Shots Fired At Trump Rally

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Six days after former president Donald Trump was shot in the ear at a rally in Pennsylvania, his medical team has yet to release detailed records of his condition or treatment. And while his campaign has pronounced him to be in good health, numerous experts on gunshot trauma and emergency medicine interviewed by STAT said there could still be outstanding questions.

Experts emphasized that they could not comment specifically about Trump’s injury, having not examined him themselves, and added that it did appear that the injury was minor. But they also said that in cases like Trump’s, it would be important to rule out any injury to the brain or neck.

“It may appear like only a graze to Trump’s ear, but a ballistic injury that close to the head/brain isn’t trivial,” Baylor University Medical Center emergency physician Amy Faith Ho posted on X shortly after the shooting on July 13.

Here’s how experts said they would respond to injuries like Trump’s — and their thoughts on the lingering questions that have not been publicly addressed.

How emergency doctors approach gunshot wounds like Trump’s
In an interview with STAT, Ho elaborated on how gunshot wounds close to the head are typically treated. “Initially, our concern would be things like brain bleeds, arterial bleeds, or other vascular injuries, like something called a dissection. We would also be concerned about bony injuries, so fractures and specifically a skull fracture or a cervical spine fracture if it hit the neck.”
“Besides the obvious inner and external ear injuries possible, the force of ballistics at that proximity make both skull fractures and head bleeds a very real risk,” Ho said. Injuries of this kind would require CT scans of the head and the neck, allowing evaluation of the arteries in both, Ho said. She said she’d also check for hearing loss, vertigo, and dizziness.

Nicholas Namias, chief of the division of trauma and acute care surgery at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, also noted that the biggest concern with gunshot wounds close to the head is always a brain injury.

“These weapons are very high velocity, and you actually can get a brain injury with what looks like a graze, without even a fracture to the skull,” Namias said.

Following initial treatment of the local wound and a CT scan to detect potential brain damage, Namias added that he would refer the patient for psychological testing.

“Most people don’t have it filmed,” Namias said of traumatic events like this. “He can see it over and over and over, so this has got to be harrowing and so you would screen someone like that for post-traumatic stress disorder.”

Any gunshot wound to the head is treated seriously, said Matthew Mostofi, associate chief of emergency medicine at Tufts Medical Center.

Most gunshot victims, he said, are rapidly assessed to make sure their airway is open, their neck is stabilized, and that they are breathing. “A quick way to do this is to ask their name. If they say, ‘My name is Donald,’ you say, ‘Great, you’re breathing.’”

“Then we examine you,” he said. “We’d look at the ear last.”

Mostofi emphasized that he could not diagnose Trump from a distance but said that the information he had heard suggested Trump had only sustained an injury to the pinna, or outer ear. “That’s not a life-threatening injury,” he said.

Ear injuries do have specific potential complications that Trump’s medical team would likely be on the lookout for, according to Mostofi, such as “cauliflower ear” — a malady often seen in wrestlers that occurs when the skin and cartilage of the ear become separated by a hematoma and the cartilage does not receive enough oxygen as the wound heals. One remedy is to use a pressure bandage after the injury to make sure the skin and cartilage stay in contact.

“The ear is an interesting little appendage,” he said. “It’s skin over cartilage and there’s not a lot of blood supply.”

He also said perichondritis — an infection of the ear cartilage — remained a risk and could be more serious than infection of the skin.

Kenji Inaba, a professor and vice chair of surgery at Keck Medicine of USC and chief of trauma and surgical critical care there, also said there was a low likelihood of brain injury or hearing loss from a ballistic injury to the outer ear, but that close examination was important to look for errant bullet fragments or anything that may have hit the ear and continued into the face or brain.

“When we’re talking about ballistic injuries or gunshot injuries, we want to make sure we discuss all the potential injuries,” said Inaba, who is also the medical director for the Los Angeles Police Department.

Inaba said the apparent minimal nature of a gunshot injury that could have been far worse was something he sees often in his own trauma center. “We see this all the time, where the head or the body happens to be in a particular space completely impacts the consequences of that bullet,” he said.

Open questions about Trump’s injury
So far, there has been no release of official medical reports from those who treated Trump and no release of test results or imaging following the shooting. What is known is that after the shooting early Saturday evening, Trump was taken to Butler Memorial Hospital in Pennsylvania, where staff treated his injuries. He was released the same day within a few hours. Trump said Saturday in a post on his social media platform, Truth Social, that he had been “shot with a bullet that pierced the upper part of my right ear.”

Trump elaborated further on the injury during the RNC speech Thursday, saying that he’d asked the doctors who treated him why there was so much blood coming from his ear. “Ears, they bleed more than any other part of the body,” he said. (Although no substantive evidence suggests the ear bleeds more than any other part of the body following an injury, the head and neck more generally are the areas of the body most prone to bleeding.)

The most detailed medical information yet has come from Trump’s former White House doctor, Rep. Ronny Jackson of Texas, who said he examined Trump shortly before the start of the Republican National Convention and said on a podcast that the bullet had taken off a chunk of Trump’s ear.

“He was lucky,” Jackson said on The Benny Show. “I mean, it was far enough away from his head that there was no concussive effect from the bullet, and it just took the top of his ear off.” Jackson said Trump’s wound was initially bleeding heavily but that he “will be OK.”

Jackson told The New York Times he had changed the bandage on Trump’s ear and that it was large “because you need a bit of absorbent” and “you don’t want to be walking around with bloody gauze.”

Trump’s son Eric told CBS News this morning that his father did not receive stitches but “had a nice flesh wound” and was doing well.

In the aftermath of the attempted assassination, more detailed information from official medical sources has yet to be released — a cause of concern for some observers.

Nick Mark, an intensivist in Seattle, said that he was frustrated more information was not being released or reported by the media.

“Did he have a head CT? What did it show? Did he have stitches? Tetanus shot?,” Mark asked Tuesday in a post on X.

Speaking with STAT, Mark said that he didn’t want to fearmonger and that the wound could be minimal. That said, “I’d want to know as a doctor that the person running for the highest office hasn’t been cognitively impaired by a high velocity bullet.”

“There’s been so much attention rightfully given to President Biden’s health, and almost nothing about this,” Mark said. “It’s frustrating.”

Steven Beschloss, who wrote a book about presidential assassin Lee Harvey Oswald, said he was concerned about the information vacuum surrounding the shooting. “I find it stunning Trump is the only source—did a bullet hit him, graze him, or was it something else,” he posted.

“It’s been three days going on four since this horrific event occurred […] yet we have not received a medical report from the hospital nor have we received a medical report from the campaign or the Trump organization about the damage to his ear,” said former Republican National Committee chair Michael Steele in an interview with MSNBC. “There are a lot of questions about that ear.”

The consensus, however, is that Trump got lucky.

“It certainly would seem former President Trump should make a full recovery,” said Thomas Scalea, the physician-in-chief of the R Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center at the University of Maryland Medical Center. “In terms of his ability to function and recover, it seems it won’t be a problem.”

Crypto and gun manufacturer stocks have soared following the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump that left one dead two seriously injured.

While Trump was not seriously harmed in the attack during his campaign rally on Saturday in which a bullet grazed his right ear, the news of the attempted assassination has had a rippling effect across the political and economic arena.

The stock market, in particular, saw some sectors' stocks jump on Monday. Crypto stocks, as well as others that are seen as likely to benefit from a second Trump presidential victory, were up. Coinbase Global, Riot Platforms Inc. and Marathon Digital, all top crypto stocks, soared by between 5 percent and 8.5 percent.

Trump's own media company's stock, TMTG, skyrocketed by 33 percent after the assassination attempt. TMTG is the parent company of Trump's social media platform Truth Social. Since early in the year, the stock has grown by 75 percent, likely based on projections that Trump will win the upcoming election against President Joe Biden in November.

"It's no surprise Trump Media Group is soaring, as a now-expected Trump win in November could equate to that being the sole or at least primary social media platform for him over the next four years, thus resulting in more eyeballs and advertising dollars coming to the service," Alex Beene, a financial literacy instructor at the University of Tennessee at Martin, told Newsweek.

till, Beene said it was unusual that beyond Trump's own social media company stock, competitors like Meta and other big tech companies also saw a slight positive uptick.

"It, along with the broader strength of the market today, signals Wall Street thinks a second Trump term will elevate corporate profits in general through anticipated tax cuts and other financial vehicles geared towards job growth," Beene said.

Prison stocks also increased in value after the assassination attempt, including Geo Group and CoreCivic, which went up by 10 percent and 7.7 percent, respectively. Analysts predicted that the stocks would benefit from a second Trump term as the former president has pushed for a tougher stance on undocumented immigration.

"If the outcome was worse, the market could have seen a 10 percent correction in the following week," Kevin Thompson, a finance expert and the founder and CEO of 9i Capital Group, told Newsweek. "The reason for such a downdraft is because the market hates uncertainty, and the reason you ae seeing a market rally now is because the market is becoming more certain of an election outcome."

Some other stocks found themselves falling after the assassination attempt, like clean energy companies Invesco Solar ETF and iShares Global Clean Energy ETF, which could see their businesses hurt by a Republican in the White House.

Trump's first term saw a wide range of impact on stocks, with his statements triggering both optimism and fear for different industries, Beene said.

"Ultimately, though, the market in general, including cryptocurrency which Trump has been a proponent for, saw a strong four years of growth," Beene said. "I'm expecting the same could happen this time, but there will undoubtedly be some bumps in the road for certain sectors as his policies and opinions are made public."

U.S. Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle has stepped down after widespread calls from lawmakers for her to resign following the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump, three sources told NBC News.

In her resignation letter, obtained from a senior official who received it, Cheatle wrote that the "scrutiny over the last week has been intense and will continue to remain as our operational tempo increases." She added she takes "full responsibility for the security lapse."

"In light of recent events, it is with a heavy heart that I have made the difficult decision to step down as your Director," wrote Cheatle, who had led the agency since September 2022.

It's unclear when her last day will be.

In a statement, President Joe Biden thanked Cheatle for her service, saying he will appoint her successor to lead the Secret Service "soon." After the assassination attempt on Trump, Biden ordered an independent review to assess what happened and said Tuesday that he looks forward to reading its conclusions.

"We all know what happened that day can never happen again," Biden said.

In response to the news of her resignation, Trump wrote on Truth Social: "The Biden/Harris Administration did not properly protect me, and I was forced to take a bullet for Democracy. IT WAS MY GREAT HONOR TO DO SO!"

House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., said in a statement Tuesday that Cheatle "instilled no confidence" when she faced questions Monday from angry lawmakers from both parties who were exasperated over the Secret Service’s failure to protect Trump.

“I’m not going to get into specifics of the day,” Cheatle testified, citing an ongoing investigation. “There was a plan in place to provide overwatch, and we are still looking into responsibilities.”

Both Democratic and Republican committee members said she should resign over her "incompetence" and her "lame excuses."

“You’re full of s--- today!” Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., said, slamming Cheatle for dodging questions and being “completely dishonest” about her cooperation with the committee.

Her responses didn’t satisfy the leaders of the House Oversight Committee, which held the hearing Monday and had subpoenaed her.

“Today, you failed to provide answers to basic questions regarding that stunning operational failure and to reassure the American people that the Secret Service has learned its lessons and begun to correct its systemic blunders and failures,” Comer and Ranking Member Jamie Raskin, D-Md., wrote in a joint letter to Cheatle hours after the hearing.

Before her resignation Tuesday, several Republican lawmakers said that they planned to file impeachment articles against Cheatle.

The gunman who tried to assassinate former President Donald Trump may have had a firearm with a collapsible stock, making it easier for him to carry and conceal the weapon, the director of the FBI testified Wednesday.

The gunman also had researched President John F. Kennedy’s assassination, FBI Director Christopher Wray said.

On July 5, Thomas Crooks, 20, traveled to the site of Trump's July 13 presidential campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, for the first time, Wray told a House Judiciary Committee hearing.

The next day, Crooks searched “how far away was Oswald from Kennedy," referring to the 1963 assassination, and registered for the rally, Wray said

On the morning of the rally, he went back to the campaign site, where he stayed for about an hour, and then left to purchase 50 rounds of ammunition that afternoon.

Wray said Crooks was back at the rally site shortly before 4 p.m., when he flew a drone about 200 yards away from the main stage area, Wray said.

Two hours later, witnesses began to shout about a suspicious man on the roof of a nearby building.

Wray said Crooks may have had a collapsible stock, which would explain why witnesses did not see Crooks walking around with a weapon beforehand and why the firearm was not spotted until Crooks was already on the roof.

Crooks began firing at least eight gunshots seconds after he noticed a local law enforcement officer on the ground had spotted him, Wray said.

The officer had gotten a boost from a colleague and pulled his head up over the roof. Crooks pointed his gun at the officer, causing him to fall, and then started shooting in Trump’s direction, Wray said.

Wray said the FBI recovered the drone in Crooks’ car, where they also found a drone controller and two explosive devices that could be remotely detonated.

Crooks had a transmitter on him, the director said, adding that it appears the remote detonation “would not have worked.”

Eight bullet cartridges were found on the roof with the gunman’s body, he said.

Wray said Crooks had purchased a ladder, about 5-foot tall, according to a bloodied receipt that he had on him, but the ladder was not found at the scene. The FBI director said it is unclear how Crooks got onto the roof.

Crooks was a "fairly avid shooting hobbyist," who went to a shooting range the day before the assassination attempt, "probably" with the same AR-style rifle he used at the rally, Wray said.

The congressional committee hearings this week have begun to yield more information on the shooting.

On Tuesday, Pennsylvania State Police Col. Christopher Paris told the House Homeland Security Committee that officers with the Butler County Emergency Services Unit had spotted Crooks from a second-story window and left their post to search for him.

Paris said Crooks was identified as suspicious before the shooting because he was hanging around but never attempted to enter the rally. That suspicion was later heightened, Paris said, when Crooks was seen with a rangefinder.

That day, three other people had been identified as suspicious, the state police commissioner said.

Crooks was not designated as an actual threat until seconds before he opened fire, Paris said. Trump was shot in the ear, one rallygoer was killed and two others were wounded