Former President Donald Trump provided details on the failed Saturday assassination attempt against him in one of the first interviews conducted after the shocking incident.
Trump was fired upon at a rally in Butler County, Pennsylvania, but his life was spared as he turned his head at the last moment and the bullet meant for his skull instead nicked his ear. The presumptive Republican nominee acknowledged in a Sunday interview with The New York Post that he is “supposed to be dead” and called the incident a “very surreal experience.”
“The doctor at the hospital said he never saw anything like this, he called it a miracle,” Trump told the outlet aboard his private plane as he traveled to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, for the Republican National Convention. “I’m not supposed to be here, I’m supposed to be dead.”
Trump provided a number of clarifying details that may have not been apparent to Americans who saw footage of the failed assassination. The former commander-in-chief was heard, for instance, saying he wanted to retrieve his shoes. He told The New York Post that the Secret Service agents who tackled him “hit me so hard that my shoes fell off, and my shoes are tight.”
Trump showed reporters a large bruise on his right forearm caused by the Secret Service agents tackling him. He thanked the agents and revealed that they took out the shooter, a twenty-year-old from Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, with only “one shot right between the eyes.”
One viral photo from the incident showed the moment when Trump pumped his fist in the air and encouraged supporters to “fight, fight, fight.” Trump said he “just wanted to keep speaking” to his supporters but “got shot” and left the scene on the insistence of the Secret Service.
“A lot of people say it’s the most iconic photo they’ve ever seen,” Trump remarked in the interview. “They’re right and I didn’t die. Usually you have to die to have an iconic picture.”
Trump said in a statement on Sunday that “God alone” prevented the “unthinkable from happening,” encouraged citizens to pray for the two rally attendees who were seriously injured, and mourned the death of Corey Comperatore, a firefighter from Sarver, Pennsylvania, who was struck by a bullet while protecting his family amid the chaos.
