Former President Trump broke his silence on the assassination attempt against him during a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania on Saturday.
“I’m not supposed to be here, I’m supposed to be dead,” Trump told the New York Post. “I’m supposed to be dead.”
“The doctor at the hospital said he never saw anything like this, he called it a miracle,” Trump told the newspaper on his private plane as he flew to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, for the Republican National Convention. “By luck or by God, many people are saying it’s by God I’m still here.”
Trump told the Post that if he hadn’t tilted his head slightly to the right to study an illegal immigration chart, the bullet that grazed him would have killed him.
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He described the Secret Service agents who ran at him as “linebackers,” noting that another one killed the gunman with “one shot right between the eyes.”
“They did a fantastic job,” he told the Post. “It’s surreal for all of us.”
As Secret Service personnel hustled Trump off the stage, he was heard shouting, “I want my shoes.”
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“The agents hit me so hard that my shoes fell off, and they are tight,” he told the Post.
In response to photographs of him raising his fist and being encircled by Secret Service officials in the seconds after the shooting, Trump stated, “A lot of people say it’s the most iconic photo they’ve ever seen.”
“They are right, and I did not die. “Usually, you have to die to have an iconic photograph,” he remarked. “I just wanted to keep speaking, but I just got shot.”
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Trump also told the New York Post that he appreciated President Biden’s “fine” and “very nice” call following the event, saying – without providing specifics – that the race between them could get more civil in the future.
He applauded the rally audience for being cool throughout the incident.
“When people hear a single shot, they run.” There were a lot of shots, and they stayed,” Trump added. “I love them. “They are such wonderful people.”
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