'Now I'm more of a believer,' says Trump after assassination attempt

President Trump Easter Message White House

Donald Trump has told tech billionaire Elon Musk that his close brush with death has made him even more of a believer than before. 

The Republican presidential hopeful survived an assassination attempt during a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, last month, when a lone shooter's bullet grazed his ear. 

In his interview with Musk, Trump said it was a "miracle" that he had survived. 

"I knew immediately that it was a bullet. I knew immediately that it was at the ear, because it, you know, it hit very hard, but it hit the ear," Trump said.

After being struck, Trump said he was "glad I went down". 

"The bigger miracle was that I was looking in the exact direction of the shooter, and so it hit me at an angle that was far less destructive than any other angle. So that was the miracle," he said. 

He then described the impact it had had on him spiritually.

"For those who don't believe in God, I think we've got to all start thinking about that. I'm a believer. 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," he said. 

"But it was amazing that I happened to be turned just at that perfect angle, and all because I put down a chart on immigration that showed that the numbers were so great." 

The interview was delayed by 40 minutes, which Musk said was down to a "massive DDOS [distributed denial of service] attack on X". 

After discussing his assassination, Trump attacked Joe Biden's four years in office and his track record on crime and inflation. 

"Now [people] really feel unsafe, because you have a new form of crime. It's called 'migrant crime.' I call it Biden migrant crime,' maybe I'll call it 'Kamala migrant crime'," he said. 

Musk seemed to agree, telling Trump that people "don't even bother reporting" crime "because they know people aren't going to get prosecuted".

"They just let violent criminals out in New York," the X CEO said. 

Trump responded to his comment by saying, "The only one that gets prosecuted is Donald Trump." 

Trump then claimed that the current state of the US was so bad that it might not bounce back again after another four years under a Democratic president.

"I think that's a very real risk," Musk replied. 

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