Trump's MAGA dark trourists travel hundreds of miles to site of attempted assassination

A couple from Maine embarked on a lengthy journey to visit the site of an attempted assassination on Donald Trump, marking one year since the incident.

The Butler Farm Show grounds have quietly become a destination for dark tourism, attracting MAGA enthusiasts like Wendell "Doss" Dennison and his wife, Donna, who travelled to the rural Pennsylvania county to pay their respects at the field where Trump narrowly escaped death - a place that also witnessed the tragic loss of a local firefighter.

The Dennisons, in their newly acquired camper van, covered approximately 1,000 miles to Roanoke, Virginia, to see family, while also pausing at significant historical landmarks en route. As a teacher of history, civics, and social studies, Doss is captivated by the significance of historical locations, eager to experience firsthand the spots where American history was made. He regards the Butler Farm Show grounds as such a landmark.

Thus, rather than returning directly to East Machias, Maine, they opted for a 300-mile detour to Butler, allowing the 63 year old to stand beside the sign at the fairgrounds' entrance and create a Facebook video, reports the Mirror US.

"There was a desire that I wanted to be at that place," Doss explained to TheMirror.com. "Obviously, I could have done my Facebook Live post from anywhere. I didn't need to drive miles out of my way."

However, he remarked, "There's something about being at the actual place."

He shared that he and Donna stayed overnight in Altoona, Pennsylvania, before driving approximately 100 miles west to visit the Butler site.

"I could have done my Facebook Live and said, 'Just up the road," Doss admitted. "But I felt like it was more powerful to show up at the literal place and say, 'I've seen it. I've been here. This is where then-presidential candidate Donald Trump was almost assassinated.'"

He compared the significance of the location to Ford's Theatre in Washington, D. C., where President Abraham Lincoln met his tragic end.

"I believe that was a moment in time that united a very divided country. I mean, how more divided can you be than brother fighting against brother, and fighting a war?" he mused.

"I look at Ford's Theatre, and I say, 'It must have been a time that didn't divide us further, but it actually started healing us, bringing us back together,'" he elaborated.

"So, I drove miles out of my way to get to Butler, Pennsylvania, because, obviously, Trump was not assassinated, but when he stood up with the Secret Service all around him, with blood on his ear and his fist in the air, saying, 'Fight,' there was something iconic, whether you are a Trump fan or whether you're not a Trump fan."

He contended that the events of exactly one year ago today "propelled him forward to take the presidency."

He expressed the need to visit the site for that very reason.

Not merely a sightseeing trip – a call for unity.

While Doss did indeed tour the location for its historical interest, his main intent was to leverage the significance of the place and his social media influence to underscore the urgency for unity in the nation. His goal was to spread a message of peace and denounce the internal strife plaguing America, including within various factions and political parties.

"I wanted to reach people with a message that says, 'We need to find what unites us, not what divides us,'" he declared. "That's why I'm here."

He is convinced that broadcasting his Facebook Live from the scene of the tragedy "might give [the] message just a little more oomph.

"I feel like there's a lot of division in America. I see division, obviously, among conservatives and progressives, liberals," he observed. "Now, I'm seeing some division, even within the Democrat Party, as things have heated up in the last few months. I'm also seeing cracks in the Republican base in the last week or two."

Doss remarked that the shooting "united his party, that MAGA base," a year prior and "pulled in stragglers, people that might have been straddling the fence, not exactly sure."

It consolidated support within the base and ultimately contributed to Trump's presidential victory, Doss and several analysts concur.

Doss is "highly conservative," yes, and a supporter of Trump. But he's also a schoolteacher and a pastor who speaks regularly at a local church and believes in humanity and American society.

He expressed hope that his message, recorded just outside the location where Trump narrowly escaped with his life, would serve multiple purposes: highlighting the solidarity within the conservative movement at that moment, demonstrating the urgent need for comparable unity today, and proving that individuals from diverse backgrounds and political persuasions can coexist whilst maintaining friendships.

Doss revealed he maintains "good friends on both sides of the aisle" back in Maine and enjoys close relationships with people who are firmly in the "Never Trump" camp.

However, substantial effort remains necessary, both politically and socially, across the nation before the harmony he yearns for can be realised, he acknowledged.

He observed that Trump delivered numerous campaign pledges that "resonated with Middle America," yet whilst the president is making considerable progress on some of those commitments, Doss reckons others he made don't strike a chord with Middle America quite as strongly and might actually be fuelling some of the fractures within the MAGA base.

He highlighted the conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza alongside Trump's management of the Jeffrey Epstein case files, which he claimed haven't been well-received by Middle America.

"There's a lot of work to do," he said. "The work isn't done, by far."