Former President Donald Trump recalled a terrifying near-death experience, including the sound of bullets “whisping” when a psychopath gunman tried to assassinate him at a Pennsylvania rally, during his acceptance speech for the Republican 2024 presidential nomination on Thursday.
“I will tell you exactly what happened, and you will never hear it from me again, because it is too painful to talk about,” the 45th president said.
“It was a beautiful, warm day, early evening, in a vast Pennsylvania town,” he continued.
“The music was playing loudly, the campaign was going really well, and when I walked on stage, the crowd was cheering enthusiastically. Everybody was happy. I started speaking powerfully, powerfully and happily, because I was talking about the great work my administration has done on immigration at the southern border.”
The Republican candidate then spoke about the head-turning moment that saved his life.
“Behind me to the right was a big screen that displayed a map of the border crossing I was conducting,” he recalled.
“The numbers were absolutely amazing. I started to turn to the right to look at the graph, and was about to turn just a little further, but I’m so glad I didn’t, when I heard a loud whoosh and felt something hit me hard on my right ear.
“I said to myself, ‘Wow, what was that? It must be a bullet.'”
“There was blood everywhere,” Trump said.
“The amazing thing is, if I hadn’t moved my head at the last moment, just before the shot was fired, the assassin’s bullet would have been perfectly on target and I would not be here tonight,” he said.
Suspect Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, came close to assassinating the 78-year-old president at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania on July 13, firing eight shots at the Butler Farm Show, killing one person and wounding two.
The former president said many in the crowd thought he was dead, which prompted them to stand and pump their fists in the air.
“The crowd was confused, they thought I was dead and there was so much sadness. I could tell when they didn’t know I was out there looking. They thought it was over but I knew. I wanted to do something to let them know I was OK,” he said.
“As you all saw, my fist went up in the air, the crowd knew I was OK. [they] It was a cheer of national pride like I’d never heard before.”
Trump also offered condolences to supporter Corey Comperatore, who was killed on Saturday.
Comperatore’s widow, Helen Comperatore, previously told The Washington Post that her husband’s final words as he shielded the family from the gunfire were, “Get down!”
Trump’s right ear was shot and was wrapped in a white bandage during the Republican National Convention.
Trump associates and attendees at parties held in Milwaukee over the past week told The Washington Post that the former president’s near-death experience has had a profound effect on him, pointing to his calm demeanor at the party convention, his softened rhetoric and his calls for unity this week after the assassination attempt.
