Speaking at the Republican National Convention, former US President Donald Trump recounted the assassination attempt on him during a campaign rally last week, stating that he felt safe during the attack as “God was on my side”.
After accepting his nomination as the official Republican presidential candidate, Trump narrated how the attack unfolded during his rally in Pennsylvania. “I am not supposed to be here tonight. I am not supposed to be here,” he told the crowd who chanted “Yes, you are”.
“I stand before you in this arena only by the grace of almighty God,” he said, adding that many have described the moment as “divine intervention”.
Trump said the bullet missed him as he leaned forward, seconds before the assassin fired the shot, to look at a screen displaying immigration data. “In order to see the chart and I started to turned to my right. I began to turn a little bit further which I am very lucky I did not do,” he said.
“If I had not moved my head at the very last instant, the assassin’s bullet would have perfectly hit its mark, and I would not be with you tonight.”
The bullet that missed him by a few inches, grazed his ear as the 78-year-old Republican nominee hid behind the podium and was quickly whisked off the stage by Secret Service agents.
Trump said he heard “a loud whizzing sound and felt something hit me very, very hard on my right ear”.
“I said to myself, ‘Wow, what was that – it can only be a bullet’ – and moved my right hand to my ear, brought it down, and my hand was covered with blood,” he said, adding that he knew immediately that he was under attack.
“There was blood pouring everywhere, and yet, in a certain way I felt very safe, because I had
God on my side,” Trump said, as he continued to describe the attack.
Trump, who first shared his reaction to the attack on a Truth Social post, said the attack was “too painful to tell” and he would not narrate how it occurred again.
The shooter, a 20-year old nursing aide named Thomas Matthew Crooks, was shot dead by Secret Service snipers. The motive behind his attack is not known yet.
