In the first detailed description of the wound former President Trump suffered from a would-be assassin's bullet, his campaign issued a statement Saturday saying the bullet came “less than a quarter-inch from entering his head.”
The description of Trump's injury came from U.S. Rep. Ronny L. Jackson (R-Texas), who served as Trump's White House physician.
“The bullet missed his head by less than a quarter inch and struck the top of his right ear,” Jackson, an avowed Trump supporter, wrote in the statement. “The bullet’s path produced a 2 cm wide wound that extended to the cartilaginous surface of the ear. There was significant bleeding initially, followed by marked swelling of the entire top of the ear.”
Jackson said the swelling had since gone down and the wound was healing properly.
“Due to the highly vascular nature of the ear, there is still intermittent bleeding requiring the placement of a bandage,” he wrote. “Given the wide, blunt nature of the wound itself, no suturing was necessary.”
Trump was first treated by staff at a local Pennsylvania hospital. Jackson said he saw Trump the night of the shooting at his residence in Bedminster, New Jersey. “I have been with President Trump since then and have assessed and treated his wound daily. He is doing well,” Jackson wrote.
Trump, a bandage over his ear, recounted the shooting for the first time publicly Thursday night as he formally accepted the Republican Party's nomination for president at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee.
In a show of solidarity, many convention attendees wore bandages over their right ears.
An Arizona delegate wears a bandage on her ear at the Republican National Convention.
(Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times)
“You'll never hear it from me a second time, because it's too painful to tell,” Trump said before describing what happened at a July 13 campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
Trump said that when he turned his head to look at a graphic projected on a screen, he heard “a loud buzzing sound and I felt something hit me very, very hard in my right ear.”
“I said to myself, ‘Wow, what was that? It could only be a bullet. ’ And I put my right hand to my ear and pulled it down. My hand was covered in blood,” he said.
