President Joe Biden is seen on a monitor in the press briefing room of the White House in Washington, Sunday, July 14, 2024.Susan Walsh/The Associated Press

Donald Trump was already set to sweep Butler County in November before his fateful Saturday rally in this hollowed-out former manufacturing hub, nestled in the hills an hour north of Pittsburgh. He won almost two-thirds of the vote here in 2020, and his statewide poll numbers in Pennsylvania had surged in recent months.

The shooting at that rally – which has, for now, made this community of 13,000 the centre of the media universe – could make his victory here this fall a mere formality.

Nor did Mr. Trump need to survive an attempt on his life to improve his overall odds of retaking the White House. Democrats had been doing an effective job of that since President Joe Biden’s disastrous debate performance last month, as they squabbled among themselves over whether to dump their nominee.

Replacing Mr. Biden at the top of the Democratic ticket may not even be an option now. And even if it were, it is not clear it would make much of a difference.

Regardless of the motives, Mr. Trump’s would-be assassin not only failed to knock the former Republican president out of contention, he may have........

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