2024 Presidential Election

Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle is speaking out for the first time following the assassination attempt on Donald Trump ... calling the whole ordeal "unacceptable."

The longtime member of the Secret Service -- who became director in September 2022 -- addressed Saturday's shooting with ABC News correspondent Pierre Thomas on Monday. As Cheatle put it ... she has taken full responsibility for the attack, making it clear the incident should've "never happened."

She added ... "The buck stops with me. I am the director of the Secret Service, and I need to make sure that we are performing a review and that we are giving resources to our personnel as necessary."

Jack Black has pulled the plug on his tour after his Tenacious D bandmate made a birthday wish ... grousing that the would-be-assassin didn't take out Donald Trump.

Jack says he was blindsided by Kyle Gass' remark on the heels of the shooting. KG made the comment at their show in Sydney over the weekend, as he celebrated his birthday onstage, saying he hoped another would-be assassin not miss the target next time. As you can imagine, the remark caught a ton of backlash.

Black says he would never condone violence, hate speech or encourage political violence of any sort.

The mystery behind Donald Trump's shoes after he was nearly assassinated has now come into full focus -- thanks to a new video that surfaced.

WBEN News in Buffalo, New York, obtained the 10-second clip shot from a different angle behind the stage where the Republican presidential nominee was giving his stump speech at Saturday's campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.

Trump fell to the stage after getting shot in the right ear and Secret Service agents rushed to his aid, protecting the 45th President by covering him with their bodies. In doing so, Trump lost his shoes and repeatedly asked for them back.

Elon Musk is putting his money where his mouth is ... pumping $45 million a month into a political action committee backing Donald Trump in the 2024 presidential election, according to a new report.

Musk -- the billionaire owner of Tesla and SpaceX-- is among a handful of tech tycoons donating cash to America PAC, which was recently started in June, per the Wall Street Journal.

The WSJ identified some of the other America PAC donors as cryptocurrency investor twins Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, ex-US ambassador to Canada Kelly Craft and her husband, Joe, and venture capitalist Joe Lonsdale.

While some pundits suggest the assassination attempt on Donald Trump will resonate with Black voters, Omarosa says that's bull crap ... and not just that, it's racist.

We talked to the former 'Apprentice' contestant -- who worked with Trump back in his NBC days, and in the White House -- and while she's certainly no fan of DT these days, she makes it clear from the jump that she condemns the violence against him.

That said, she also weighed in on a since-deleted Forbes article floating a theory -- namely, that Trump might use his shooting, and the fact he survived it, to pander to African-Americans.

Retired U.S. Secret Service Agent David Hoffmann, a 2x All-American football star, is weighing in on whether his former agency dropped the ball during the attempted assassination of Donald Trump, saying the tragedy never should've happened.

"I'll tell you it's very frustrating," Hoffmann told Babcock on the "TMZ Sports" TV show (airs nightly on FS1) ... "it just really pisses you off that this happened."

The longtime USSS special agent added ... "Sometimes everybody says 'things happen,' but this is something that just can't happen. This is inexcusable. And it's something that everybody needs to take a real hard dive at and look into this."

The horrifying moments surrounding Donald Trump's attempted assassination and the shooter Thomas Matthew Crooks, Richard Simmons' death, and Jerry Rice's threat to reporters ... all this on today's TMZ TV Hot Takes.

On "TMZ Live" Harvey and Charles detail the timeline of the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump and break down all the known facts about the 20-year-old shooter Thomas Matthew Crooks.

Donald Trump Jr. says his dad was having a bit of a chuckle after he got shot this weekend in what the feds say was an assassination attempt ... which is very uniquely DT.

The ex-Prez's son was at the Republican National Convention Monday and he talked to CNN about the immediate aftermath of the shooting -- when Thomas Matthew Crooks opened fire on Trump but missed ... only to be shot and killed himself almost immediately after.

Here, Don Jr. explains what was happening from his end of things -- saying he tried getting a hold of his father directly ... but couldn't get through at all for about an hour and a half.

President Biden says he regrets using the term "bullseye" to refer to Donald Trump -- especially now that there's been an assassination attempt on him ... but there's a catch.

POTUS sat down for an interview with Lester Holt, which is airing Monday -- the first look of which was played on NBC ... where the veteran news anchor peppered JB with questions about using that phrase during a donor call last Monday post-debate debacle.

If you hadn't heard, Joe was quoted as saying ... "It’s time to put Trump in the bull’s-eye." Of course, in the wake of Thomas Matthew Crooks trying to take a shot at DT ... many have been critical of Biden saying that, suggesting it may have incited the young to action.

Ex-UFC star and former American sniper Tim Kennedy says many people need to answer for the disaster that was the Trump shooting ... and he thinks folks need to lose their jobs.

Tim -- who was once a U.S. Army Special Forces sniper -- tells TMZ he believes the training of those immediately around Trump during the Pennsylvania rally Saturday was most definitely not up to par for protecting him against the shooter, Thomas Matthew Crooks.

He says the site survey team was supposed to identify any locations that could pose a threat to Trump, which he believes they utterly failed to do ... and now, he thinks key people at the Secret Service and beyond should have to pay for it with their careers.

Thomas Matthew Crooks -- the shooter who tried and failed to take out Donald Trump -- clearly had a raunchy, sophomoric sense of humor ... as seen in new video obtained by TMZ.

In the clip we got from a former pal of Crooks, you can see him joking about being endowed with 10 inches, and also claiming he's a 6'4" student at Stanford. In reality, Crooks was just a 10th grader when this was shot, and we're told he was making funny videos with classmates while they were all in a computer tech class.

His buddy tells us the video was shot in Feb. 2020 at Steel Center Career and Technical Education in Jefferson Hills, PA -- which provides career and technical education to students attending several public school districts in PA. We have reached out to the school to confirm Crooks' enrollment ... but haven't heard back.

50 Cent's leaning into comparisons between himself and Donald Trump after the former prez survived a shooting, but he won't be attending or performing in support of Trump at the Republican National Convention ... TMZ has learned.

50 Cent's rep tells us ... "He is not attending [the RNC], as he is slated to be in Shreveport preparing for his "Humor and Harmony" festival." Reports surfaced on Monday declaring 50 would be on stage in Milwaukee to play a gig during the convention, but that was news to his camp ... and they quickly denied it.

What made the report believable is the fact 50 invoked Trump during his Saturday night concert in Boston. As we reported, the rapper projected a popular meme -- his "Get Rich or Die Tryin" album cover with Trump's face replacing his -- in the screen behind him as he performed "Many Men."

Donald Trump has named Senator J.D. Vance as his Vice Presidential running mate -- proving things are rolling on in the wake of the assassination attempt on his life.

The ex-Prez made the announcement Monday -- writing ... "J.D. honorably served our Country in the Marine Corps, graduated from Ohio State University in two years, Summa Cum Laude, and is a Yale Law School Graduate, where he was Editor of The Yale Law Journal, and President of the Yale Law Veterans Association. J.D.’s book, 'Hillbilly Elegy,' became a Major Best Seller and Movie, as it championed the hardworking men and women of our Country."

He continues ... "J.D. has had a very successful business career in Technology and Finance, and now, during the Campaign, will be strongly focused on the people he fought so brilliantly for, the American Workers and Farmers in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Ohio, Minnesota, and far beyond ..."

12:24 PM PT -- DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas just announced that after speaking with President Biden, the Secret Service would be assigning a detail to Robert F. Kennedy Jr. ... so Donald Trump's plea worked!

11:59 AM PT -- RFK Jr. just took to X to comment on Trump's remarks saying, "It is a hopeful sign for our country when a political opponent calls for one's protection. Maybe our country can unite after all."

Donald Trump is now echoing what Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has been calling for throughout his entire campaign -- saying the presidential candidate needs Secret Service protection ASAP.

Donald Trump said he thought a Vice Presidential running mate is only useful if something bad should happen to POTUS ... this just a few hours before the assassination attempt, and a couple days before he ultimately landed on a name.

The Republican candidate seems to have unintentionally foreshadowed what was about to happen when FOX News' Harris Faulkner pressed him about not having a VP picked yet in an interview that was filmed just before Trump's remarks at the Butler, PA rally.

He told her he didn’t want to belittle the sidekick role -- pointing out people in his orbit were touting the importance of Veep -- but in his POV, VPs are really only needed if something bad were to happen to the actual president ... and he noted this a couple different times.

Jack Black's Tenacious D bandmate Kyle Gass had one wish for his birthday -- and it's being called a disgusting sentiment after someone tried killing Donald Trump.

Gass was performing alongside JB in Sydney, Australia over the weekend -- and when Jack asked him what his birthday wish was onstage ... KG said, "Don’t miss Trump next time" -- a clear reference to Thomas Matthew Crooks firing a shot at DT over the weekend.

Sources with direct knowledge tell TMZ ... Jack wasn't aware Kyle would say this, and that he doesn't condone violence.