President Trump said the Secret Service “had a bad day” when a would-be assassin’s bullet came within a quarter-inch of killing him during a 2024 campaign rally in Butler, Pa. — but insisted that “I have great confidence in these people.”
“Well, it was unforgettable,” Trump, 79, told daughter-in-law Lara Trump in an interview that will air on Fox News Channel’s “My View” Saturday night. “I didn’t know exactly what was going on. I got whacked. There’s no question about that. And fortunately, I got down quickly. People were screaming, and I got down quickly, fortunately, because I think they shot eight bullets.”
The president also praised the Secret Service counter-sniper — “his name is David” — who “did a fantastic job” taking down gunman Thomas Crooks, who had crawled across a rooftop to squeeze off rounds against the former and future president.
“He just, he went about his business. Less than just about four seconds, and that’s when it all stopped and he got him perfectly from a very long distance. So we got a little bit lucky in that regard.”
Late Wednesday, the Secret Service announced six officials had been punished for failings surrounding the Butler shooting, but Trump said he was “satisfied” with the briefings he’d received since his near-death experience.
“They should have had somebody in the building [Crooks shot from], that was a mistake,” he said. “They should have had communications with the local police, they weren’t tied in, and they should have been tied in. So there were mistakes made … But I was satisfied in terms of the bigger plot, the larger plot, I was satisfied.
“And I have great confidence in these people. I know the people. And they’re very talented, very capable. But they had a bad day. And I think they’ll admit that. They had a rough day.”
The names of the six Secret Service personnel who were suspended have not been publicly released, though sources previously told The Post that none of them were in the group shielding Trump on stage as he pumped his first and told the crowd “Fight! Fight! Fight!” as blood trickled down his face.
Ten days after the July 13 shooting, agency Director Kimberly Cheatle announced her resignation. Trump has since replaced her with Sean Curran, who led his protective detail.
Despite multiple investigations into the shooting, including by federal law enforcement and by Congress, unanswered questions about the shooting remain.
Former volunteer fire department chief Corey Comperatore was killed and two other rallygoers were wounded in addition to Trump.
Sunday will mark one year since the assassination attempt, the closest a gunman has come to killing a US president since 1981.
Earlier this week, White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles told Post columnist Miranda Devine on the “Pod Force One” podcast that she believed Trump’s survival was “100%” down to divine intervention.
“You think the worst,” she said. “As a human, you can’t think otherwise. And when he stood up, I thought, ‘Oh my gosh.’ And then they raced us to the cars, and we went to the hospital and it was clear very soon that he was going to be OK. But it was a scary time, and it changed everything for us.”
“My View with Lara Trump” will air Saturday at 9 p.m. ET on Fox News Channel.
