'I'm an artist', says armed man arrested at Trump rally

Vem Miller insists he’s absolutely not a would-be presidential assassin. The 49-year-old dual US-Canadian citizen was arrested on Saturday with a loaded handgun, shotgun, and a highcapacity magazine in the parking area of a Trump rally in Coachella, California.

- JUSTIN ROHRLICH

Mr Miller, a former journalist who has also worked as a music video director and now runs a website called the America Happens Network – which features conspiracy-minded videos about 9/11 being “an inside job” and the “so-called” Covid-19 pandemic – said he “was certainly not there to cause any harm to anybody”.

At a news conference on Sunday, Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco called Mr Miller a “lunatic” with “fringe” views, and claimed his arrest may have headed off a third assassination attempt. But Donald Trump was never in any danger at Saturday’s rally, the Secret Service, FBI, and US Attorney’s Office said in a joint statement.

In July, Mr Trump’s ear was bloodied after being grazed by a gunman’s bullet at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. Last month, a suspected assassin was arrested lurking on the perimeter of Mr Trump’s golf club in West Palm Beach, Florida, with a rifle while the former president was playing.

Members of the Nevada GOP had invited Mr Miller to attend the rally, the Las Vegas resident said yesterday, rattling off his MAGA bona fides as evidence he was not at the event with a plan to kill the Republican nominee. He described himself as a member of the Republican Party, a Trump caucus captain, and as of a week ago, a Trump “team leader”.

“I gathered votes for [Trump] for the primary,” Mr Miller said in a voice message to The Independent. “I’ve been embedded with the Trump people on countless occasions, hung out with the Trump sons, hung out with people that are integral and closely associated with the Trump campaign… If people want to actually learn more about me, they could watch the America Happens Network, where for over six years we’ve been producing proTrump content.”

For his part, Mr Miller believes his work demonstrates a view that “art is the greatest weapon”.