Donald Trump has revealed for the first time what his youngest son Barron was doing during the assassination attempt nearly two months ago.
The former president told Fox News’ Mark Levin that the 18-year-old was “outside taking a tennis lesson” when the terrifying scene unfolded at the rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
The GOP presidential candidate claims Barron, 18, found out because someone “ran up to him” and yelled, “Barron! Barron! Your father’s been shot!”
Barron then ran to his mother Melania to ask her what had happened, Trump said, adding that his wife “watched it live.”
Trump, 78, was shot at the rally on July 13, with the bullet piercing the skin of his right ear. He says it was a “miracle” and an act of God that he survived.
Donald Trump has revealed during an interview with Fox News’ Mark Levin how his youngest son Barron was “outside having a tennis lesson” when a gunman tried to kill him. Trump is pictured in the moments after the shooting
Barron, who Trump said was a “good tennis player,” was on the tennis court when he first heard about the attempted assassination.
“He was — he loves his dad, he’s a good kid, good student, good athlete actually — and he ran, ‘Mom! What’s going on? What’s going on?'” Trump said of Barron’s initial reaction to the news.
He explained that Melania had been watching the meeting live and was shocked when she heard gunshots and saw him crouched on the floor behind the stage.
“She couldn’t believe it. She was watching it live, can you imagine? And then I stand up and let people know I’m OK,” he said, noting how he stood up, raised his fist in the air and shouted to the crowd, “Fight! Fight! Fight!”
“I let people know I was fine. But it was a hit, it was a big hit.”
Trump says he asked his wife how she “feels” about the situation, but he says “she can’t even talk about it, which is okay because it means she likes me.”
He also recounted how his eldest son Donald Trump Jr, who he said was “great with guns,” called him afterward and said, “I can’t believe it. From that distance — I can’t believe it.”
“From that distance, it should be a sure thing. Like making a one-foot putt,” Trump said, adding, “If I turned a little less or a little more. If I turned a little more or a little less, it would still be the end.”
“It’s God. I know people who have come to believe in God because of it.”
Barron, 18, found out after someone “ran up to him” and yelled, “Barron! Barron! Your dad’s been shot!” The teen, who graduated from high school in May (pictured), then “ran” to his mother Melania Trump and said, “Mom! What’s going on? What’s going on?”
Trump explained that Melania watched the rally live and was shocked when she heard gunshots and saw him dive to the ground, behind the podium. He is pictured with his wife and their son Barron at the funeral of Ivana Trump on July 20, 2022 in New York City
Last week, the FBI announced that investigators who conducted nearly 1,000 interviews have yet to find a motive for why 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks shot Trump at a campaign rally in July.
TThey believe Crooks carried out “elaborate attack planning,” which included targeting campaign events involving both Trump and now-President Joe Biden, particularly in western Pennsylvania.
The FBI’s analysis of his online search history shows that he “engaged in a sustained, detailed effort to plan an attack on a specific event. That means he was looking at a large number of events or targets,” Kevin Rojek, the special agent in charge of the FBI’s Pittsburgh office, told reporters last week.
When a Trump rally was announced for July 13 in Butler, Pennsylvania, “he became extremely focused on that particular event and saw it as a potential target,” Rojek said.
In the run-up to the meeting, Crooks searched the Internet for, among other things, the location of the meeting, “Where will Trump speak at the Butler Farm Show?”, “Butler Farm Show stage,” and “Butler Farm Show photos.”
According to the FBI, in the 30 days before the attack, Crooks conducted more than 60 internet searches related to Biden and Trump, including the dates of the Democratic and Republican national conventions.
FBI Director Christopher Wray previously revealed that a week before the shooting, Crooks searched Google for “How far was Oswald from Kennedy?”
That is an apparent reference to Lee Harvey Oswald, the gunman who killed President John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963.
This image from the FBI shows Thomas Matthew Crooks’ rifle, which is broken, as likely occurred during transport, and the backpack found at the crime scene in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13, 2024.
This image from the FBI shows Thomas Matthew Crooks’ rifle as it was found at the crime scene in Butler, Pennsylvania on July 13, 2024.
This FBI image shows two improvised explosive devices as they were initially found in the car of Thomas Matthew Crooks at the crime scene in Butler, Pennsylvania, July 13, 2024.
The new details reinforce the picture of Crooks as a highly intelligent and reclusive man who, investigators say, had an eerie interest in explosives, violence and prominent public figures in the years before the shooting. But his internet searches for both Democrats and Republicans have stymied efforts to pinpoint a straightforward political motive or determine why Trump himself might have been targeted.
“We have a clear idea of the mindset, but we’re not ready to make any conclusive statements about the motive at this point,” Rojek said, adding that the FBI has not found that anyone else had prior knowledge of the shooting or that Crooks conspired with anyone else.
The FBI found explosives in his car and home. According to investigators, his internet searches showed that since at least 2019 he had been researching information about bomb-making materials, including information about how remote detonators work.
According to the FBI, Trump was hit in the ear by a bullet or bullet fragment during the attempted assassination.
Crooks fired eight shots from an AR-style rifle, killing one rallygoer and wounding two others before the gunman, who was on the roof of a building less than 150 yards away, was killed by a Secret Service counter-sniper.
Also last week, the FBI released images of the gun Crooks used, his backpack and improvised explosive devices found in his car.