PALM BEACH, Florida ā Former President Donald Trump told Breitbart News exclusively that when he was shot in Butler, Pennsylvania, in mid-July he knew instantly it was a bullet that had hit him.
āA lot of times, and I was thinking about this, it would seem like a surreal momentālike you donāt realize almost where you are,ā Trump said when asked to describe what went through his mind in that moment. āI never felt that. I knew immediately I got hit by a bullet.ā
Trumpās comments came during a lengthy exclusive interview at Mar-a-Lago a couple weeks ago, where he sat for an hour with Breitbart News after a press conference he held earlier in the day. One of the most interesting parts of the interview was Trump talking about the failed assassination attempt from 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks against him, and it was unbelievable to hear Trump himself describe just how lucky he was that the would-be assassinās bullets barely missed him.
Trump, sitting behind his big ornate wooden desk, described to Breitbart News that he would be dead if he had not turned exactly the right way at exactly the right second.
āSo what are the odds that Iām looking to the right?ā Trump said. āThe poster is never used early, and itās never on the right itās always on the left. If you take the odds of this whole thing itās like 10 million to one and you only have an eighth of a second.ā
As Trump said this, he started moving his head to various angles and pointing out heād be dead in all but one angle in which heās alive which he thankfully is today.
āIām turning, and Iām dead here, Iām dead here, Iām dead here, dead, dead, alive, dead,ā Trump said. āSo, think, you only have this exact spot right here. This is an amazing phenomena. Itās millions to nothing. Thereās about an eighth of a second where Iām good. The rest of the time youāre dead.ā
Trump said the shooter was very close to him comparatively speaking, and his sons Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trumpāboth avid shootersāare shocked that the shooter missed.
āBecause [the shooter] was 130 yards away, which for a shooter is very little,ā Trump said. āMy sonās a shooterāhe says thatās like a two-foot putt. He says itās impossible. He said itās like a one-foot putt. Itās impossible. He canāt believe it. Don is a real shooter, and so is Eric. They canāt believe it.ā
Trump said the odds of him looking the exact right way at that exact right second are next to impossible.
āNumber one, Iād never be looking there or there because thereās nobody there and the audience is maybe 55,000 peopleāit was packed,ā Trump said. āThe only reason I lookedāI use that poster, that chart a maximum of 20 percent. I just donāt use it. Itās always at the end and itās always on my left. The only time I use it is at the end of the speech. Now I say put up the poster and letās go, here it is right here. Ping. I never do it during the early part. The only time I do it is at the end of the show and itās always on my leftāthis time it was on my right. So what are the odds that I turn there because thereās nobody there and nobody to speak to there, because the fans are all up there and to the right or the left, but thereās no people there. You have the fences.ā
Trump detailed the second he was shot as he continued explaining the angles that saved his life.
āSo when Iām looking at the audience, Iām like thisāheās got me right here,ā Trump said. āThen I go look like this when heās ready to shoot because I have the immigration sign. So Iām going like that. I said āyou take a look at how well we did,ā and boom. Then remember I took my hand and I looked my hand has blood all over my hand. All overāand I went down. If I didnāt go down I would have been hit. That I donāt consider as lucky because thatās going down. The amazing thing is if my head is even turned like this I get hit. If itās turned like this I get hit. The only thing I could have been is flat. Iām like this, and he was exactly there 90 degreesādead parallel.ā
Trump said that in the moment he āknew exactly what was happeningā and knew that a bullet hit him in the ear. He also said the Secret Service agents who covered him thought he was hit multiple times.
āDonāt forget eight bullets went over me. So if Iām not down, the luckiest was looking this way. Being down is a little different because the bullets were flying over my head. They killed the fireman and they really badly hurt two people who are recovering and are going to make it but they thought those two guys would not be aliveāvery good guys too. You would think it would be a surreal experience. It wasnāt. I knew exactly what was happening. I knew I was hit in the ear. I had seven very large people on top of me. They wanted me to stay down and they assumed [I was hit more than once] because there was so much blood from the ear. Butler Hospital did a fantastic job. But the doctor explained when you get hit in the ear itās the bloodiest part because of cartilage. I said āhow can it be that much?ā It was amazing. He said, āsir, you get hit in the ear, and itās like an explosion of blood.ā If you get hit in the stomach, itās much differentāitās not nearly as badāor if you get hit in the leg. Who would have thought that? But when the ear gets cut you wonāt be happy. But they thought I was hit in multiple places because there were a lot of shots fired. And they didnāt know those shots went over my head.ā
Trump said if the bullet had actually hit his head rather than his ear, āmy head would have exploded like a watermelon,ā and that Americaās adversaries would have used it as propaganda against the United States.
āHow about if you had that on slow-motion instant replay?ā Trump said. āCouple of things just to think of it because itās got to be divine intervention.ā
Trump said his views on the U.S. Secret Service are mixed. While he said there were some failures that dayāparticularly with regard to securing the rooftop from which Crooks shot himāhe also recognizes the bravery of the agents around him who shielded him.
āSo, Secret Service they obviously had a big lapse when they didnāt cover the roof of that building,ā Trump said. āYet, they were very brave when they jumped on me when I went down. I reacted very well because I went down fast.ā
āThey were very brave because they jumped when the shots were coming and yet they jumped,ā Trump added of the agents who shielded him. āYou saw themāthe one big guy comes literally from where the bullets were coming trying to cover me.ā
Later in the interview, Trump added that he thought the effectiveness of the Secret Service counter-sniper who took out the shooter was āincredible.ā
āThe Secret Service sniper was incredible,ā Trump said. āOne shot from 400 yards right thereācan you believe it? He didnāt know about it. He was a shooterāan unbelievable shooter. He heard the noise, he looks aroundāI guess his eyes are good. Thatās four football fieldsāthatās a lot.ā
The then-director of the U.S. Secret Service has resigned, and reportedly several Secret Service personnel have been placed on administrative duty as the investigation into what happened continues. Congressional Republicans have been fighting for more accountability and transparency, and some have raised concerns that the agency has been less than forthcoming. Trump, for his part, seems to side with the idea of more transparency as at his recent event this weekend with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. he announced if he wins in November he will form a special presidential commission on assassinations to get to the bottom of what happened in this case and in so many others throughout U.S. history like the assassinations that killed the father and uncle of RFK Jr. Of course, then-President John F. Kennedy was killed in Dallas, Texas, and then a few years later his brother then-Sen. Robert F. Kennedy was killed in Los Angeles, California, while he was running for president. RFK Jr. has said he has major questions about the circumstances of his own fatherās death, and questions the official narrative which led to the conviction of Sirhan Sirhan whoās currently serving in prison in California. Then, when it comes to JFKās assassination, there have long been unanswered questions about what happened there and many have hoped for generations for more transparency. RFK Jr.ās endorsement of Trump this weekend unites the two historic American political familiesāthe Kennedies and the Trumpsābehind getting to the bottom of these things once and for all.
Itās not just the Kennedies and Trump, though. Former President Ronald Reagan survived an assassinās bullet, and throughout American history several American presidents have been shotāsome fatally.
āBeing president is a dangerous profession,ā Trump told Breitbart News. āIf you look, how many people have been assassinated? Then you see how many people have been attempted? You know, Reagan almost diedāhe came close to dying actually. People donāt know that, but they thought they were going to lose him.ā
Trump noted that out of 46 presidential severalāfour, in factāhave been assassinated, a much higher percentage than most other professions. The four presidents who were killed in office were Presidents Abraham Lincoln, James Garfield, William McKinley, and John F. Kennedy. Thatās around 12 percent of U.S. presents killed in office. In addition to those numbers, many more presidents have faced assassination plots. President Ronald Reagan survived an assassination attempt despite being shot while in office. And several other presidents like Andrew Jackson, William Howard Taft, Herbert Hoover, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Harry Truman, Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama have all faced foiled assassination plots while in office. When out of office, both Trump and Teddy Roosevelt were wounded in failed assassination attempts. Then there are assassination attemptsāeither foiled plots or successful killingsāof people who were running for president, like Kennedyās brother Robert F. Kennedy who was killed. And other high-profile American political leaders like Martin Luther King Jr. who was assassinated as well.
āItās a pretty high number,ā Trump said. āAnd if you talk about attempted, attempted is pretty bad too.ā
While Trump understands the intrigue behind the dangers of the job, he also told Breitbart News that no person not even presidents can ever really be prepared for what he nearly encountered: their own mortality at the hands of an assassin.
āYou can never be too prepared for thatāyou donāt want to be prepared for that actually,ā Trump said. āBut itās a dangerous profession. Being president is a very dangerous thing. I knew thatāI always knew that. Especially if you have strong opinions and strong convictions like you want borders and a strong economy and a strong military and you want things that are important for the nation. The tougher you are in terms of things that are important for the nation the more dangerous it becomes.ā
After Trump was shot and he went down, Trump told Breitbart News the Secret Service personnel around him wanted to take him out on a stretcher. But he said he insisted he could and would get up and walk to the waiting vehicle to take him to the hospital under his own strength.
āI wanted to get up because I thought it would look terrible for me to not get up,ā Trump said. āThey wanted me to go on a stretcher and I said āno I donāt want to go on a stretcher. I was hit in the ear. I was only hit in the ear.ā They said āno, no you were hitāā and I said āIām telling you folks, I want to get up now. I want to get up.ā And they wanted me on a stretcher for obvious reasons because if I was hit somewhere else bad things can happen and you know if they donāt take the person out. I was really actually angry because I didnāt want to go on a stretcher. I wanted to get up and I felt I could get up. I said āthe only place Iām telling you I was hit was in the ear.āā
Trump stood up, and held his fist in the air yelling āfight, fight, fight!ā Then agents hurried him off to the vehicle where they took him to the hospital to treat the bullet wound to his ear.
āPeople think itās the most iconic moment,ā Trump told Breitbart News of the photo of that moment.
One of the other things Trump found fascinating is the reaction of the crowd behind him and around him.
āBut the amazing thing is the audience is there, and it was a massive audienceāit was as far as they eye could see,ā Trump said. āThen you had some people at the back and you saw how brave they are. They didnāt flinch. That one guy right behind me heās lookingāyou want him in a foxhole with you. Heās not hiding.ā
Breitbart News told Trump about a woman named Renee White who was behind him at the Butler rally and who we interviewed at the Republican National Convention (RNC) in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the next week. White can be seen in the video right behind Trump when the shots were fired.
I fully endorse President Trump and hope for his rapid recovery pic.twitter.com/ZdxkF63EqF
ā Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 13, 2024
She was wearing brightly colored Trump gear, the same shirt and hat she wore to the RNC. White told Breitbart News at the RNC that when she saw the shooting, āI was like, āThe fightās on. Heās not done. Heās not down. This isnāt gonna stop him.ā And it gave me hope.ā
Told about Whiteās story, Trump reacted by saying āthe women were very brave.ā
āThe level of love is unbelievable,ā Trump told Breitbart News.
Trump added that the crowd at his rally showed incredible restraint and concern for each other by not rushing out and hurting anyone else in the process.
āCrowd control experts told us when a bullet is fired in a crowd especially in a stadium everyone leaves immediately,ā Trump said. āThey run. They stampedeāthey use the word stampede, like cattle. People are often killed, because like if somebody falls the people run right over them. Itās like terrible. They said theyāve never seen anything like this. Here, there were a lot of bullets firedāand then you had the bullets going the other way too.ā
While very little has come out so far about Crooksāthe shooterāso far, Trump told Breitbart News he was āvery liberal.ā
āI think he was very liberal,ā Trump said. āHe was very smartāa good student and all of that. But very mixed up.ā
As for Crooksās motive, and the broader political discourse in the United States, Trump said Democrats constantly and falsely saying he is a threat to democracy is not helpful to stopping incidents like these.
āI think it might have had something to do with the left,ā Trump said. āIām not sure. Certainly, the way they took about threat to democracy all the timeāI think thatās a terrible statement to make. They donāt believe any of it. A lot of people think itās their rhetoric that caused this. Their rhetoric is terrible. All I want to do is Make America Great Again. We have a nameāMake America Great Again. But itās a dangerous business. Think of itāthe percentageāaround 12 percent. Thatās worse than going up in space ships, and thatās not a good one either. But itās a lot safer than this.ā