'By Luck Or By God': Trump Says He Was Not Supposed To Be Alive, Calls Rally Shooting A Surreal Experience

Former U.S. President Donald Trump on Sunday said he was “supposed to be dead” and that he survived the assassination attempt only by luck or by God.

“I’m not supposed to be here, I’m supposed to be dead,” Trump told the New York Post in an interview aboard his plane en route to Milwaukee for the Republican National Convention where he is set to be confirmed as the party’s presidential candidate. The 78-year-old Trump said it was a “very surreal experience” he recounted with a white bandage covering his right ear.

‘By luck or by God’

On Saturday, Trump was hit in the ear by a gunman at a campaign rally. He was left with a bloodied face while a bystander was killed and two other people were wounded. Trump told the Post he would have been dead had he not tilted his head slightly to the right to read a chart on illegal immigrants while addressing the rally. “By luck or by God, many people are saying it’s by God I’m still here,” he said.

Trump praised the Secret Service agents for killing the shooter. “They took him out with one shot right between the eyes,” he said. “They did a fantastic job,” he added. “It’s surreal for all of us.” The image of Trump raising a defiant fist as Secret Service agents bundled him away made front pages around the world and spread virally on social media.

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“A lot of people say it’s the most iconic photo they’ve ever seen,” the former president told the Post, adding “They’re right and I didn’t die. Usually you have to die to have an iconic picture.” Trump said after the attempt on his life he was rewriting the speech he had prepared for the Republican convention. He said he had “prepared an extremely tough speech” about Biden’s “horrible administration. But I threw it away” for one he hopes will “unite our country.” “But I don’t know if that’s possible. People are very divided.”

Trump arrived on Sunday in Milwaukee, where he will be formally nominated as the Republican presidential candidate later this week after surviving an assassination attempt that has aggravated an already bitter US political divide.

US President Joe Biden, a Democrat, ordered a review of how a 20-year-old man with an AR-15-style rifle got close enough to shoot at Trump from a rooftop on Saturday. Trump, as a former president, has lifetime protection by the U.S. Secret Service.

Trump, 78, was holding a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania – a key state in the Nov. 5 election – when shots rang out, hitting his right ear and leaving his face streaked with blood. His campaign said he was doing well. “That reality is just setting in,” Trump told the Washington Examiner on Sunday. “I rarely look away from the crowd. Had I not done that in that moment, well, we would not be talking today, would we?”

(With agency inputs)