Former President Donald Trump vividly recounted a prior assassination attempt during a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, in an exclusive interview.
He described a scene where rapid responses from the Secret Service and hospital staff were pivotal, along with the emotional impact on his family and supporters, Fox News reported.
At the Butler rally on July 13, an assailant named Thomas Matthew Crooks opened fire and struck Trump in the ear. The chaos that ensued prompted the Secret Service to take swift action, shielding Trump by immediately flattening him to the ground for safety.
The former president detailed how, after the shooting, someone notified his youngest son, Barron Trump, during a tennis game.
"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 recalled the moment his son learned of the incident.
Barron's reaction was of deep concern as he rushed to find his mother, Melania. "He likes his father a lot… and he came in [saying], ‘Mom, mom, Mom, what happened?’," Donald Trump reflected on his son's distress upon hearing the news.
In the aftermath, medical personnel took Trump to a nearby hospital, where they implemented an unprecedented protocol. "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," he described, praising the efficiency and readiness of the medical staff.
Donald Trump also highlighted Corey Comperatore's heroic act during the rally; Comperatore, a rally attendee, tragically succumbed to injuries while protecting his family during the shooting. Trump honored this poignant memory at a subsequent rally with a moment of silence at the exact minute the shooting occurred.
Despite being struck, Trump managed to convince his security that his injuries were not fatal. "I convinced them that I thought I was only hit in the ear. "It's very interesting," he mentioned, speaking about the immediate moments following the attack. His resilience was visible as he signaled to the crowd with a fist pump, which reassured the frantic spectators.
Describing the rally post-incident, Trump mentioned, "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."
Months after the incident, at another rally at the same location on October 5, 2024, Elon Musk, the influential tech mogul, made an appearance.
He energized the crowd, accentuating the importance of active political participation. “Fight, fight, fight, vote, vote, vote,” Musk captivated the attendees, furthering Trump's narrative of resilience and campaigning.
The recapitulation of these events by Trump not only sheds light on the dire situation managed effectively by his security and medical team but also hallmarks an emotional and rallying moment for his supporters, encapsulating the gravity of such assassination attempts on public figures and the profound effects on their families and followers.
