‘Grateful’ Trump Opens Up About the Attempt on His Life and How It Has Impacted His Campaign
“I’m not supposed to be here. I’m supposed to be dead.”
Former President Donald Trump is opening up about Saturday’s attempt on his life, telling the New York Post the shooting was a “very surreal experience.”
“By luck or by God — many people are saying it’s by God — I’m still here.”
Trump says that his doctor — like many others — used the word “miracle” when describing how he survived being shot with an AR-15. “The doctor at the hospital said he never saw anything like this, he called it a miracle.”
The former president described to reporters on his flight to Milwaukee for the Republican National Convention just how close he came to actually seeing God face-to-face on Saturday.
The most incredible thing was that I happened to not only turn but to turn at the exact right time and in just the right amount. If I only half-turn, it hits the back of the brain. The other way goes right through [the skull]. And because the sign was high, I’m looking up. The chances of my making a perfect turn are probably one-tenth of one percent, so I’m not supposed to be here.
Trump told reporters he wanted to keep on speaking at the rally, but “I just got shot.” Plus, the Secret Service insisted he be evacuated and taken to the hospital.
The Impact on His Thinking
Byron York, who was on the flight, said it’s clear the former president is still processing what had happened, with Trump acknowledging the harrowing experience “did have a lot of impact.”
For instance, it’s reframed his approach to the speech he’ll be delivering at the convention. Trump says he now wants to stress unity. “This is a chance to bring the whole country, even the whole world, together,” he told the Washington Examiner’s Salena Zito. “The speech will be a lot different, a lot different than it would’ve been two days ago.
“I’ve been fighting a group of people that I considered very bad people for a long time, and they’ve been fighting me, and we’ve put up a very good fight,” he added. “We had a very tough speech, and I threw it out last night, I said I can’t say these things after what I’ve been through.”
He added that he doesn’t know how long the effort by people on both sides of the political aisle to turn away from divisive rhetoric will last.
The Shoes
As Trump was getting to his feet after being shot on Saturday, with the Secret Service eager to get him away from the scene, he was heard demanding, “Wait. I want to get my shoes.” What was up with that?
Trump explains, “The agents hit me so hard that my shoes fell off, and my shoes are tight.”
Trump says he insisted on walking off the stage under his own power. “I said, ‘I’ve got to walk out, I have to walk out.’ I did not want to be carried out. I’ve seen people being carried out, and it’s not good. And I had no problem with walking.”
The Fist Pump Seen ‘Round the World
That moment when Trump pumped his fist was captured in an instantly iconic photo by The Associated Press’s Evan Vucci. “A lot of people say it’s the most iconic photo they’ve ever seen,” Trump said. “They’re right and I didn’t die. Usually you have to die to have an iconic picture.”
https://twitter.com/DonaldJTrumpJr/status/1812257391150502372
Trump told Zito that when he stood up, he saw the crowd had not moved, and felt the need to reassure them and the country that he was going to be fine.
“The energy coming from the people there in that moment, they just stood there; it’s hard to describe what that felt like, but I knew the world was looking. I knew that history would judge this, and I knew I had to let them know we are OK.”
He wanted to assure all watching “that America goes on, we go forward, that we are strong.”
Al Perrotta is The Stream’s Washington bureau chief, coauthor with John Zmirak of The Politically Incorrect Guide to Immigration, and coauthor of the counterterrorism memoir Hostile Intent: Protecting Yourself Against Terrorism.