Former President Donald Trump, speaking in a glitch-marred interview with the X platform Monday, said his assassination attempt was “not pleasant” but credited God for saving his life when he turned his face at the “perfect angle” to look at a chart about illegal immigration.
“I knew immediately that it was a bullet, I knew immediately that it was at the ear,” Mr. Trump told X CEO Elon Musk, who has endorsed his candidacy. “I heard people shout, ‘Bullets, bullets.’”
Mr. Trump said the man who died in the attack, Corey Comperatore, was a “great Trumper” and a terrific person. He said that supporters raised a lot of money for his family.
Mr. Trump recounted the July 13 shooting in a heavily promoted interview that started over a half-hour late due to technical problems and spurred online ribbing and recollections of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’s ill-fated GOP primary launch on the same site.
Mr. Musk, hoping to placate his audience, said there appeared to be a “denial of service” attack on his website.
“We think we’ve overcome most of that, so it’s now time to proceed,” Mr. Musk said. “There’s a lot of opposition to people just hearing what Mr. Trump has to say.”
Mr. Trump said there should have been “nobody on the roof” near his Pennsylvania rally where the shooting unfolded.
The former president marveled at the quick actions of the Secret Service and the ability of the crowd to stay in place.
“You didn’t have anybody flee, you didn’t have anyone stampede,” Mr. Trump said, adding that he also was wondering immediately why the rooftop wasn’t covered by security.
“That would have been the spot [for a gunman],” Mr. Trump said.
The interview was a notable return to X, formerly known as Twitter, for Mr. Trump. He used the platform to fuel his political rise and launched his own social media company when he was booted from Twitter in 2021.
• Tom Howell Jr. can be reached at thowell@washingtontimes.com.
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