Donald Trump brought on stage the staffer he credits with saving his life and said he decided he didn’t need to be “nicer” to Democrats after coming close to death.
The former president returned to Pennsylvania just 17 days after the historic assassination attempt, as he sought to court voters in the battleground state.
Had Trump not turned his head to look at an immigration graphic on the screen during his Butler rally, the bullet likely would have entered his head rather than grazing his ear.
And now Trump says the woman who made the graphic is the reason he’s alive.
While many speculated that Trump had “changed” after the shooting, he continued the attacks and revealed even more name-calling for his new 2024 rival, Kamala Harris, at his latest rally, only his third since he was shot.
Donald Trump brought onstage at a rally in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, the staffer who created the graphic that turned his head and likely prevented his death at his rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, earlier this month.
“I’m thrilled to be back in this beautiful state,” Trump said. “As you know, this is my first visit to the state since my rally in Butler.”
He promised: “By the way, we’ll be back in Butler.”
Just 225 miles from where he left his rally with a bloodied ear, Trump returned to his regular programming, launching a barrage of insults at Vice President Harris.
Speaking at the Farm Show Complex in Harrisburg, Trump criticized the “personality makeover” he says has attempted to turn Harris into the beloved late British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.
He also showed off the immigration graphic that “saved my life” and brought on stage for the first time the staff member who created the graphic and whom he credits with averting disaster.
“I love that graphic. I’m going to sleep with it for the rest of my life,” Trump said.
The campaign member who made the graphic came up on stage and quickly said “hello” into the microphone.
“He’s a computer genius. He saved my life,” the former president praised.
Trump called Kamala “crazy” before pausing to explain why he didn’t do it.
“When I got beaten, everyone thought I was going to be a good person and that I had changed. Remember? Right before the Republican Convention,” Trump said.
President Donald Trump returned to Pennsylvania for the first time since he was shot at a rally in the Keystone State just 17 days earlier. He explained why he isn’t acting more “nice” after the assassination attempt and claimed he only felt like he might change for a few hours after he was shot.
Trump says the media is trying to change the vice president’s image. “Now they’re giving Kamala a personality makeover. Don’t forget, four weeks ago she was the worst. And all of a sudden she’s the new Margaret Thatcher,” he said, referring to the beloved, late British conservative prime minister.
The former president said that everyone thought he would now “be a good man” because “he was close to dying.”
“I agreed with that for about eight hours,” he said, laughing. “And then I realized they were trying to put me in jail for having done absolutely nothing wrong.”
“I was nice for about three, four, five hours. And then I said: these people are bad.”
At his rally in Butler on June 13, 20-year-old shooter Thomas Matthew Crooks shot Trump in the ear, just inches from a potentially fatal shot. The only thing that saved his life was his last-second head turn to look at the graphic on a screen during his rally.
Crooks was neutralized by the Secret Service, but not before he was able to kill one rally-goer, seriously injure two others and graze Trump’s right ear with his father’s AR-style rifle.
Pennsylvania MAGA fans went absolutely wild over the former president’s return to the Keystone State and were happy to boo his new lines about Harris.
“The Radical Democratic Party bosses have installed a puppet candidate to fight only for themselves; she is owned and controlled strictly by donors,” Trump said.
“After lying to the country for years about Joe Biden’s physical and mental condition, Kamala is now getting a personality makeover. Don’t forget, four weeks ago she was the worst,” he said of the vice president. “And suddenly she’s the new Margaret Thatcher.”
“Everything about Kamala’s launch is false and a lie,” he said.
Thousands of people lined up outside 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 during his rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13.
The FBI, the Secret Service and several congressional committees are investigating the incident, specifically looking into the security lapses that allowed Crooks to climb onto a roof just 130 yards from where the former president was speaking that day.
Kimberly Cheatle, who was director of the Secret Service, resigned after a brutal House hearing where she faced tough questions and bipartisan calls for her to step down.
The New Holland Arena has 7,318 wooden seats with peeling blue, red and orange paint, but the floor can accommodate several hundred more chairs. With every seat in the stadium occupied, along with floor seating and some standing room, it appears there were approximately 8,000 attendees at Wednesday night’s rally.