A debate has begun on social media about the injury President Donald Trump sustained after an assassination attempt at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania in July 2024, with a trauma surgeon questioning the legitimacy of the wound on his ear. People cited the neat wound, quick bleeding cessation, lack of sutures, and Trump’s rapid recovery as evidence of potential staging or makeup.
Some even argued that a real high-velocity 5.56 rifle round would cause severe tissue damage, inconsistent with the injury Trump sustained. However, counterarguments defended the wound as a minor graze due to distance and angle.
A trauma surgeon, who goes by @PartPhil on X, wrote, “As a trauma surgeon who specializes in gunshot wounds, here’s my take on that viral “bullet to the ear” claim from the Butler rally: it’s fake.”
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“Real high-velocity rifle rounds like a 5.56 don’t just politely nick cartilage and call it a day. They tumble, cavitate, and shred tissue. A true graze that deep into the ear would’ve left a jagged, avulsed wound with clear entry beveling and tissue loss that doesn’t heal like a paper cut. Instead, we saw neat bleeding that stopped fast, no sutures needed, and Trump fist-pumping hours later with a little bandage. That’s stage makeup, not ballistics,” Phil added.
Taz Scheiber, a special effects makeup artist, wrote, “Blood and gore are my specialty. If it had grazed his ear it wouldn’t look like this. This is far too clean. There is no bullet wound. There is no chunk of ear missing. This is what a blood capsule look like.”
Netizens weigh in
Some X users agreed on the comment section of the above post. One user wrote, “I never understood why the cast-off/spatter looks forward and backward. And look at the hair around his ears, the blood seems to be coating a few strands that look to be in different stages of coagulation regardless of density. I’m just a noticer.” Another said, “Yes, if there is enough force to break the skin without contacting the ‘meat’. it would have rendered him, at the very least, unable to walk or hold his head level.”
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However, some users quickly pushed back against the claim. “A counterpoint to this: as someone who’s probably had a stroke and other health issues he’s probably on a lot of blood thinners so it would really just take a tiny nick to produce so much blood,” one user wrote, while another said, “It was a nick given range and amateur scope. Timeliness was imperative. If you are a shooter, the one thing you cannot predict is turn of head when speaking to audience. This tells me that all this shooter had was side angle…” One wrote, “Real shots were fired. Real people died. Real people were injured. Ricochets and impacts can be clearly seen on the handrail behind Trump. It was real and anyone saying otherwise is just dumb.”
Video from the 2024 Butler rally showed Trump ducking for cover and then being surrounded by secret service agents after shots rang out. As Trump exited the stage, streaks of blood were seen on the side of his head. He was soon escorted into a vehicle. According to law enforcement, the sniper took position hundreds of yards away from Trump in a building located outside of the security cordon.
Trump later released a statement on social media, saying he was “shot with a bullet that pierced the upper right part of my ear.” He said he “knew immediately that something was wrong” when he heard “a whizzing sound, shots, and immediately felt the bullet ripping through the skin.”
The shooter was later identified as Thomas Matthew Crooks. He opened fire at the rally, wounding Trump and killing former volunteer fire chief, Corey Comperatore. He also injured two other people before being killed by Secret Service snipers.
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