Donald Trump brought on stage the staffer he credits with saving his life, saying he decided he didn’t need to be “nicer” to Democrats after nearly dying.
Just 17 days after the historic assassination attempt, the former president returned to Pennsylvania in an attempt to woo voters in the state where the election was still uncertain.
If Trump had not turned his head to look at an immigration chart on the screen during his rally in Butler, the bullet likely would have gone into his head instead of past his ear.
And now Trump is claiming that the woman who took the image is the reason he is alive.
While many speculated that Trump had “changed” after the shooting, he continued the attacks, unveiling even more nicknames for his new 2024 rival, Kamala Harris, at his latest rally – only the third since he was shot.
Donald Trump took to the stage at a rally in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, to bring out the staffer who captured the image that caused him to turn his head and likely escape death during his rally in Butler, Pennsylvania earlier this month
“Happy to be back in this great state,” Trump said. “As you know, this is my first return to the state since my rally in Butler.”
He swore, “We’re going back to Butler, by the way.”
Just 225 miles from where he walked out of his rally with a bleeding ear, Trump was back to his usual routine, hurling a barrage of insults at Vice President Harris.
Speaking at the Farm Show Complex in Harrisburg, Trump blasted the “personality makeup” he said has attempted to mold Harris into the beloved late British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.
He also showed off the immigration map that “saved my life,” bringing on stage for the first time the employee who created the chart, which he credits with playing a role in averting disaster.
“I love that chart. I’m going to sleep with that chart for the rest of my life,” Trump said.
The campaign worker who had created the graph came on stage and quickly said “hi” into the microphone.
“She’s a computer genius. She saved my life,” the former president praised.
Trump called Kamala “crazy” before stopping himself and explaining why he didn’t
“When I got hit, everybody thought I was going to be a nice guy and they thought I was going to change. Remember? Right before the Republican Convention,” Trump said.
President Donald Trump returned to Pennsylvania for the first time since he was gunned down at a rally in the Keystone State 17 days earlier. He explained why he is not “nicer” after the assassination attempt, claiming he only felt like he might have changed a few hours after his death.
Trump says the media is trying to change the perception of the vice president. “Kamala is getting a personality makeover. Remember, four weeks ago she was the worst. And suddenly she’s the new Margaret Thatcher,” he said, referring to the beloved late Conservative British prime minister
The former president claimed that everyone thought he was “going to be a nice man now” because “he was almost dead.”
“And I really agreed with it for about eight hours,” he said, laughing. “And then I realized they wanted to put me in jail because I hadn’t done anything wrong.”
“I was nice for about three, four, five hours. And then I said, these are bad people.”
At his rally in Butler on June 13, gunman Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, shot Trump in the ear — inches away from a potentially fatal shot. The only thing that saved his life was turning his head at the last moment to look at a graph on a screen during his rally.
Crooks was taken out by the Secret Service, but not before killing a rally attendee, seriously wounding two others and striking Trump in the right ear with his father’s AR-style rifle.
Pennsylvania MAGA fanatics were thrilled to see the former president return to the Keystone State and cheered his new statements about Harris.
“The leaders of the radical and Democratic Party have installed a puppet candidate who only fights for herself. She is completely owned and controlled by the donors,” Trump claimed.
“After years of lying to the country about Joe Biden’s mental and physical condition, Kamala is getting a personality makeover. Remember, four weeks ago she was the worst,” he said of the vice president. “And suddenly she’s the new Margaret Thatcher.”
“Everything about the Kamala rollout is fake and nonsense,” he said.
Thousands of people lined up at the Farm Show Complex in Harrisburg to hear the former president speak upon his return to Pennsylvania on Wednesday
Trump was shot in the right ear at his rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13
The FBI, the Secret Service and multiple congressional committees are investigating the incident, looking specifically at security lapses that allowed Crooks to climb onto a roof just 400 feet from where the former president spoke that day.
Kimberly Cheatle, the director of the Secret Service, resigned after a heated hearing in the House of Representatives, facing fierce questions and bipartisan calls to resign.
New Holland Arena has 7,318 wooden seats with peeling blue, red and orange paint – but the floor can hold hundreds more. With every seat in the stadium filled, along with floor seating and some standing room, there appear to have been about 8,000 in attendance for Wednesday night’s gathering.