US Presidential candidate Donald Trump was injured as a bullet pierced the upper part of his right ear at a rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday night. “I was shot with a bullet that pierced the upper part of my right ear,” Trump said in a post on his social media platform Truth Social.
Former US president Donald Trump was seen walking off his plane unaided hours after surviving an assassination bid, in a video posted by his deputy communications director on social media early Sunday. In the video that Margo Martin uploaded on X, Trump is seen walking down a stairway from his jet while an armed agent keeps watch. He is dressed in a navy suit and a white shirt without a tie. The video does not show his right ear, which was hurt during the effort.
Strong and resilient. He will never stop fighting for America. pic.twitter.com/B9yR3SLQJV
— Margo Martin (@margommartin)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.
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 shooter was identified as Thomas Matthew Crooks, a resident of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania. Crooks, 20, allegedly positioned himself atop a building less than 120 metres away from the podium where Trump was addressing the rally. He was reportedly shot in the head by snipers in Trump’s security detail. An AR-15 assault rifle was also recovered from the spot.
The assassination attempt on Trump, US President Joe Biden's biggest opponent in the US election later this year, has set alarm bells ringing through the country's security establishment.
US President Joe Biden has strongly condemned the incident and also spoken to his arch rival after the shooting. "There's no place in America for this kind of violence. It's sick. It's sick. It's one of the reasons why we have to unite this country... We cannot be like this, we cannot condone this," Biden told reporters in an emergency briefing after the attack on Trump.