In a recent interview with Fox News, Donald Trump recounted the events following a shooting at his July 13 rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. The former president revealed that the Secret Service wanted to carry him off the stage on a stretcher, but he refused, insisting it wasn’t necessary.
Sitting next to his running mate JD Vance, Trump explained to host Jesse Watters that his bodyguards initially believed he had been hit in the torso and that his injuries might have been more severe.
“They wanted to put me on a stretcher,” Trump began, “and I said, I’m not going on a stretcher because I just felt it was the ear.” He noted that while getting shot in the ear is “better than just about any other place in one way,” it bleeds more than expected.
“They thought I was hit actually in this area,” he continued, pointing to his stomach, “but I wasn’t. I said, I’m telling you, I’m okay, I’m fine. I’m going to get up. I want to get up. I’m not going to be taken out on a stretcher.”
Trump admitted that his refusal led to “a little argument,” but the agents eventually understood. He praised them as “very brave humans” for being willing to run to his aid amidst gunfire.
“I got down pretty quickly, I think,” he said. “I also think people were starting to shout. It’s one of the reasons I went down so fast because it was almost amazing that move of checking here and going almost immediately down. Probably people were shouting at the same time. Who knows. It was bedlam. And I was down, and I said, ‘Let’s get going. Come on, let’s go,’ and the shooting had stopped, so I assumed they probably got him. They did get him.”