Six weeks after the assassination attempt against Donald Trump, the FBI still doesn’t know what motivated the shooter.

“Extensive analysis of the subject’s online search history as well as his specific online activity has provided us valuable insight into his mindset, but not a definitive motive,” Kevin Rojek, the head of the FBI’s Pittsburgh Field Office, told reporters Wednesday.

So far, he added, the FBI sees “no definitive ideology … either left-leaning or right-leaning” associated with the shooter, Thomas Crooks.

Rather, Crooks had “a sustained, detailed effort to plan an attack on some event” and considered multiple targets, according to Rojek. He became “hyper-focused” on Trump’s July 13 rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, after it was announced. Crooks fired eight shots at Trump from a rooftop that day, killing one person in the crowd, injuring two others and injuring Trump’s ear. Within seconds, a Secret Service sniper shot and killed Crooks.

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The bipartisan House task force investigating the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump ramped up its probe on Wednesday — making a sweeping request for records and interviews.

Reps. Mike Kelly (R-Pa.) and Jason Crow (D-Colo.), the chair and top Democrat on the panel, respectively, sent a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and Acting Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe Jr. as the panel digs into the site selection and security planning for Trump’s July 13 rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.

“The Task Force is investigating all actions by any agency, Department, officer, or employee of the federal government, as well as State and local law enforcement or any other State or local government or private entities or individuals” related to the assassination attempt, Kelly and Crow wrote in Wednesday’s letter.

The letter, which was obtained exclusively by POLITICO ahead of its release, marks the next step for the task force after Kelly, Crow and other members visited the site of the July 13 rally and met with local law enforcement earlier this week. Several members of the group, speaking to reporters during their visit, reiterated that they had unanswered questions about the security planning and decisions in the immediate lead up to the shooting.

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Speaker Mike Johnson quickly moved last month to launch a bipartisan investigation into the assassination attempt against Donald Trump. House conservatives made it clear on Monday that they have their own ideas.

Johnson and Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries each appointed members late last month to a task force that is aimed at identifying failures that led to the shooting and preventing such an incident from happening again. The panel was unanimously approved by House lawmakers, has subpoena power and effectively took over investigations related to the assassination attempt, a way to theoretically prevent multiple unwieldy probes.

But some conservative lawmakers are determined to look into it themselves, a sign of the right flank’s frustration about who ultimately got seats on the panel and the pace of existing investigations, which span both Congress and the administration. Johnson had privately indicated that he wanted “serious” Republicans to take part in the task force, and he did appoint multiple conservatives to the panel. Still, he’s gotten flack from members further to the right who accused him of sidelining lawmakers who have previously rebelled against leadership.

Five conservatives on Monday held an event in Washington — billed as a forum held at The Heritage Foundation — vowing to push forward with their own probe into the assassination attempt. They questioned security decisions leading up to the shooting and encouraged whistleblowers to come forward.

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For former President Donald Trump, the 2024 race is a contest between him and Vice President Kamala Harris. And President Joe Biden.

During a rally in Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania, on Saturday, Trump repeatedly blamed Harris and Democrats for Biden dropping out of the race more than a month ago — undermining Harris’ legitimacy as a candidate and highlighting his one-time opponent.

He claimed, without evidence, that the upcoming Democratic National Convention in Chicago next week is “rigged” because Biden isn’t on the ticket. He said Biden is a worse debater than Democratic Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman, who suffered a stroke. And Trump accused the media of being biased in favor of the president.

“What happened to Biden? I was running against Biden and now I’m running against someone else,” Trump said. “I said, ‘Who am I running against, Harris?’ I said, ‘Who the hell is Harris?’”

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Donald Trump will sit down with billionaire X owner Elon Musk for a live interview on his platform Monday evening — a sign that Trump sees X as vital to his efforts to win the White House.

Once a self-proclaimed Democrat, Musk has risen to prominence as a highly influential figure in right-wing spaces. The Tesla CEO has donated to a pro-Trump super PAC, although he previously said he would not contribute to any presidential candidate. He endorsed Trump in the days following the assassination attempt at a Pennsylvania rally last month.

Musk and Trump, however, have not always aligned on all policy issues. Trump has repeatedly criticized President Joe Biden’s efforts to speed the widespread adoption of electric vehicles, for example, and Musk runs one of the most successful EV companies to date. But over time, their viewpoints have become more and more similar, with Trump recently changing his script on EVs and seeing Musk as an adviser on the issue.

In a sign that Trump views Musk as an ally, he revived his own X account earlier Monday for the first time in a year: He first posted a two-and-a-half minute campaign ad he’s previously shared on other social media platforms and then went on to post at least four more times within the next two hours — promoting his 8 p.m. EDT interview with Musk and hitting Vice President Kamala Harris as a “SAN FRANCISCO RADICAL.”

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The biggest spreader of political divisiveness and incendiary posts on Elon Musk’s revamped Twitter is turning out to be Musk himself.

In just the last two weeks on the platform — since rebranded X — the billionaire provocateur unloaded a string of posts that poured fuel on the fire of Britain’s worst anti-immigration riots in decades; shared a doctored video of Vice President Kamala Harris deeming herself the “ultimate diversity hire” for president; and claimed without evidence that the Biden-Harris administration is “importing vast numbers” of illegal aliens to swing the November election.

Musk’s latest flurry of innuendo, half-truths and lies online is making it increasingly clear that it is the tech mogul — and not just his platform — who poses the greatest challenge to governments struggling to rein in content that can incite extremist violence.

“Elon is weaponizing this in a way it hasn't been weaponized before,” Democratic strategist Adam Parkhomenko said of Musk’s posts and hands-off approach to others’ content on X. “It just is sort of questionable why he's allowed to do what he's doing.”

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A Pakistani man suspected of plotting on behalf of Iran to kill high-ranking U.S. politicians or officials — including perhaps former President Donald Trump — is in U.S. custody after being charged with trying to hire hit men to carry out the plot, according to U.S. officials and court documents.

Asif Merchant, 46, was arrested in Texas on July 12 as he prepared to leave the country, prosecutors said.

U.S. officials said Tuesday that the plot was not connected to the assassination attempt on Trump at a rally in Butler County, Pennsylvania, on the day following Merchant’s arrest. Rather, officials said, the plot appears to be related to efforts by Iran to retaliate for the killing of Iranian General Qasem Soleimani in a U.S. drone strike Trump ordered in Iraq in 2020.

Court filings released as the case became public Tuesday refer to the potential target in elliptical terms as a U.S. politician or public official, with no specific mention of Trump. But in discussions Merchant had with others, Trump’s name came up as a possible target, according to a law enforcement official granted anonymity to discuss sensitive details about the investigation.

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On April 7, 1926, Fascist leader Benito Mussolini gave a speech to a conference of surgeons, and then began walking with his aides through the streets of Rome. When he reached Piazza del Campidoglio, an Irish-born British pacifist named Violet Gibson stepped out of the crowd and shot him.

The bullet grazed Mussolini’s nose and Gibson tried to shoot him again, but her gun malfunctioned, and police quickly detained her. Mussolini was whisked to safety, but a few hours later he appeared in public to reassure his fans — and posed for a photograph with a big white bandage on his nose.

Assassination attempts are an effort to change a political order in one fell swoop. But history shows that they often backfire, and more often serve not to eliminate a strongman, but to strengthen him and his cult of personality. Mussolini showed how that’s done.

After serving as prime minister of a coalition government, Mussolini had declared a dictatorship in January 1925. The Gibson shooting was the third attempt on Mussolini’s life after that. The earlier attacks were by Italian anti-Fascists: Tito Zamboni, a Socialist member of Parliament, was arrested before he could fire a bazooka at Il Duce from a hotel room he had rented, and the anarchist Gino Luccetti threw a bomb at Mussolini’s motorcade that failed to explode.

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Former president Donald Trump has agreed to be interviewed by the FBI about the assassination attempt against him earlier this month, an FBI official told reporters Monday.

Trump’s reported agreement to sit down with investigators comes after he sharply criticized the FBI’s handling of the probe, even calling for FBI Director Christopher Wray — a Trump appointee — to resign.

Trump was particularly aggrieved by Wray’s suggestion during congressional testimony last week that it was unclear whether the former president’s ear was actually pierced by a bullet. The FBI issued a statement Friday trying to tamp down the disagreement by declaring that either a bullet or a “fragmented” portion of one struck Trump.

“As part of our normal investigative process, we regularly interview victims of crime to offer our support and learn more about their perspective regarding their experience,” the special agent in charge of the FBI’s Pittsburgh Field Office, Kevin Rojek, said during a telephone briefing for journalists. “To that end, we have contacted former President Trump and he has agreed to participate in the victim interview.”

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House Foreign Affairs Chair Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas) said Sunday that the gunman behind the assassination attempt against Donald Trump had wanted to create a “diversion” with explosives so that he could escape.

FBI Director Christopher Wray testified before the House Judiciary Committee last Wednesday that as part of its investigation into the shooting at Trump’s campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, law enforcement recovered from Thomas Crooks’ vehicle a drone and explosive devices that could be detonated remotely. Crooks also had a transmitter, although remote detonation likely “would not have worked” from his location, Wray said.

While the FBI still does not know Crooks’ motive, McCaul — who formerly chaired the House Committee on Homeland Security — provided new details on Crooks’ plans before the assassination attempt.

“What’s interesting, Robert, is that he had a detonation device on him and two bombs in the car,” McCaul told host Robert Costa on CBS' “Face the Nation.” “What his plan was was to assassinate the president, create a diversion by blowing up his vehicle on the other side of the property, and then he could escape.”

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WASHINGTON — Nearly two weeks after Donald Trump’s near assassination, the FBI confirmed Friday that it was indeed a bullet that struck the former president’s ear, moving to clear up conflicting accounts about what caused the former president’s injuries after a gunman opened fire at a Pennsylvania rally.

“What struck former President Trump in the ear was a bullet, whether whole or fragmented into smaller pieces, fired from the deceased subject’s rifle,” the agency said in a statement.

The one-sentence statement from the FBI marked the most definitive law enforcement account of Trump’s injuries and followed ambiguous comments earlier in the week from Director Christopher Wray that appeared to cast doubt on whether Trump had actually been hit by a bullet.

The comment drew fury from Trump and his allies and further stoked conspiracy theories that have flourished on both sides of the political aisle amid a dearth of information following the July 13 attack.

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Former President Donald Trump promised Friday to go back to Butler, Pennsylvania, the town where a shooter attempted to assassinate him and killed one rally-goer during a campaign event nearly two weeks ago.

“I WILL BE GOING BACK TO BUTLER, PENNSYLVANIA, FOR A BIG AND BEAUTIFUL RALLY, HONORING THE SOUL OF OUR BELOVED FIREFIGHTING HERO, COREY, AND THOSE BRAVE PATRIOTS INJURED TWO WEEKS AGO,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “WHAT A DAY IT WILL BE — FIGHT, FIGHT, FIGHT! STAY TUNED FOR DETAILS.”

He was referring to Corey Comperatore, a firefighter in the crowd who was killed by the gunman, and two other survivors who were hospitalized. As Secret Service officers ushered a bleeding Trump off the stage at the rally, the former president paused, raised his fist and chanted “fight, fight” — an image that instantly defined his campaign.

The announcement came nearly two weeks after the shooting and in the midst of an unusually chaotic news cycle. Since the shooting, Trump announced Sen. JD Vance as his running mate at the Republican National Convention and officially clinched the Republican presidential nomination, President Joe Biden announced he was dropping out of the race and Vice President Kamala Harris launched her own campaign.

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The Secret Service was already facing its biggest crisis in decades following the narrowly avoided assassination of Donald Trump. Now it has a major new task: protecting Kamala Harris not just as the sitting vice president, but as the likely Democratic presidential nominee.

And the security risks facing Harris are indeed greater simply because of who she is, as a woman and person of color — and the agency is almost certainly taking that into account.

That’s according to Jeff James, who worked in the Secret Service for 22 years and resigned in 2018 after rising to the rank of assistant special agent in charge. Over the course of his career at the agency, James served on President George W. Bush’s protective detail and pitched in from time to time to protect Trump while he was in office. James is now the president of Capitol Security Consultants, a firm that provides risk assessment and security training.

“I think you’d be surprised,” he said in an interview with POLITICO Magazine, “how many people in 2024 still have a very closed mindset and think the president should be a white Christian male, and anything outside of that is unacceptable.”

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