Former President Donald Trump’s son, Eric Trump, said his father doesn’t have stitches after he was shot in an assassination attempt at a rally in Pennsylvania over the weekend, but that he has a “nice flesh wound” from the shooting.
The former president could be seen touching his ear as the attack unfolded, before he was shielded by Secret Service and whisked off the rally stage with blood on his face. When he appeared at the Republican National Convention on Monday and Tuesday, he wore a large bandage over his injury.
Speaking to “CBS Mornings” co-host Tony Dokoupil from the convention in Milwaukee Wednesday morning, Eric Trump said his father has referred to the injury as “the greatest earache he’s ever had.”
“You know, he was millimeters away from having his life expunged … I’m sure the ear doesn’t feel well,” Eric Trump said.
Eric Trump also told “CBS Evening News” anchor and managing editor Norah O’Donnell on Tuesday that his father’s hearing is fine and that he is “in great spirits.”
The former president was addressing supporters in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Saturday when a 20-year-old gunman, Thomas Matthew Crooks, opened fire — killing a spectator and injuring Trump and two others.
Trump said in a social media post later that night that a bullet “pierced” the upper part of his right ear.
“I knew immediately that something was wrong in that I heard a whizzing sound, shots, and immediately felt the bullet ripping through the skin,” he said. “Much bleeding took place, so I realized then what was happening.”
Rep. Ronny Jackson, who was Donald Trump’s White House doctor, told The New York Times that “the bullet took a little bit off the top of his ear in an area that, just by nature, bleeds like crazy.”
Jackson replaced the former president’s ear dressing during a flight to the Republican convention on Sunday, the Times reported.
“The dressing’s bulked up a bit because you need a bit of absorbent,” he said. “You don’t want to be walking around with bloody gauze on his ear.”
Some Republican convention attendees have worn ear bandages as a show of support for the former president.
“This is the newest fashion trend. I’m getting this going,” Joe Neglia, a delegate from Tempe, Arizona, told CBS News’ Ed O’Keefe on Tuesday evening. “Everybody in the world’s going to be wearing these pretty soon. It’s the latest thing. My wife tells me I dress like an engineer, but I’m setting new fashion ground here.”
