A photograph of Donald Trump raising his fist in the air after being shot yesterday has been seen by millions, becoming a defining image of the attempted assassination.
But this wasn’t the only reaction from the former president in the moments immediately following a bullet grazing his right ear, nearly killing him.
As Secret Service agents swarmed around him to escort him away from the stage, the former president can be heard repeating a phrase four times, ‘Let me get my shoes’.
The five words caused speculation about if they could have been code for something else, but it is most likely that he genuinely just wanted to get his shoes on.
Security was eager to move him off the platform to safety, with one agent appearing to tell him ‘Sir, we got to move to…’ but he insisted he needed his shoes on first.
After he managed to get his shoes on and managed to get his head around what was happening, he then raised his fist to the air and told supporters ‘Fight, fight, fight’.
In the commotion as shots rang out, it is possible that Trump’s dress shoes could have come off as agents crowded around him to the ground.
Many commenting on the incident felt that wanting to get his shoes before leaving was a normal instinctive reaction to try to impose some normality in a chaotic situation.
Volunteer firefighter and father Corey Comperatore was killed by shooter Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, on Saturday evening, while another two men in the audience were critically injured.
The gunman had climbed a nearby roof to an elevated position, where he was able to fire on Trump in an assassination attempt.
The incident has dominated headlines for days, with the former president and presumptive Republican nominee telling the NY Post: ‘Because the thing [bullet] was an eighth of an inch away.
‘That I would turn exactly at that second, where he [the gunman] wouldn’t stop the shot is pretty amazing. Pretty amazing. I’m really not supposed to be here.’
Read our full coverage of the attack in our live blog.
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