Donald Trump says ‘I’m supposed to be dead’ in first interview since shooting

People who attended the campaign rally where Trump was shot in the head are questioning the ‘lack of action’ by Secret Service agents.

Trump supporter Greg Smith told DailyMail.com that it all felt like a ‘security failure’.

‘I’m thinking to myself, “Why is Trump still speaking on this stage right now? Why is he still up there talking?” he said. 

‘I saw Secret Service blow his head off,’ he added.

‘At this point, I’m feeling, as I think about it more and more, it just feels like a huge security failure to me.’

Another witness told the BBC that he saw a man with a rifle on a roof, some 50 feet away from where the presumptive Republican presidential nominee was to hold a speech.

The man, wearing a red ‘Trump 2024’ cap on his head, said: ‘We noticed the guy bear-crawling up the roof of the building beside us.

‘We are standing there, you know, we are pointing at the guy. He had a rifle. We could clearly see him with a rifle, absolutely.

‘The police are down there running on the ground.’

He said the police did not know ‘what was going on’, even though attendees were pointing at the shooter.

The last tweet of Corey Comperatore has resurfaced after he was killed at the Trump rally, part of his 2024 re-election campaign.

The firefighter was one of the thousands of people who attended the event in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Sunday.

He died while trying to shield his family from the bullets, according to the governor.

The day-of-two replied to a question on X, asking about people’s plans for the weekend.

Corey wrote just hours before he was killed: ‘Trump rally! Butler, PA’

Thomas Crooks, the gunman in the shooting on the former US president, appeared in an ad for BlackRock.

A video shows him as a student at Bethel Park High School, where he was in the 2022 class.

‘In 2022, we ran an ad featuring a teacher from Bethel Park High School, in which several unpaid students briefly appeared in the background, including Thomas Matthew Crooks,’ the world’s biggest asset manager said.

BlackRock said it will make all video footage available to the appropriate authorities and has removed the video from circulation.

‘The assassination attempt on former President Trump is abhorrent,’ the company said.

King Charles has written privately to Trump after the attempt on his life this weekend, Buckingham Palace said.

It is understood His Majesty message was in keeping with Sir Keir Starmer’s conversation with the former US president, in which he condemned the violence, expressed his condolences for the victims and their families, and wished the former president and those injured a quick recovery.

Charles’ message was delivered on Sunday via the UK embassy in Washington DC.

Buckingham Palace said the contents of the correspondence would be kept private.

President Joe Biden called for Americans to ‘cool it down’ as he attempted to bring down the political temperature in the wake of an assassination attempt on Donald Trump.

2024 had already seen a tumultuous presidential campaign, after Trump became the first former US president convicted of felony crimes.

But the attack on his life shook the firmament of the American political system.

In his remarks on Sunday evening, Biden said: ‘Politics must never be a little battlefield or, god forbid, a killing field.

‘No matter how strong our convictions, we must never descend to violence.’

He reminded Americans the place to take out their differences was at the ballot box and, as he prepares to restart his re-election campaign, he called on voters to ‘cool it down.’

Trump broke his silence after escaping an assassination attempt during a rally on Saturday in Butler, Pennsylvania.

A bullet from an AR-15-style rifle clipped the ear of the former Republican president, leaving him with bloody gushing from his head and down his neck and down his shoulder.

It was a miracle that the gunman, now identified as Thomas Matthew Crooks who was crouching on a rooftop, did not shoot him dead.

Recalling the horror, the politician insisted that he was ‘supposed to be dead’.

In an interview with the NY Post, he said: ‘I rarely look away from the crowd. Had I not done that in that moment, well, we would not be talking today, would we?

‘The most incredible thing was that I happened to not only turn but to turn at the exact right time and in just the right amount.’

Trump also marveled at how the agents came flying in like they were ‘linebackers’ as soon as the first shot was fired.

Trump thrust his fist in the air – just like after the assassination attempt – as he got off his plane in Milwaukee for the Republican National Convention.

He looked defiant on the stairs of his jet. He was cheered on by supporters at Milwaukee Mitchell International Airport before getting into his motorcade and travelling to his hotel.

The politician had said on his Truth Social site earlier that he was going to delay his trip by two days because of the attempted assassination.

But he later said that ‘I cannot allow a “shooter,” or potential assassin, to force change to scheduling, or anything else’.

Nearly 2,500 delegates are gathering in Milwaukee this week for a roll call vote to select a Republican presidential nominee.

But it will be a moment lacking in suspense, as the Republican has been the presumptive nominee for months.

Trump and Biden are locked in a close election rematch, according to most opinion polls,

Good morning from the Metro news team.

It is just after 8am in the UK, but it is 2am in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where Donald Trump’s plane landed a few hours ago.

The last 24 hours have been a whirlwind for the former US president – from surviving an attempt on his life to his upcoming ‘Republican coronation’ later this week.

Follow our live blog for the latest updates throughout the day.

Donald Trump is still poised to appear at a major Republican event this week despite being the target of an attempted assassination.

Here are all the details and why it’s so important to his campaign to become the US president again.

Some heartbreaking details have emerged about the victim of the shooting during Donald Trump’s rally.

Retired volunteer fire chief Corey Comperatore was sitting behind the former president in Butler, Pennsylvania yesterday when he was shot and killed by Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20.

It’s believed the bullets, fired from a rooftop 130 yards away, had been meant for Trump, who was left with an injury to the upper part of his right ear.

Now, it’s been revealed that the 50-year-old dad who was killed ‘dived on his family to protect them’.

Read the full story here:

Police are today investigating at the scene of a shooting in Butler, Pennsylvania, where ex-president Donald Trump was the target of an attempted assassination.

Suspected gunman Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, climbed onto a roof and opened fire live on television at the event yesterday.

Trump was hit in the ear with a bullet but came away relatively unscathed otherwise.

However, one man was killed and two others were injured.

Dad and former fire chief fire Corey Comperatore, 50, was killed.

Meanwhile David Dutch, 57, of New Kensington, Pennsylvania and James Copenhaver, 74, of Moon Township, Pennsylvania, were injured, according to the Pennsylvania State Police. Both were in a stable condition on Sunday.

The Secret Service said it killed the suspected gunman, who attacked from an elevated position outside the rally venue.

The world woke up on Sunday morning to shocking images of a bloodied Donald Trump being dragged away by bodyguards from a rally in Pennsylvania. 

Bullets, fired by what appears to have been a lone gunman from a nearby rooftop, had grazed the ear of the former president and now-presidential candidate, tragically killing one attendee and critically injuring at least two others. 

Thomas Matthew Crooks, a 20-year-old registered Republican voter, has been identified as the shooter and was killed at the scene by US Secret Service operatives assigned to protect Trump. 

It quickly came to light that this was an attempted assassination. This was certainly not the first time a US president has been targeted. Here’s a look through all the attempts to kill American leaders through time.

Police and law enforcement officials have raided the home of suspected gunman Thomas Matthew Crooks after the attempted assassination attempt on Donald Trump.

The 20-year-old fired shots from a rooftop 130 yards away at the former president at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Saturday, with one hitting Trump’s ear.

His home in Bethel Park has been searched by officers today.

Scores of officers and members of the press were pictured outside.

Crooks was identified by the FBI as the gunman following the incident and was himself shot dead at the scene by a Secret Service sniper.

A 50-year-old dad, Corey Comperatore, was killed by Crooks.

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The victim of a shooting at Donald Trump’s rally in Pennsylvania today has been named.

Corey Comperatore, a retired fire chief of Buffalo Township, was sitting behind the former US president when he was shot and killed by a bullet fired by gunman Thomas Matthew Crooks.

Crooks, 20, opened fire from a rooftop around 130 yards away at the event on Friday.

Other people in the crowd tried to save the 50-year-old father’s life but he died at the scene.

His sister wrote on Facebook: ‘The PA Trump Rally claimed the life of my brother, Corey Comperatore.

‘The hatred for one man took the life of the one man we loved the most. He was a hero that shielded his daughters.

‘His wife and girls just lived through the unthinkable and unimaginable. My baby brother just turned 50 and had so much life left to experience.

‘Hatred has no limits and love has no bounds. Pray for my sister-in-law, nieces, my mother, sister, me and his nieces and nephews as this feels like a terrible nightmare but we know it is our painful reality.’

Law enforcement officials have said they found ‘bomb-making materials’ inside the vehicle of the man suspected in the Trump rally shooting.

There were also bomb-making materials found at his home, they added.

Donald Trump’s wife Melania has posted a statement to X about the ‘terrible’ shooting yesterday, sharing sympathy with the victims and calling the gunman a ‘monster’.

She wrote: ‘When I watched that violent bullet strike my husband, Donald, I realized my life, and Barron’s life, were on the brink of devastating change. I am grateful to the brave secret service agents and law enforcement officials who risked their own lives to protect my husband.

‘To the families of the innocent victims who are now suffering from this heinous act, I humbly offer my sincerest sympathy. Your need to summon your inner strength for such a terrible reason saddens me.

‘A monster who recognized my husband as an inhuman political machine attempted to ring out Donald’s passion – his laughter, ingenuity, love of music, and inspiration. The core facets of my husband’s life – his human side – were buried below the political machine. Donald, the generous and caring man who I have been with through the best of times and the worst of times.

‘Let us not forget that differing opinions, policy, and political games are inferior to love. Our personal, structural, and life commitment – until death – is at serious risk. Political concepts are simple when compared to us, human beings.

‘And let us remember that when the time comes to look beyond the left and the right, beyond the red and the blue, we all come from families with the passion to fight for a better life together, while we are here, in this earthly realm.’

She concluded by saying ‘thank you for remembering that every single politician is a man or a woman with a loving family.’

These are the first clear photographs of Thomas Matthew Crooks, accused of trying to assassinate Donald Trump by firing at him from a rooftop at a campaign rally.

Crooks, 20, attended Bethel Park High School until his graduation in 2022.

BBC

Senior North America Correspondent Gary O’Donoghue was shown lying down on the ground as he continued with a piece to camera.

Read our full write-up here.

A man who attended the rally told how he informed police that there was a man on the roof acting suspiciously.

Ben Macer told KDKA-TV: ‘I saw the guy move from roof to roof, I told an officer that he was on the roof.’

The gunman went out of sight, but Ben then realised he could be seen from another direction, and again informed law enforcement.

Shortly afterwards, gunshots started ‘and then it was just chaos, and we all came running away, and that was that.’