MILWAUKEE — When former President Donald Trump turned to look at Border Patrol statistics while speaking at a rally Saturday, he moved his head “a quarter of an inch” to avoid being shot in the head by a nearby gunman and said the immigration chart saved his life.
While speaking at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, the former president suddenly turned his head to the right and looked at a graph projected on a screen next to the stage.
At that moment, a gunman, identified as 20-year-old Thomas Crooks, took aim at Trump.
Fox News reporter Bret Baier said in a phone interview Sunday that Trump looked at the charts “early on” and was shot in the ear, not the head.
Rep. Ronny Jackson (R-Texas), who served as Trump’s White House physician, also said he discussed the life-saving chart with Trump in conversation. The New York Times.
“He said, ‘The Border Patrol saved my life,'” Jackson told the outlet on Sunday. “‘I was looking at the Border Patrol map,’ he said. ‘If I hadn’t turned my head to point at the map and look, that bullet would have hit me right in the head.'”
The 45th president said the events happened “so quickly” before he fell to the ground and was protected by Secret Service agents, adding that Trump was “surprised that it happened. He understands he is fortunate to be here today.”
Trump specifically referred to a photo taken by New York Times photographer Doug Mills of a bullet flying through the air, saying that a doctor he spoke to said, “If that bullet had been in a quarter-inch different place, I wouldn’t be talking to that doctor today,” Baier continued.
After the shooting, Trump said he “really wanted to go back and say some things, but the Secret Service couldn’t let me,” noting that the former president “wanted to tell the crowd that I was OK.”
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Trump was taken to a nearby hospital on Saturday night for a medical examination before flying to New Jersey.
He posted on Truth Social on Sunday that he was planning to travel to Milwaukee to attend the Republican National Convention as scheduled, despite the shooting.
he” [the shooting] “This is a theme of the convention and we may make some changes based on what he says and what others do,” Baier said during the conversation.
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Baier said he specifically cited the decision to invite former 2024 rival Nikki Haley to speak as one of those changes.
Trump also provided Baier with details of a conversation he had with President Biden on Saturday night.
“He praised the call from President Biden,” Baier said. The two also offered condolences for the victim who was shot at the rally, Baier said.
“He said he was concerned about what was going on domestically, but was very pleased with the Secret Service’s response,” Baier said of Trump.
