The bullet came within inches, maybe millimeters, of Trump’s cranium. Instead, the would-be sniper caught Trump's ear, leaving the former president bleeding profusely, pumping his fist as the Secret Service whisked him to safety.
Israeli Special Operations veteran Aaron Cohen said that it was but one tiny movement that saved Trump’s life:
Hours after the incident, Cohen told Fox News' Trace Gallagher that, if the former president had not turned his head when the shot was fired, he would not have survived.
"God must have been watching down on the president," he said.
"Snipers are typically trained to shoot into the cerebral cortex of the cerebellum at the top of the brain stem. It incapacitates you, it keeps your hands from moving… It's about the distance of the shot. One hundred-thirty yards. That's a putt. Anyone can put a two, two, three, optic on a target from that distance and hit it. It's not a difficult shot to make…"
Watch:
It’s beyond chilling to think that one inch or less may have changed the course of history.
He continued, "It's very clear to me that had the president's head been straight, and if that round had gone into the ear, it would have been lights out. The fact that he just happened to be turned this way with that shot coming in is what saved his life."
Some estimate the shot that grazed the former president's ear came within mere centimeters of being fatal.
Trump did a sudden head movement that rotated his head clockwise, this means that the bullet entry point would have hit the back of his skull and k*lled him instantly had he not. pic.twitter.com/LqltwtWDgA
— BAY AREA STATE OF MIND (@YayAreaNews) July 14, 2024
The Secret Service has come under intense scrutiny after the attack: how could this have been allowed to happen?
Question for the Secret Service: Who Screwed Up?
About Those Female Secret Service Agents Protecting Trump
REPORTS: Trump Requested Heightened Security Resources From Secret Service for Weeks, Was Denied
As my colleagues have been reporting, this was a stunning failure by the Secret Service and people like DEI-focused Director Kimberly Cheatle must be held to account. After the assassination of JFK and the near-fatal shooting of Ronald Reagan, there is absolutely no way that a shooter should have been allowed to have a clean sight-line directly to the president. Reports also indicate that he was visible and that several attendees saw him—why didn’t the Service? Or if they did, why wasn’t he taken out before he could fire his weapon?
The shooter—now identified as 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, who was reportedly an outcast who was bullied in high school—was taken out by the Secret Service, but only after he'd squeezed off multiple rounds, killing 50-year-old father Corey Comperatore and almost ending the life of the frontrunner to be the next president of the United States.
To think that it was the smallest of movements that kept the former president alive:
Trump is the luckiest guy in the world.
— Russian Market (@runews) July 14, 2024
He moved his head a second before the bullet struck him. pic.twitter.com/B2x2kCT56f
Read: This Is What They Wanted
As awful as this moment was, it’s staggering to think of just how close the world came to an event that would have changed history forever—and doubtless in very negative ways. It’s hard not to come to the same conclusion as Cohen: “God must have been watching down on the president.”
President Trump is alive because of a critical, subtle movement. #Trump pic.twitter.com/oRBGWvrTsK
— Aaron Cohen Official (@aacohenofficial) July 14, 2024
Join the conversation as a VIP Member