President Donald Trump’s reaction to seeing the now infamous pictures of the shooting at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania has been revealed in an excerpt from a new book.
Trump, by that point in hospital shortly after the shooting, had just watched then-President Joe Biden address the nation regarding the attempted assassination via a CNN feed while on the phone of an aide. After watching the speech, Trump asked to see some pictures of the attack, Alex Isenstadt writes in an excerpt of his book Revenge published in Vanity Fair.
Evan Vucci of the Associated Press had captured the moment Trump raised his fist to the sky with blood trickling down his face and the American flag flying behind him on July 13 last year.
“Wow, that's iconic,” said Trump. “That's the most American picture I've ever seen.”
Trump had opened his speech in Butler by bragging about his “big beautiful crowd.”
After a few minutes, he began speaking about how the number of illegal immigrants in the U.S. had increased under Biden, who was being urged to step back from the race at the time following his disastrous debate performance on June 27.
“We have millions and millions of people in our country that shouldn't be here, dangerous people. Criminals, we have criminals. We have drug dealers,” said Trump before turning to point to a big screen over his right shoulder showing a graph revealing the increase.
It was at that point that the shots rang out. Communications Director Stephen Cheung had been reading emails and texts and thought it was the sound of firecrackers before seeing a monitor showing a bloodied Trump grabbing his ear.
Chief of Staff Susie Wiles yelled.
“Everyone get down!”
Had Trump not turned to look at the screen, the bullet would likely have killed him. Secret Service agents piled on top of the then-former president, shielding him. The agents tried to decide their next move.
“What are we doing? What are we doing?”
“On three, on you. Move! Move!”
“Shooter’s down,” one agent said about 40 seconds after the shots rang out.
“Are we good to move?”
“We’re clear! We’re clear!”
The agents started to lift Trump, whose shoes had slipped off in the chaos. Trump had been wearing shoes by Bally, a Swiss company. They were designed to be tied on, but Trump used them as slip-ons, Isenstadt notes.
As he stood up, Trump looked out between the agents at the crowd, pushing himself to the fore and pumping his fist three times. “Fight, fight, fight,” he said as the audience cheered.
Trump was quickly taken to the Butler Memorial Hospital, eight miles from the rally site. The hospital went into lockdown, with Secret Service agents with their long guns out and nurses moving patients out of units to make room for Trump and his entourage, Isenstadt writes in Revenge.
As Trump was taken into the emergency room, he was only in an undershirt and suit pants.
“This is going to make some news,” said Trump.
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