During his powerful speech at the Republican National Convention on Thursday night, former President Donald Trump maintained that he is only alive “by the grace of Almighty God” following the horrific assassination attempt at his Butler, Pennsylvania, rally last weekend. Trump recounted shocking details about the attempt on his life at the Milwaukee, Wisconsin convention.
Trump addressed the incident that rattled the nation to its core, stating, “As you already know, the assassin’s bullet came within a quarter of an inch of taking my life. So many people have asked me, ‘What happened, please?’ and, therefore, I’ll tell you what happened,” Trump’s prepared remarks read. The former president added, “And you’ll never hear it from me a second time because it’s too painful to tell.”
He recounted the evening in Butler Pennsylvania, saying, “It was a warm, beautiful day in the early evening in Butler Township in the great Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.” However, moments before the shooting started, he was discussing his record on tackling illegal immigration, where he turned to look at a screen that displayed a chart with border crossing data.
“In order to see the chart, I started to, like this, turn to my right and was ready to begin a little bit further turn, which I’m very lucky I didn’t do, when I heard a loud whizzing sound and fell something hit me really, really hard on my right ear,” he explained. “I said to myself, ‘Wow what was that? It can only be a bullet.’”
Trump further recalled, “Just absolutely blood all over the place…I immediately knew it was very serious, that we were under attack and, in one movement, proceeded to drop to the ground,” he said.“There was blood pouring everywhere, and, yet, in a certain way, I felt very safe because I had God on my side,” Trump said, noting God’s diving protection during the harrowing incident.
The Republican presidential candidate expressed how he had turned his head at the perfect time to prevent the bullet from striking him in the skull in what would have certainly been a fatal headshot. However, the last-second gesture prevented the bullet from landing the headshot, grazing his ear just millimeters off target.
The amazing thing is that before the shot, if I had not moved my head at that very last instant the assassin’s bullet would have perfectly hit his mark. And I would not be here tonight; we would not be together,” he said, explaining that the most incredible aspect was the crowd, as they did not run away in panic or stampede. Instead, they stood by and did not move, many standing up to search for the sniper and pointing in his direction.
Trump added, “Nobody ran, and by not stampeding, many lives were saved. But that isn’t the reason that they didn’t move. The reason is that they knew I was in very serious trouble; they saw they saw me go down. They saw the blood and thought, actually, most did, that I was dead,” he said, as it was apparent the shot had made contact with his head.
Watch his speech below:
Note: The featured image is a screenshot from the embedded video.