Former President Donald Trump flashed the scar he received from a would-be assassin’s bullet to comedian Joe Rogan during his highly anticipated interview that was released Friday night.
Trump, 78, said being shot made him a “tougher guy” as he showed off the bullet wound during his nearly three-hour appearance on “The Joe Rogan Experience.”
“It zicked right there,” the GOP presidential nominee said, showing off the scar behind his right ear.
Rogan responded: “It healed up pretty f—ing good.”
Trump was shot during a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania on July 13 by gunman Thomas Matthew Crooks.
Crooks, 20, opened fire on a rooftop 130 yards from where the former president was speaking, nicking him in the ear.
“It’s not like some of the wrestlers, some of the UFC fighters… it was sort of like a top shot. The thing’s taken off a little bit,” Trump said in response.
“But it makes me a tougher guy.”
Trump repeatedly referred to the role of the presidency as a dangerous position, suggesting that pundits and officials refuse to talk about the two attempts on his life.
“I do things that don’t necessarily make me so popular. I just do what’s right,” Trump said.
“I understand what I’m doing. You make yourself a target, and it’s a very dangerous business. I never thought of that when I did it.”
Rogan, 57, suggested the assassination attempts wouldn’t have happened if the media – and Democrats such as his rival Vice President Kamala Harris and twice-failed presidential candidate Hillary Clinton – didn’t conflate Trump with Adolf Hitler.
“They love to take things out of context and distort them,” Rogan said.
“The rhetoric is that you’re Hitler, and in order to stop Hitler, you have to do whatever it takes.”
Trump recorded the discussion at the comedian’s studios in Austin, Texas, just hours before it went live on “The Joe Rogan Experience” YouTube channel.
The interview is about two hours and 58 minutes long.