Former President Donald Trump knew the risks of holding the nation's highest office even before the first assassination attempt. “You can never be too prepared” for facing the dangers of a “dangerous job,” he told Breitbart News in an exclusive interview in August.
Trump spoke exclusively to Breitbart News Editor-in-Chief Alex Marlow and Washington Bureau Chief Matt Boyle about the details of the July 13 assassination attempt. The interview came just weeks after the first assassination attempt, in which Trump was shot in the ear and nearly died, and before Sunday's assassination attempt was thwarted by police.
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“Being president is a dangerous job,” Trump told Breitbart News from his Mar-a-Lago office. “You look at how many people have been assassinated, you look at how many assassination attempts there have been. Reagan came close. He came close. People don't know this, but we thought we were going to lose him.”
Trump noted that four of the 46 presidents in history, or about 12%, have been assassinated — a much higher rate than presidents of most other professions.
Presidents Abraham Lincoln, James Garfield, William McKinley, and John F. Kennedy were assassinated, but many others faced assassination attempts: President Ronald Reagan was shot while in office, and Presidents Andrew Jackson, William Howard Taft, Herbert Hoover, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Harry Truman, Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama all had assassination attempts thwarted while in office.
Both President Trump and President Teddy Roosevelt were wounded in the assassination attempt as they were returning to the White House.
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“That's a pretty high number,” Trump said, “and when it comes to attempted attacks, the attempts are pretty bad.”
Trump told Breitbart News that no one can truly prepare for facing their own death at the hands of an assassin.
“You can never be too prepared for that. In fact, I think it's better to be prepared,” Trump said. “But this is a dangerous profession. It's very dangerous to be president. I know that. I've always known that. Especially if you have strong opinions, strong beliefs – if you want a strong border, a strong economy, a strong military, things that are important to our country. The more you are on things that are important to our country, the more dangerous it is.”
Trump detailed what went through his mind after he was shot.
“Many times, and thinking about this, it seemed like a surreal moment, like I almost didn't know where I was,” Trump recalled. “I didn't feel that way. I knew right away I'd been hit.”
Trump said that if the bullet had hit him in the head instead of his ear, “my head would have exploded like a watermelon” and that America's enemies would have used it as propaganda against the United States.
“What if we watched it on slow-motion instant replay?,” Trump said. “That would have to be divine intervention, so let's just think about it.”
Trump also said Democrats' constant false claims that he is a threat to democracy won't help stop such incidents.
“I think it might have something to do with the left,” Trump said. “I don't know. Sure, they talk all the time about threats to democracy, but I think this is a terrible thing to say. They don't believe in anything. A lot of people think this is because of their rhetoric. Their rhetoric is terrible. All I want to do is make America great again. We have a name for it, Make America Great Again. But this is a risky business. Think about it. The percentage is like 12 percent. It's worse than taking off in a spaceship, and it's not good either. But it's a lot safer than this.”
Read Trump's detailed conversation with Breitbart News about the first assassination attempt here.
Bradley Jay is Capitol Hill correspondent for Breitbart News. Follow him on X/Twitter. Translator.
