Former President Donald Trump shared fresh insights about the first attempt on his life at his rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, detailing how his son Barron discovered the incident.
“Barron was playing tennis with his friends, and somebody walked over and ran over and said, ‘Your father’s been shot. He’s been shot,’” Trump recounted on ‘The Ingraham Angle.’ “Barron really likes his father a lot… and he came in [saying], ‘Mom, mom, Mom, what happened?’”
“Then they saw me get up, and then they saw the fist bump… it’s very interesting,” Trump said. “When I got up, people thought maybe he’s dead.”
“The hospital was great, and I didn’t realize this — when a president goes to an area, they close the hospital in its entirety, it’s ready for exactly this,” Trump continued. “I didn’t know they did. I got there, doctors and nurses were outside, and no people. They literally close it, almost like they expect this.”
“It’s… genius, but who would ever think that? And I was so impressed.
“I convinced them I thought I was only hit in the ear. It’s very interesting,” Trump explained. “But they got me up and I watched and it was dead silent, even though I was standing up and in vision because people didn’t know I was alive or not, and then when I did the fist pump, everybody realized and they’re screaming, ‘USA, USA.’ It was the craziest day. It was a crazy time.”
On Saturday, Trump revisited the Butler Farm Show grounds in the small Pennsylvania city to speak — the location where, nearly three months earlier, a gunman’s bullets nicked the ear of the Republican presidential nominee. The same attack also claimed the life of one rally attendee and left two others injured. At the start of his speech, Trump acknowledged the death of Comperatore and expressed his gratitude to his family, including his widow and their daughters, for their presence.
Trump took the stage to a live rendition of Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless The USA,” the former president’s signature entrance music. The former president took his time to wave to supporters as he slowly made his way to the podium. He then embraced Greenwood and shook his hand as he finished up the song. Trump was ultimately welcomed to the stage with roaring chants of “USA” from the 50,000-strong crowd. After thanking Greenwood, the crowd and the state of Pennsylvania, Trump began his speech with, “as I was saying.” The campaign then displayed the infamous immigration chart, which Trump miraculously turned to look at just as the gunman opened fire. The last-second turn caused the bullet to miss the former president’s head by a matter of inches.
“Exactly 12 weeks ago this evening on this very ground a cold-blooded assassin aimed to silence me and to silence the greatest movement in the history of our country. But by the hand of providence and the grace of God, that villain did not succeed in his goal,” Trump told the crowd.
Hours before former Trump took the stage, thousands of the former president’s most loyal supporters descended on the small Pennsylvania community for the historic rally. Supporters wore shirts depicting Trump’s infamous reaction to the assassination attempt — when he turned to the crowd and raised his fist in defiance — complete with the word “fight, fight, fight.”
This time around, the Secret Service left no point unguarded around the event perimeter, while counter-snipers could be seen on the rooftop from which the gunman, Thomas Matthew Crooks, opened fire.
