Readers in the UK can sign up here; those outside the UK can sign up here.

How much security does Trump get?published at 22:27 British Summer Time 5 October

22:27 BST 5 October

By Jake Horton & Lucy Gilder

We don’t know the exact number of agents assigned to the former president but according to Ronald Kessler, an author who specialises in the Secret Service, 80 could be assigned to Trump at any one time.

About 300 agents are assigned to the sitting president and vice-president, compared to the 90 to 100 who protect a former president, Kessler said.

These totals include all staff, which means Trump would not have that many agents with him in every instance.

“The shift detail is always the same - this is the close protection officers near the president - but then there’s counter-sniper teams, counter-assault teams, counter-surveillance teams,” said Michael Matranga, who worked at the Secret Service for 12 years under Barack Obama.

On a day-to-day basis, former presidents wouldn’t have those additional teams, but Trump does, according to Matranga.

“More can still be done. It would be good to have dogs sweeping bushes or an emergency response team scanning the area,” he said.

“But people need to understand that the Secret Service need to find a balance where the president can engage with constituents or enjoy a round of golf. They can’t just keep him in a bulletproof box,” Matranga added.

Bernd Debusmann Jr
Reporting from the rally in Butler

I've been exchanging messages with some of the people inside the rally today, including former US Marine Teresa Wilson. I first met Wilson on 13 July, just a few hundred meters from where I'm standing now in the immediate aftermath of the shooting.

Three months - and another attempted assassination later - Wilson says she and many people in her community fear for Donald Trump's safety going forward.

She says she hopes that the Secret Service "re-evaluates" how they protect Trump amid what she described as a tense time in US politics.

"Those who oppose him will continue to pivot and evolve their attacks," she adds. "The Secret Service should be examining their protocols and the nature of these threats in order to be active instead of in a reactive stance."

"We, as Trump supporters, wait with breath bated to see his safety guaranteed as the race continues," she continued.

• For context: In the aftermath of the assassination attempt, the Secret Service admitted some of its agents had been complacent in the lead up to the rally. Our colleagues at BBC Verify have looked at how Trump's security has changed since.

Image source, Getty Images

We heard Donald Trump's VP pick JD Vance speak a little earlier - promising to get the former president back into the White House.

Here's who else we've been told is there today:

• Helen, Allyson and Kaylee Comperatore, the wife and daughters of Corey Comperatore, the man who was killed at the July rally, will be there, along with Corey's sister
• They'll be joined by a number of other rally-goers from July, including Dr Jim Sweetland, a doctor who acted as a first responder after the attack
• Trump's son Eric, and his wife Lara Trump, who is also the co-chair of the Republican National Committee will also be there
• Tech billionaire and X owner Elon Musk - who endorsed Trump on the day of the assassination attempt - will be present too

Gary O'Donoghue
Senior North America correspondent, at the rally in Butler

Two of those sitting behind Donald Trump today - just feet from the former president - were here on 13 July.

Reneae and Lucie both tell me they were determined to return to see Trump finish his speech. And they are not the only ones.

Several of those queuing to get in earlier told me they'd been there and were always going to come back.

Many are wearing T-shirts emblazoned with that image of Donald Trump - his fist raised, blood on his face - vowing to fight.

Some admit they had a little trepidation about returning but decided they owed it to the former president to do so.

Earlier this year, Donald Trump vowed to end taxes on tips - a policy that has found a receptive audience among many voters who work at restaurants or the broader hospitality sector.

A short while ago, I spoke to Gino Chiodo, who together with his family runs an Italian restaurant in Pittsburgh. He came to a rally wielding a sign that reads "No tax on tips" with dollar bills attached.

While he's long been a Trump supporter, Chiodo says the no-tax-on-tips policy solidified how he feels about the former President.

"People work very, very hard for what they do. It's just something that could go right to a paycheck," he says. "That's an immediate thing that can happen. I hope it does."

Kamala Harris, for her part, has also endorsed ending taxes on tips, although in her case it's in addition to raising the federal minimum wage.

Chiodo, however, isn't swayed for her support of a policy he endorses: "If she wins and you believe that she can do it, that'd be great. But I think at this point, she's just trying to do it because Trump said it. I'm just not sure about Kamala."

Image source, Reuters

As the crowd waits for Donald Trump's arrival, his running mate JD Vance has taken to the stage, vowing to win November's election in the key state of Pennsylvania and return Trump to the White House.

"Fight," he shouts several times, in an echo of the first words uttered by Trump after narrowly surviving the assassination attempt on 13 July.

In a direct address to Kamala Harris, Vance adds that Trump "took a bullet for democracy" (something Trump himself said a week after the attempt was made on his life) and asks the Democratic presidential nominee: "What have you done?"

There are cheers from the crowd.

Trump will hope his return to Pennsylvania fires up fans in key statepublished at 21:31 British Summer Time 5 October

21:31 BST 5 October

Gary O'Donoghue
Senior North America correspondent, at the rally in Butler

Donald Trumps return to Butler is far from just symbolic.

He calls it "unfinished business" but it's also a recognition that Pennsylvania is not just a swing state, but perhaps the swing state in this election.

With its 19 Electoral College votes, it carries the biggest prize of all the contested states this time around - and both campaigns are pouring millions into advertising and organising here.

When he takes to the stage, Donald Trump will hope that the events of 13 July and his brush with death will fire up his thousands of fans here and give him a crucial springboard in a crucial part of the country in the next month.

Bernd Debusmann Jr
Reporting from the rally in Butler

As things stand, the election here in Pennsylvania promises to be a very tight affair. Polls show Donald Trump and Kamala Harris nearly tied.

But voters I've spoken to have expressed confidence that Trump will gain momentum in the last few weeks of the campaign.

Among them is Russel Baroni-Meyers, a four-year veteran of the US Navy who lives in Ferguson Township, about a two-and-a-half hour drive away.

"I'm not feeling too bad about that at all," he says when I asked him about the polls.

Like a few other people I've spoken to today, he has a long list of complaints about the current state of the country - for he believes Trump is the best candidate to solve.

"I just want to make sure America goes in the right direction," he says. "There's a lot of sacrifice out there. I just want to see right by people."

Rebecca Hartmann
Travelling with the vice-president

Image source, Reuters

Meanwhile in North Carolina, I'm travelling with Vice-President Kamala Harris today as she visits in the wake of devastation caused by Storm Helene.

On Friday, Fema, the government organisation that handles disaster relief efforts, announced that they have poured $110m (£84m) into the recovery effort, providing 13.2 million meals and over 13.4 million litres of water across affected areas in North Carolina, Georgia, South Carolina, Tennessee, Florida, and Virginia.

Both Harris and President Biden have travelled to areas ravaged by the storm this week, showing their support. Biden's administration is asking Congress to pass legislation to release more money to help with relief efforts.

Donald Trump has falsely claimed that the administration is spending relief money on helping immigrants, saying at a rally on Thursday in Michigan: "Kamala spent all her Fema money, billions of dollars, on housing for illegal migrants."

The next day, in Georgia, the former president said: "A lot of the money that was supposed to go to Georgia and supposed to go to North Carolina and all of the others is going and has gone already. It's been gone for people that came into the country illegally, and nobody has ever seen anything like that. That's a shame."

• For context: Fema does have a programme that funds housing for migrants but that money comes from a different government organisation not linked with disaster relief.

Gary O'Donoghue
Senior North America correspondent, at the rally in Butler

The sun is blazing down just like on that July afternoon.

There's a huge crowd crammed into this rural farm show ground - the play list on the PA system just the same.

But look at the stage and you see the bulletproof ballistic glass behind which Donald Trump will be protected.

The infamous roof of building six of a local business from which Thomas Crooks fired his eight shots is obscured by huge white trucks - as it should have been on that day back in July.

And of course, this is a very different election Donald Trump is fighting now - an election that could not be closer.

We're beginning to see images of crowds packing in to the venue and Secret Service snipers on guard in Butler, Pennsylvania.

Some attendees have brought tributes to Corey Comperatore, the volunteer fire chief who was killed on 13 July, and as we mentioned in our last post - his firefighter jacket is on display in the stands.

While the event has already kicked off, Trump himself is not due to speak for another hour or so.

Image source, EPA

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Getty Images

Iona Hampson
Reporting from the rally in Butler

Donald Trump's return to Butler includes some notable changes.

This time the stage is surrounded by bulletproof glass - a new fixture for the former president's outdoor rallies.

Standing out against the sea of red Make America Great Again (Maga) caps, the BBC team inside the rally can see Corey Comperatore's firefighter jacket in the stands. It's a notable reminder of his tragic death on 13 July.

For this strong Republican-leaning community, today's rally is a mix of emotions.

People are chanting Corey's name to honour him, while waiting excitedly in their thousands for the triumphant return of Trump.

How has Trump's security changed?published at 20:30 British Summer Time 5 October

20:30 BST 5 October

By Jake Horton & Lucy Gilder

The Secret Service ramped up security before the first assassination attempt after receiving intelligence of an Iranian plot to kill Trump, external - and has further increased its staffing since then.

During a hearing following the Pennsylvania attempt, acting Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe told lawmakers they were expanding the use of drones to check areas, improving communication and increasing the number of security agents.

BBC Verify has asked the Secret Service how many more agents were given to Trump’s security detail following the first assassination attempt, but the agency has not yet responded.

Russell said that he had noticed “the number of agents and the number of assets that has been given to former president Trump has certainly increased”.

US Secret Service director Kim Cheatle resigned in the weeks after the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump.

"As your director, I take full responsibility for the security lapse," Cheatle said in a July resignation letter to agency staff. "The scrutiny over the last week has been intense and will continue to remain as our operational tempo increases."

She had faced calls from both Democrats and Republicans to step down after a contentious congressional hearing about the shooting. When she did, Ronald Rowe was named as the acting director of the agency.

You can watch some of the House Oversight Committee hearing Cheatle faced here:

Ana Faguy
US reporter

In the aftermath of the first assassination attempt on Trump, a scathing Senate report concluded that security failures and a lack of communication within the US Secret Service had "directly contributed" to what played out.

The highly critical 94-page document, released in September, detailed multiple failures by the Secret Service and said agents had several opportunities to prevent the shooting which left one person dead and others injured.

It said the security failures before the rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, in which gunman Matthew Crooks opened fire from a nearby rooftop as Donald Trump was speaking, were “foreseeable, preventable, and directly related to the events resulting in the assassination attempt that day".

"What happened here was really an accumulation of errors that produced a perfect storm of stunning failure," Connecticut Senator Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat on the committee, said.

In response, the Secret Service said the report's findings aligned with its own internal review and both investigations were "essential" to ensuring it does not happen again.

• Get up to speed with other key takeaways from the Senate report