It was the shot that rattled America over the weekend — although it seems to have rattled its target’s footwear more than it rattled the target.
In his first interview since a bullet from a would-be assassin’s rifle ripped through his right ear, former President Donald Trump told the New York Post it was a “very surreal experience” and recounted how his shoes got knocked off.
The presumptive GOP presidential candidate was at a rally in the Pittsburgh suburb of Butler, Pennsylvania, on Saturday when a gunman, identified by authorities as 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, opened fire on him.
The wounds to Trump were serious but not life-threatening. Tragically, that wasn’t the case for several in the audience, with one man killed and two others in critical condition as of Saturday night, according to The Associated Press.
The perpetrator was killed by Secret Service agents after the shooting.
Speaking to reporters aboard his private plane as he traveled from New Jersey to Milwaukee for this week’s Republican National Convention, Trump offered a glimpse of what transpired on Saturday night.
“The doctor at the hospital said he never saw anything like this. He called it a miracle,” the former president said, a bandage covering his ear.
“I’m not supposed to be here. I’m supposed to be dead,” Trump said. “I’m supposed to be dead.”
“He said he would be if he had not turned his head slightly to the right to read a chart on illegal immigrants,” the Post reported. “At that instant, what would have been a kill shot instead tore off a small piece of his ear and splattered blood on his forehead and cheek.”
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The former president said that while Secret Service members led him off stage, he insisted he continue giving the speech, a la Teddy Roosevelt after he was wounded before a campaign speech during the 1912 election cycle.
It being 112 years since then and precautionary standards having changed, the Secret Service wasn’t going to allow that.
“I just wanted to keep speaking, but I just got shot,” Trump said.
He said the Secret Service agents swarmed upon him as if they were “linebackers” as soon as the shooting began.
That football-esque tenacity is also responsible for one of the more memorable moments of the fracas, the former president said.
“When they gave the all-clear that the shooter was down, Trump could be heard telling his agents several times to ‘let me get my shoes’ as they tried to quickly usher him to safety,” the AP reported.
The reason he needed to get those shoes? The Secret Service linebackers managed to jar them loose.
“The agents hit me so hard that my shoes fell off, and my shoes are tight,” he told the Post, smiling.
Trump’s staff didn’t allow photos of the bandaged president — although one from Saturday pretty much says it all:
That’s Trump, shoes apparently back where they belong, holding up his fist and mouthing “fight!” to the audience in Butler.
President Trump won’t be stopped.
America can’t be broken.
Pray for our country. pic.twitter.com/PBHvM1yICk— Sarah Huckabee Sanders (@SarahHuckabee) July 13, 2024
“A lot of people say it’s the most iconic photo they’ve ever seen,” the former president said. “They’re right, and I didn’t die. Usually you have to die to have an iconic picture.”
He also commended the job the Secret Service did in protecting him.
“They took him out with one shot right between the eyes,” Trump said of the shooter, pointing to the bridge of his nose.
“They did a fantastic job,” he said. “It’s surreal for all of us.”
For the Trumps, for Republicans, and for all Americans, we couldn’t agree more with that last sentence. Now, the question turns to how it got that surreal.
