Photo: Alamy
During President Donald Trump’s highly anticipated live interview with Elon Musk on X’s ’Space’ on Monday, he reflected on the iconic moment when the inspiring photo was taken of his fist pumping in the air after surviving the Butler, Pennsylvania, assassination attempt in July.
“I knew immediately that it was a bullet,” Trump said.
Musk weighed in by commending President Trump’s act of bravery. “You can’t fake bravery under such circumstances — the courage is instinctual or it is not.”
After the bullet grazed his ear, Trump sought to display courage, patriotism and strength by standing up immediately after the horrendous shooting.
“I wanted to get up and let them know I was ok — and they went WILD,” Trump told Musk.
Trump praised God for protecting him by telling Musk as millions witnessed a miracle. “For those people that don’t believe in God, I think we all have to start thinking about that.”
Trump also shared additional details from the moments following the shooting.
“I knew immediately that it was a bullet. I knew immediately that it was at the ear. And because it, you know, it hit very hard, but hit the ear,” Trump explained.
“And I also heard people shout, ‘bullets, bullets,’ you know, ‘get down, get down,’ because I, you know, I moved down pretty nicely, pretty quickly. And we had bullets flying right over my head after I went down. So I’m glad I went down. The bigger miracle was that I was looking in the exact direction of the shooter,” he continued.
Trump noted that it was a “miracle” that his head was turned at an angle that kept the bullet form ending his life.
“And so it hit me at an angle that was far less destructive than any other angle. So that was the miracle. That was, for those people that don’t believe in God, I think we got to all start thinking about that. You have to, you know, I’m a believer,” he stated.
“Now I’m more of a believer, I think. And a lot of people have said that to me. A lot of great people have said that to me, actually. It was amazing that I happened to be turned just at that perfect angle,” Trump said.
