Donald Trump has given his first in-depth interview after miraculously surviving an assassination attempt at his Pennsylvania rally Saturday, insisting ‘I’m supposed to be dead’.
Trump revealed how turning his head away from the crowd to look at a video screen may have saved his life at the Butler, Pennsylvania rally and how he wanted to keep talking after gunman Thomas Matthew Crooks struck him in the right ear.
He said Sunday: ‘I rarely look away from the crowd. Had I not done that in that moment, well, we would not be talking today, would we?’
THE VITAL MOMENT TRUMP’S LIFE WAS SAVED
Trump noted that he had turned slightly to the right so that he could read a chart on illegal immigrants.
‘The most incredible thing was that I happened to not only turn but to turn at the exact right time and in just the right amount,’ he added, saying he survived ‘by luck or by God’.
‘If I only half-turn, it hits the back of the brain. The other way goes right through [my skull]. And because the sign was high, I’m looking up. The chances of my making a perfect turn are probably one tenth of one percent, so I’m not supposed to be here.’
‘I’M NOT SUPPOSED TO BE HERE’
‘Because the thing was an eighth of an inch away. That I would turn exactly at that second, where he [the gunman] wouldn’t stop the shot is pretty amazing. Pretty amazing. I’m really not supposed to be here.’
Trump turned his head at the vital moment and ended up with a bloody ear. He was hustled off stage by his Secret Service detail, but not before giving his supporters a clenched fist salute.
TRUMP’S ICONIC PHOTO
The former president addressed the now-iconic moment where he raised his fist and mouthed ‘fight’ to the stunned audience.
‘A lot of people say it’s the most iconic photo they’ve ever seen,’ Trump said. ‘They’re right and I didn’t die. Usually you have to die to have an iconic picture.’
READ ALSO – I knew I was going to kill someone today’: Mum who BEAT pensioner to death in a supermarket told police
He said he wanted his fans to know he was alright ‘and that America goes on, we go forward, that we are strong.’
‘I said, I’ve got to walk out, I have to walk out,’ Trump said during his flight to Milwaukee.
‘I did not want to be carried out. I’ve seen people being carried out, and it’s not good. And I had no problem with walking.’
Trump was full of praise for his adoring audience, citing how they reacted to the situation.
