WASHINGTON:
Former US President Donald Trump has said that a last-millisecond head tilt may have spared him from fatal injury during an assassination attempt on Saturday. This remark came as slow-motion videos of Trump moving just in time as a bullet hits his ear at the Butler rally in Pennsylvania, are going viral on social media.
Many internet users said the head movement, or a tilt, at the last moment literally helped him “dodge a bullet” contributing to him surviving the attack with an injury. Posting slow-motion videos of the moment when the bullet hit his right ear, a user said Trump’s head tilt “saved us from civil war” while another questioned if the bullet would have hit him differently had the Republican candidate not moved his head.
‘THAT CHART SAVED MY LIFE’
Trump, referencing slowed-down footage of the incident, told former White House doctor Ronny Jackson that a bullet grazed his ear but would have struck the rear of his head had he not moved. He explained that he turned his head to view illegal immigration statistics displayed on a big screen at his rally. “That chart that I was going over saved my life,” he was quoted as saying by the New York Post. He added, “The border patrol saved my life. If I hadn’t pointed at that chart and turned my head to look at it, that bullet would have hit me right in the head.”
Another user said: “WATCH SLOW-MO: President Trump moves his head quickly while speaking on how Biden is the worst president. He literally dodged a bullet, had he not moved his head, would the bullet have hit him differently?”
“Slow-motion footage shows Trump moving just in time as a bullet clips his ear,” a user wrote on X.
The incident has been shot from different angles with point-of-view videos flooding the internet in its aftermath. Trump was injured as a bullet pierced the upper part of his right ear, following which he said: “I was shot with a bullet that pierced the upper part of my right ear.”
Another photo “captured” by a former White House Press Corps colleague Doug Mills, which was shared by a user on X, shows the bullet zooms right above Trump’s shoulder, flying in the air to the right of his head, following an “attempted assassination”.
Trump said he heard a “whizzing sound, shots, and immediately felt the bullet ripping through the skin”, as reported by CBS News.
The Secret Service confirmed that Trump is now safe after being injured and taken down from the stage with blood on his face. A spokesperson stated that Trump is “fine” after the “heinous act”.
The attack took place seven minutes into the rally in western Pennsylvania. Thousands of supporters had gathered for the rally, and the shooting was captured live on news channels.
Eyewitnesses have reported that the shooting during Trump’s campaign rally may have originated from a one-story building with a white roof situated to the right of the stage. The suspected shooter who wounded the Republican presidential candidate at a rally is dead. US Secret Service said the apparent assassination attempt on Trump involved “multiple shots (fired) toward the stage from an elevated position outside the rally venue.”
