BUTLER, PENNSYLVANIA — FBI Director Kash Patel announced in November that the investigation into the July 2024 shooting at a Donald Trump campaign event in Butler, Pennsylvania, is inactive and concluded that the shooter acted alone. Patel did not provide a motive and said the FBI had run down all possible leads.

Patel took charge of the FBI in February 2025. The FBI initially released very little information about the shooting, and little is known about the shooter or his motive.

Law enforcement was aware of the shooter's presence 120 seconds before he started firing. The shooter scaled a building just 200 yards from where Trump was speaking.

In the immediate aftermath of the shooting, then-FBI Director Christopher Wray speculated that shrapnel could have hit Trump's ear. A few days later, the FBI confirmed in a statement that Trump was hit with a bullet, although it could have been just a fragment. Trump insisted at the time that he was hit with a bullet.

Trump's former physician Ronny Jackson wrote that the president had suffered a 2-centimeter-wide gunshot wound in the right ear from a high-powered rifle that extended down to the cartilaginous surface of the ear and that no sutures were required. The medical records from Butler Memorial Hospital, where Trump was initially treated, were never made public. Two weeks after the shooting, Trump was seen in public without a bandage and showing little to no damage to his ear.

A photographer used Meta's smart glasses to capture footage during the incident. The footage showed that no campaign staffers told photographers where to stand and that the flag suspended above the stage remained at the same height for the duration of the incident. The photographer also captured images showing Trump standing back up on stage, raising his fist and mouthing the words "fight, fight, fight."