United States: Donald Trump strongly criticised Democratic rivals Joe Biden and Kamala Harris in Grand Rapids, Michigan, on Saturday, marking his return to the campaign trail a week after surviving an assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania.
At his first event since the horrific incident, as well as his first with Ohio senator JD Vance as his running mate, Trump took the stage with a smaller version of the noticeable white ear bandage he wore during the Republican National Convention. He described the attempted murder as a “horrific event” and claimed that he was only able to stand in front of his followers “by the grace of God. It’s true that I shouldn’t be here, but something truly exceptional occurred.”
Trump claimed that “he owed his life to immigration” because, just before the bullet zipped past his head and slightly injured his ear, he had slightly tilted his head to the right toward a chart regarding border crossings.
Trump continued, “I hope I never have to go through that again.” He responded to claims made by his opponents that he is “a threat to democracy” by saying that he “took a bullet for democracy.”
In addition, Trump alluded to the Democratic party’s leadership turmoil, which has been engulfed in a dispute about Joe Biden’s age and mental capacity and whether or not he should withdraw from his reelection campaign. “Neither do we know who their candidate is, nor do they,” Trump said. He referred to Biden as a “poor old guy.”
In a long address, Trump seemed lighthearted and upbeat. He joked that he would rather be in Michigan than sitting “on some boring beach watching the waves coming in,” taking another jab at Biden, who is now recuperating from COVID at his beach house in Delaware.
Trump’s team released an official update on his ailments while he was out campaigning on Saturday. The bullet from Crooks’ rifle, according to Texas Representative Ronny Jackson, who worked as Trump’s White House physician, “less than a quarter of an inch from entering his head, and struck the top of his right ear” and left a “2cm wide wound.”