At the Republican National Convention in July 2024, Donald Trump appeared with a large white bandage covering his right ear. It had been just two days after a bullet had grazed him during an attempted assassination in Butler, Pennsylvania. The image of the then-presidential nominee sparked both solidarity and spectacle, with many delegates donning similar bandages. However, Knewz.com has learned that according to Representative Byron Donalds (R-Fla.), Trump himself admitted privately that the wound “was not too bad.”
‘What do you think of the bandage?’
Speaking at a recent GOP conference, Donalds recalled a candid conversation he had with Trump at the RNC shortly after Trump’s convention speech. “I see the bandage, and the second thing [Trump says] is, ‘What do you think of the bandage?’” Donalds said. “I said, ‘I don’t like it. Take it off.’ That’s what I said. ‘I don’t like it. Take it off.’ I said, ‘Let everybody see the ear.’” Trump reportedly replied, “You know, it’s not too bad. It’s not too bad. … Doc Ronny [Jackson] says, I gotta wear the bandage.” Donalds pushed back again, telling him, “So what? You’re the president, just take the thing off.”
Trump’s injury soon became a symbol
According to reports, Trump’s oversized bandage quickly became more than a medical precaution, as delegates and supporters at the convention embraced it as a mark of resilience. Joe Neglia, an RNC delegate from Arizona, said that he joined in by taping his own ear. “When he came in [to the convention], and there was that eruption of love in the room, I thought, ‘What can I do to honor the truth? What can I possibly do?’” Neglia said. “And then I saw the bandage and I thought, ‘I can do that.’ So I put it on simply to honor Trump and to express sympathy with him and unity with him.” Neglia even joked that the look was “the newest fashion trend,” predicting, “everybody in the world is going to be wearing these pretty soon.”
Trump himself was unenthusiastic about the look
According to Rep. Donalds, Trump himself was not as enthusiastic about the “medical head accessory,” despite his supporters’ embrace of the symbolic bandage. Still, he deferred to medical advice from Rep. Ronny Jackson (R-Texas), his former White House physician, to keep the dressing in place. While Trump may have minimized the seriousness of his injury in private, the public image of the bandage resonated widely at the Republican National Convention.
The assassination attempt on Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania
On July 13, 2024, Trump survived an assassination attempt while speaking at a campaign rally near Butler, Pennsylvania. The gunman, 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, opened fire with an AR-15–style rifle from a rooftop outside the rally grounds, striking Trump in the upper right ear and injuring three others. One rally attendee, Corey Comperatore, was killed, and two others were critically wounded. The Secret Service swiftly surrounded Trump and evacuated him from the stage as agents returned fire, killing Crooks. Despite the attack, Trump returned to the Republican National Convention days later, where his ear bandage became a symbol of solidarity among supporters
The post Trump fesses up: Ear injury was ‘not that bad’ appeared first on Knewz.
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Author: Samyarup Chowdhury
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