Olivia Nuzzi, a reporter for New York Times Magazine, had the opportunity to inspect Donald Trump’s ear weeks after it was grazed in an assassination attempt and described it as “normal and incredible and fine.”
On July 13, a 20-year-old gunman targeted the former president during a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, grazing Trump’s ear and causing it to bleed. The shooter, Thomas Matthew Crooks, fired eight bullets into the crowd, hitting Trump’s ear and injuring three rally attendees, one of whom died.
The Secret Service’s counter-sniper team neutralized the shooter, who had fired from an elevated position outside the rally grounds. Two other individuals were critically injured in the incident.
Nuzzi visited Trump in Florida a few weeks after the shooting and observed the condition of his ear. Trump pointed to the spot where he was shot, prompting Nuzzi to comment that “an ear had never appeared to have gone through less.”
She noted that the area Trump indicated was “pristine,” and after a careful examination, she found the ear to look “normal and incredible and fine.”
Nuzzi did detect a minor distortion on a small patch of Trump’s ear, which she described as resembling “the distant aftermath of a sunburn” rather than a severe wound.
Trump himself discussed the injury, saying, “It’s a railroad track. They didn’t need a stitch. It’s funny. Usually, something like that would be considered a surreal experience, but there was no surrealism in this case.” He added, “I felt immediately that I got hit by a bullet. I also knew it was my ear. It’s amazing. And the ear, as you know, is a big bleeder.”
