President Donald Trump reflected on July 13 on the second anniversary of the assassination attempt against his life at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, in 2024.
Two years after being grazed by a bullet just eight minutes into his campaign speech, Trump told “Fox & Friends” that God had been watching over him. Trump was shot in the right ear on July 13, 2024, by Thomas Crooks, 20, after the gunman climbed onto the roof of the American Glass Research building, which was outside the Secret Service’s inner security perimeter.
The president said that his two eldest sons know a lot about guns from hunting and that they told him that there was almost “no chance” of a miss from that distance with the DPMS Panther Arms A-15 rifle that was used by the would-be assassin.
Trump said Crooks’s shot from that close was like “sinking a two-foot putt,” which was “almost automatic.”
“God was with me,” he added.
Trump said the bullet that struck his right ear would have killed him if he had not turned his head to show a chart. He said he only used the chart about one in 10 times at campaign rallies and that the chart was “always” located to his left, but had been to his right at the Butler rally.
“If I looked to the left, I wouldn’t be talking to you right now,” he told “Fox & Friends.”
Trump also said the chart he was reading about U.S.–Mexico border crossings was typically included at the end of his speeches but was placed toward the beginning for the July 13 rally.
“I look over to the right as it’s coming down, and I said, ‘Wow, what was that?’” he said. “I said, ‘It’s either the biggest, most violent mosquito in history, or I just got shot.’”
Trump said he realized that it was “one of the two things” after he touched his ear and noticed that there was blood “all over” it.
Recent Assassination Attempt Report
The report also shows how inadequate planning, limited intelligence sharing by law enforcement agencies, and ineffective coordination with law enforcement agencies to secure the area, combined with a failure to block the line of sight to Trump, resulted in Crooks being able to open fire from the roof of a nearby building.
The Homeland Security report states that Crooks had an unobstructed “clear view” from 155 yards to the stage, and that the Secret Service did not confirm whether campaign staff had blocked the line of sight from the American Glass Research building’s roof.
“I was looking right into his eyes, and that’s when he got shot. ... I saw the life go right out of him. We read each other; we didn’t have to speak. I was reading his eyes in that moment ... and—bam—it was gone.”
The inspector general issued seven recommendations in the Homeland Security report to improve security at future events. The Secret Service said it agreed with the recommendations.
Continued Assassination Concerns
“I’ve been on their list for a long time,” he said. “That’s what we’re dealing with. The only thing is, I’ve left instructions—if anything happens, to just literally bomb them at levels that they’ve never seen before.”
