Donald Trump has given his first in-depth interview after miraculously surviving an assassination attempt at his Pennsylvania rally Saturday, insisting ‘I’m supposed to be dead’.
Trump revealed how turning his head away from the crowd to look at a video screen may have saved his life at the Butler, Pennsylvania rally and how he wanted to keep talking after gunman Thomas Matthew Crooks struck him in the right ear.
He said Sunday: ‘I rarely look away from the crowd. Had I not done that in that moment, well, we would not be talking today, would we?’
Trump noted that he had turned slightly to the right so that he could read a chart on illegal immigrants.
‘The most incredible thing was that I happened to not only turn but to turn at the exact right time and in just the right amount,’ he added, saying he survived ‘by luck or by God’.
‘If I only half-turn, it hits the back of the brain. The other way goes right through [my skull]. And because the sign was high, I’m looking up. The chances of my making a perfect turn are probably one tenth of one percent, so I’m not supposed to be here.’
‘I’m not supposed to be here, I’m supposed to be dead,’ Trump told the New York Post. ‘I’m supposed to be dead.’
‘Because the thing was an eighth of an inch away. That I would turn exactly at that second, where he [the gunman] wouldn’t stop the shot is pretty amazing. Pretty amazing. I’m really not supposed to be here.’
Trump turned his head at the vital moment and ended up with a bloody ear. He was hustled off stage by his Secret Service detail, but not before giving his supporters a clenched fist salute.
The former president addressed the now-iconic moment where he raised his fist and mouthed ‘fight’ to the stunned audience.
He said he wanted his fans to know he was alright ‘and that America goes on, we go forward, that we are strong.’
‘The energy coming from the people there in that moment, they just stood there; it’s hard to describe what that felt like, but I knew the world was looking. I knew that history would judge this, and I knew I had to let them know we are OK,’ Trump added.
‘I said, I’ve got to walk out, I have to walk out,’ Trump said during his flight to Milwaukee, according to the Examiner. ‘I did not want to be carried out. I’ve seen people being carried out, and it’s not good. And I had no problem with walking.’
He added that the ‘reality is just setting in’ with him regarding the shooting and the chaotic aftermath. Trump pointed to his nose and said they killed Crooks ‘with one shot right between the eyes.’
Despite the controversy over the Secret Service for allowing the shooting to happen, he praised the speed and strength of his security.
He said he received a bruise on his arm just from a secret service member keeping him on the floor.
‘That’s just from a guy grabbing me,’ Trump said. ‘You know how strong you have to be to do that?’
‘They did a fantastic job,’ he added. ‘It’s surreal for all of us.’
Trump also saw the bizarre side of the incident, including one moment where he can be seen saying that he wants to get his shoes.
‘The agents hit me so hard that my shoes fell off, and my shoes are tight,’ he said.
Trump, ever the showman, added that he wanted to try and go back to the podium and keep speaking.
‘I wanted to keep speaking – I wanted to keep speaking, but I just got shot. It’s a very surreal experience, and you never know what you’re going to do until a thing like that happens.’
Thomas Matthew Crooks, the 20-year-old would-be assassin who shot Donald Trump, opened fire at the former president with an AR-style rifle from a roof 130 yards from the rally stage in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Saturday at 6.15pm.
He spoke to journalist Salena Zito, who was photographed at the rally following the gunfire, hiding behind a speaker.
Zito said that Trump reached out to her on CNN Sunday, where they began an interview about the shooting, his reaction and his plans for his speech on Thursday at the RNC.
‘The speech I was going to give on Thursday was going to be a humdinger,’ he told the Washington Examiner.
‘Had this not happened, this would’ve been one of the most incredible speeches aimed mostly at the policies of President Joe Biden.
‘Honestly, it’s going to be a whole different speech now,’ he added.
‘I think it would be very bad if I got up and started going wild about how horrible everybody is, and how corrupt and crooked, even if it’s true. Had this not happened, we had a speech that was pretty well set that was extremely tough. Now, we have a speech that is more unifying.’
Trump, who has often cut a divisive figure in American politics, now plans a Thursday speech that could unite the nation.
‘It is a chance to bring the country together. I was given that chance. This is a chance to bring the whole country, even the whole world, together. The speech will be a lot different, a lot different than it would’ve been two days ago,’ he said.
It seems to be part of an attempt by both sides to tone down the rhetoric following the shooting.
‘I’ve been fighting a group of people that I considered very bad people for a long time, and they’ve been fighting me, and we’ve put up a very good fight,’ he said.
‘We had a very tough speech, and I threw it out last night, I said I can’t say these things after what I’ve been through.’
He still appeared skeptical but hopeful that he could bring Americans of all political stars and stripes together.
‘I’d love to achieve unity if you could achieve unity, if that’s possible. There are many good people on the other side … But there are also people who are very divided. Some people actually want open borders and some people don’t want open borders,’ he said.
‘The question is can those two sides get together? Can sides where you have people who want to see men play in women’s sports, and you have a side that doesn’t understand even the concept of allowing that to happen [get together]?’
A member of the crowd was killed in the deadly shooting, while two others who were wounded are in critical condition. All three are males, according to law enforcement officials.
Trump was left bloodied and hurt during the assassination attempt as he was seen to suddenly grab hold of his ear as loud bangs rang out and whizzed by before he ducked to the floor.
The Secret Service swarmed around the 45th US President as piercing screams were heard from the MAGA crowd.
He then got to his feet with blood pouring down his cheek and raised his fist in the air and defiantly shouted ‘fight’ while the audience shouted ‘USA’ as he was dragged off stage and bundled into a vehicle.
Secret Service agents could be heard shouting ‘the shooter is down’ in the ensuing chaos and the gunman was later confirmed dead.
Trump was taken to hospital for treatment before being later released.
Spokesman Steven Cheung said Trump is ‘fine’ and being checked out at a local medical facility while the former president’s eldest son Donald Trump Jr said his father ‘is in great spirits’.
Trump flew back to New Jersey ahead of his spending the night at his golf resort in Bedminster.
In a post to his Truth Social network, Trump thanked the Secret Service and other law enforcement ‘for their rapid response’.
‘I knew immediately that something was wrong in that I heard a whizzing sound, shots, and immediately felt the bullet ripping through the skin,’ he said on social media.
‘Much bleeding took place, so I realized then what was happening.
‘I want to thank The United States Secret Service, and all of law enforcement, for their rapid response,’ Trump added.
‘Most importantly, I want to extend my condolences to the family of the person at the rally who was killed, and also to the family of another person that was badly injured.
‘It is incredible that such an act can take place in our country.
‘GOD BLESS AMERICA!’
President Biden said in a statement that Americans ‘must unite as one nation’ in response to the horrific scenes.
Biden called for a peaceful return to politics but his Oval Office address Sunday night contained a few errors as he attempted to bring down the political temperature in the wake of an assassination attempt on Donald Trump.
‘Politics must never be a little battlefield or, god forbid, a killing field,’ Biden said in the Sunday evening speech. ‘No matter how strong our convictions, we must never descend to violence.’
He reminded Americans the place to take out their differences was at the ballot box and, as he prepares to restart his re-election campaign, he called on voters to ‘cool it down.’
But the president made a few glaring errors in his six-minute address, including calling the ballot box ‘the battle box’ and referring to former President Donald Trump as ‘former Trump.’
His overall message came through, however.
‘Tonight I’m asking every American to recommit,’ Biden noted. ‘Hate must have no safe harbor.’
For his remarks, the president used the Oval Office to add a sense of weight and formality to his words. He spoke from the Resolute Desk, an American flag and the presidential seal behind him. Oval Office addresses are usually rare and used to give greater heft and sense of state to the occasion.
Thomas Matthew Crooks, the 20-year-old would-be assassin who shot Trump, was once rejected from his high school rifle club and considered a danger.
The registered Republican and 2022 high school graduate opened fire at the former president with an AR-style rifle from a roof 130 yards from the rally stage in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Saturday at 6.15pm.
Now, disturbing anecdotes have emerged from those who knew Crooks dating back to his days at Bethel Park High School.
Crooks tried out for the school’s rifle team but was turned away because he was a bad shooter, said Frederick Mach, a current captain of the team who was a few years behind Crooks at the school.
Jonathan Myers, a member of the team around the time Crooks auditioned, said there was something ominous about him back then.
‘He didn’t just not make the team, he was asked not to come back because how bad of a shot he was, it was considered like, dangerous,’ Myers told ABC News.
Fellow classmate Jameson Murphy added: ‘He tried out…and was such a comically bad shot he was unable to make the team and left after the first day.’
Many are also questioning the Secret Service and how they allowed the president to get so close to a bullet.
The Secret Service’s primary responsibility is to protect current and former presidents, a job they have been accused of failing spectacularly.
It is perhaps the worst lapse in security since President Ronald Reagan was shot and wounded at a Washington hotel in 1981.
They now face a torrent of questions of how the first assassination attempt in 43 years was allowed to happen.
Politicians, law enforcement and critics are demanding answers on how Crooks managed to get so close to a rally that was surrounded by such vast security.
Top Republicans and Democrats have demanded an urgent investigation.
There are suggestions that routine checks would have eliminated all potential threats.
In a damning statement on Saturday night, FBI Special Agent Kevin Rojek said it was ‘surprising’ Crooks managed to fire off so many shots.
There are also allegations that Trump’s team asked for more protection on the campaign but was rebuffed.
The Secret Service has since denied those claims, but are still under immense scrutiny for what has been called an ‘absolute failure’.
And Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., became the first lawmaker to say that the director of Secret Service Kimberly Cheatle ‘needs to go.’
President Joe Biden, addressing Americans from the White House Sunday, promised an ‘independent review’ into what happened at the rally.
‘I’m directing an independent review on national security [at] yesterday’s rally to assess exactly what happened, and we’ll share the results of that independent review with the American people as well,’ Biden stated.