Former President Trump broke his silence about the assassination attempt against him at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania on Saturday.
“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.”
“The doctors at the hospital said they’d never seen anything like this, it’s a miracle,” Trump told the paper aboard his private jet en route to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, for this week’s Republican National Convention. “A lot of people are saying it’s either luck or God, but it’s God that I’m still alive.”
Trump He told the Post The bullet that grazed him would have been fatal had he not tilted his head slightly to the right to read a chart about illegal immigration.
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Republican presidential candidate and former president Donald Trump is escorted off stage during a campaign rally, Saturday, July 13, 2024, in Butler, Pennsylvania. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
He described a Secret Service agent charging toward him like a “linebacker” and said another agent took down the gunman with “one shot between the eyes.”
“They’ve done an amazing job,” he told The Post. “It feels surreal for all of us.”
As Secret Service agents hurried Trump off the stage, he could be heard asking to retrieve his shoes.
“The officer hit me so hard that my shoes came off. They were too tight,” he explained to the Post.
Reacting to footage of him raising his fist and being surrounded by Secret Service agents shortly after the shooting, Trump said, “Many people are saying this is the most iconic photo they’ve ever seen.”
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On Saturday, July 13, Trump was seen being escorted off stage at a campaign event in Butler, Pennsylvania, with blood running down his face and surrounded by Secret Service agents. (Rebecca Droke/AFP via Getty Images)
“As they say, I’m not dead. To have an iconic photo you usually have to die,” he added. “I just wanted to keep talking, and I got shot.”
Trump told the New York Post that he was grateful for the “wonderful” and “very lovely” phone call he received from Biden after the incident, and said future campaign events could be more civil, without giving specifics.
He praised the rally’s audience for remaining calm throughout the incident.
President Trump has described a photo of him raising his fist after the shooting as “iconic.” (Rebecca Droke/AFP via Getty Images)
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“In a lot of places, you hear one shot and everybody runs. Here, we heard multiple shots and they stayed,” Trump said. “I love them. They’re just great people.”
