(CP) Former President Donald Trump proclaimed that he had God on his side as he reflected on the assassination attempt that nearly took his life last weekend in a speech that also included a promise to keep men from competing in women's sports.
Trump addressed a crowd of Republican delegates and supporters at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin Thursday, just five days after surviving an assassination attempt at a rally near Butler, Pennsylvania. Trump's speech, his first major address since officially becoming the Republican nominee for president earlier this week, directly addressed the attempt on his life. As he made his remarks, Trump had a bandage on his right ear, which was grazed by a bullet.
Trump expressed gratitude for the "outpouring of love and support" he received following the assassination attempt. He noted that "the assassin's bullet came within a quarter of an inch of taking my life" and used his platform to describe "exactly what happened," vowing "you'll never hear it from me a second time because it's actually too painful to tell."
"It was a warm, beautiful day in the early evening in Butler Township in the great Commonwealth of Pennsylvania," Trump recalled. "Music was loudly playing and the campaign was doing really well. I went to the stage and the crowd was cheering wildly. Everybody was happy. I began speaking very strongly, powerfully and happily because I was discussing the great job my administration did on immigration at the southern border."
Discussing the presence of a "large screen that was displaying a chart of border crossings under my leadership" on stage behind him, Trump explained that "in order to see the chart, I started to like this, turn to my right and was ready to begin a little bit further turn, which I'm very lucky I didn't do, when I heard a loud, whizzing sound and felt something hit me really, really hard on my right ear."
"I said to myself 'wow, what was that?'," he added. "It can only be a bullet and moved my right hand to my ear, brought it down, my hand was covered with blood, just absolutely blood all over the place. I immediately knew it was very serious, that we were under attack and in one movement, proceeded to drop to the ground. Bullets were continuing to fly as very brave Secret Service agents rushed to the stage."
He described how the Secret Service agents "pounced on top of me so that I would be protected." According to Trump, "There was blood pouring everywhere and yet in a certain way, I felt very safe because I had God on my side."
"Prior to the shot, if I had not moved my head at that very last instant, the assassin's bullet would have perfectly hit its mark and I would not be here tonight. We would not be together. The most incredible aspect of what took place on that terrible evening in the fading sun was actually seen later."
Trump maintained that in most cases, when shots are fired at an event, "crowds run for the exits or stampede." He characterized the shooting at his rally as "very unusual" because the crowd did not react in that way: "This massive crowd of tens of thousands of people stood by and didn't move an inch. In fact, many of them bravely but automatically stood up looking for where the sniper would be. They knew immediately it was a sniper and then began pointing at him."
"Nobody ran and by not stampeding, many lives were saved," he insisted. "That isn't the reason that they didn't move. The reason is that they knew I was in very serious trouble. They saw it, they saw me go down, they saw the blood and thought, actually most did, that I was dead. They knew it was a shot to the head, they saw the blood."
Trump contended that "I'm not supposed to be here tonight," which prompted the crowd to chant "Yes you are!" While he was humbled that at the support he was receiving from the audience, Trump reiterated "but I'm not," adding "I stand before you in this arena only by the grace of Almighty God."
"In watching the reports over the last few days, many people say it was a providential moment," he stated. Concluding that "it probably was," Trump continued his first-person narrative of what happened in Butler: "When I rose surrounded by Secret Service, the crowd was confused because they thought I was dead and there was great, great sorrow. I could see that on their faces as I looked out. They didn't know I was looking out. They thought it was over."
Trump identified the move captured on camera of him raising his right arm into the air and shouting "Fight, Fight, Fight" as an effort "to do something to let them know I was okay." The crowd began to chant those words as he spoke on stage at the RNC.
Referring to the crowd at the rally's reaction to finding out he was still alive, Trump remarked that he had "never heard anything like it." He vowed that "For the rest of my life, I will be grateful for the love shown by that giant audience of patriots that stood bravely on that fateful evening in Pennsylvania."
"Tragically, the shooter claimed the life of one of our fellow Americans, Corey Comperatore," Trump lamented. He also acknowledged that the gunman "seriously wounded two other great warriors" and told the crowd that he "spoke to them today."
Trump asserted that "our love and prayers" are with the families of the victims killed or injured in the shooting, predicting that they "always will be." Declaring that "we're never going to forget them," he pointed out a firefighter's uniform on stage as a tribute to Comperatore, who formerly served as a fire chief. Trump walked over to the uniform, stood behind it and embraced it.
"I want to thank the Fire Department and the family for sending his helmet, his outfit and it was just something," he stated as he announced that "Over the past few days, we've raised $6.3 million for the families of David, James and Corey," the victims of the shooting. Trump instructed the crowd to observe a moment of silence in honor of Comperatore.
The speech also featured pleas for unity, with Trump reminding the crowd that "In an age when our politics all too often divide us, now is the time to remember that we are all fellow citizens, we are one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all." Later in the address, the former president shared his belief that "any disagreements have to be put aside" so the country can "go forward united as one people, one nation, pledging allegiance to one great, beautiful ... American flag."
While his address targeted Democrats, criticized the efforts to prosecute him and denounced the former House Speaker as "Crazy Nancy Pelosi," he only mentioned his likely opponent in the 2024 presidential election, President Joe Biden, directly by name once. However, he did not hesitate to slam his record without naming him.
Trump also touched upon the hot-button issue of trans-identified male athletes competing in women's sports, assuring the crowd that in a second Trump administration, "We will not have men playing in women's sports — that will end immediately."
As his speech came to a close, Trump commented on how "we live in a world of miracles," adding: "None of us knows God's plan or where life's adventure will take us. If the events of last Saturday make anything clear, it is that every single moment we have on Earth is a gift from God."
