WASHINGTON — As Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump plans to return to Butler County, Pennsylvania, for a rally Saturday on the farm show grounds site where a would-be assassin nearly took his life in July, the chairman of the House task force investigating the shooting is on scene this week to help make certain the grave security failures of July 13 are not repeated.

Republican Rep. Mike Kelly was back in his hometown of Butler this week, "checking it out, helping to see where the perimeter is."

Kelly said he has already spoken with American Glass Research International Inc., the company that owns a complex of buildings from the roof of which 20-year-old gunman Thomas Matthew Crooks took aim and opened fire into the July 13 rally after dodging authorities.

"The AGR property will be totally roped off, nobody allowed on there," the congressman said. "We'll make sure it's safe."

A spokesman for Kelly told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Wednesday that the congressman was on the site Tuesday and is likely to be again before Saturday.

Kelly's vigilance and Trump's return come a month before Election Day and during what the FBI describes as a heightened and increasingly complex threat environment — with ongoing concerns about potential Iranian-backed plots against Trump and a thwarted attempt on Trump's life at a West Palm Beach, Fla. golf course on Sept. 15.

The Secret Service, Pennsylvania State Police and authorities in Butler and Beaver counties are bracing for the rally after a series of reports last week from the Secret Service and congressional investigations revealed stunning planning and communication lapses that enabled Crooks to come within an inch of killing the former president. The unprecedented failures rocked the home stretch of a deadlocked race and forced federal, state and local agencies to ramp up security and ensure more streamlined communications as the candidates barnstorm the Keystone State and other battlegrounds.

Lawmakers and law enforcement officials say visitors to the farm show grounds on Saturday should expect tighter security to enter the rally, a wider security perimeter and ballistic glass — which the Secret Service has deployed at outdoor rallies since the Butler shooting — protecting Trump on the stage.

Trump, addressing a crowd gathered for a rally in Erie Sunday, said "we have a lot of people coming" to Butler this upcoming weekend.

"I really believe that will be the safest place on Earth," he said.

But the security concerns aren't limited simply to another assassination attempt.

Jen Golbeck, a University of Maryland professor who has been monitoring pro-Trump social media and online message boards and attending Trump rallies regularly, said she's "a little concerned" that violence could originate from within the crowd on Saturday.

"There's this whole white male power fantasy that I really worry about" with some of the ardent Trump supporters online, she said. "There's this itch for violence."

That's not true of all Trump supporters by any means, she said, but it's prevalent among the people who post to the online forums she monitors.

The big question, Golbeck said, is whether posting in online message boards equates in any way to action in the real world.

"January 6 proves it's something that can happen," she said. "They are very willing to be commanded."

Golbeck said one of the comments she saw on Wednesday said, "Local sheriff needs to deputize every MAGA patriot to be on the lookout for assassins from Kamala and Obama."

She said, "I think they would be thrilled to have the opportunity and justification (in their own minds, at least) to act on it. Hopefully the Secret Service deters that."

Trump this week accused Democrats of failing to provide adequate Secret Service protection at his events across the country, particularly amid ongoing threats to his life from Iran. President Joe Biden ordered the agency to elevate its protection of Trump to the highest level after July 13, Kelly and Rep. Jason Crow, D-Colo., the top Democrat on the task force, told reporters last week.

Trump suggested he'll start his speech Saturday with "As I was saying ...," alluding to how he was interrupted by a bullet grazing his ear before he ducked and Secret Service agents swarmed him and rushed him off the stage.

Kelly said Trump was "one tough guy ... he's going to show up in Butler, stand up in that same spot and deliver the message he wanted to deliver that day."

Trump also plans to honor former firefighter Corey Comperatore, who was killed in the shooting, along with rally attendees David Dutch and James Copenhaver, who were injured.

Kelly said during the bipartisan task force's first hearing last week that the group identified three key findings. The Secret Service failed to adequately plan, creating confusion among local law enforcement partners. Public access to the site less than 150 yards from the stage was poorly managed, and communications breakdowns — as agencies grappled with heavy radio traffic while unable to fully communicate across multiple channels — led to "information in a moment of crisis (going) through radio, texts and phone calls, way too slowly."

The Secret Service last week released an initial report detailing breaches of protocol for which it has promised to hold agents accountable, and a bipartisan Senate panel released a report last Wednesday revealing a host of planning and communication failures. The bipartisan House task force then heard testimony from local police leaders, who said they received little to no direction from the Secret Service.

Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi recently told the Post-Gazette the agency had already implemented several suggestions made by lawmakers. The agency is also examining long-term solutions to enhance communications and interoperability with other agencies to ensure "our coordinated efforts during protective events are seamless," he said.

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