‘Supposed to be dead’: Trump recounts shooting as FBI search for motive

Washington: Donald Trump says he’s “supposed to be dead” as a sprawling investigation began into his attempted assassination and how a 20-year-old gunman was able to get within firing range of the former president.

One day after the shooting sent shockwaves across America and sparked fears of escalating violence, US President Joe Biden ordered an independent review of the security measures at the rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday (Sunday AEST).

Donald Trump is helped by Secret Service agents after the shooting.Credit: AP

Investigators were still trying to work out what motivated the gunman, nursing home worker Thomas Matthew Crooks, to carry out the attack.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation had not yet identified any underlying ideology or threatening writing or social media posts from Crooks, who had no past criminal cases against him. The FBI believes Crooks acted alone and the shooting was being investigated as a potential act of domestic terrorism.

Trump posted a statement on his Truth Social platform, urging the country to remain “defiant in the face of wickedness” and declaring “it was God alone who prevented the unthinkable from happening”.

He later gave an interview to the New York Post, and said he would be dead if he had not turned his head slightly to the right to read a chart on illegal immigrants.

Thomas Matthew Crooks was described as an outcast by those who went to school with him.Credit: AP

“The doctor at the hospital said he never saw anything like this, he called it a miracle,” Trump told the Post. “I’m not supposed to be here, I’m supposed to be dead.”

Trump said he wanted to keep speaking at the rally after he was shot but Secret Service agents told him it wasn’t safe. He commended the agents’ efforts and praised them for taking out the shooter.

“They took him out with one shot right between the eyes,” he said. “They did a fantastic job. It’s surreal for all of us.”

Biden ordered a review of all security protocols at the Republican National Convention, where Trump will be formally announced as the party’s nominee in Milwaukee this week.

As tensions escalated across the country, Biden condemned the attack as “contrary to everything we stand for”, but urged people not to make assumptions about the political motivations of Crooks, as they were not yet known.

“There is no place in America for this kind of violence, for any violence ever. Period. No exceptions. We can’t allow this violence to be normalised,” Biden said in a televised national address. “The political rhetoric in this country has gotten very heated. It’s time to cool it down.”

Biden and Trump spoke to each other after the shooting. First Lady Jill Biden also spoke with former first lady Melania Trump on Sunday afternoon, said a White House official.

The comments came as the man who was killed in the crossfire was identified as Corey Comperatore, a former firefighter, father and avid Trump supporter who dived on his family to protect them as the shots were fired.

Corey Comperatore (centre, pictured with family members) was killed in the crossfire of the Trump shooting.

“The hatred for one man took the life of the one man we loved the most,” his sister, Dawn Comperatore Schafer, wrote on Facebook, describing him as a “hero”.

The FBI said that the AR-15-type semiautomatic rifle found next to the gunman’s body was legally purchased by his father. Two explosive devices were found in the gunman’s car and a possible third at his residence.

And after months of being noticeably absent at Trump’s court cases and on the campaign trail, Melania Trump made a rare and powerful statement, sharing how she realised her life was “on the brink of devastating change” as she watched as a “violent bullet” from a “monster” came perilously close to killing her husband.

“A monster who recognised my husband as an inhumane political machine attempted to ring out Donald’s passion – his laughter, ingenuity, love of music, and inspiration,” she wrote, in an unusual public declaration of affection for the man she married in 2005.

“The facets of my husband’s life – his human side – were buried below the political machine. Donald, the generous and caring man who I have been with through the best of times and the worst of times.”

The shooting took place minutes after Trump took the stage at an open-air rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, about 55 kilometres north of Pittsburgh.

Crooks, from the Pittsburgh suburb of Bethel Park, was shot dead by Secret Service agents moments after he opened fire from the top of a shed about 130 metres from the stage where Trump was only minutes into his speech.

Crooks was a registered Republican who had also donated to Democrats, through the party’s aligned progressive fundraising organisation ActBlue, in 2021. This election would have been the first in which he was old enough to vote.

But his ability to get within shooting range of the former president has put the spotlight on the Secret Service, whose job is not only to protect the president, but also to sweep and secure every venue where he appears.

Trump had been on stage for only a few minutes when shots rang out, narrowly missing him but ultimately killing Comperatore and injuring two others.

Trump grabbed his ear and dived for cover as chaos ensued, before standing up with a bloodied face to pump his fist in the air, in what immediately became one of the most iconic images in US political history.

T-shirts with the defiant former president are now selling online, in some cases for $US21.99.

The now-iconic image of a defiant Donald Trump in the moments after the attack.Credit: AP

With four months before the election, both sides of politics have called for calm, but Republicans are also demanding answers as to how the incident occurred, despite federal and local law enforcement being present and witnesses reportedly alerting police about suspicious activity.

House Speaker Mike Johnson said the chamber would conduct a “full investigation”, writing on X: “The American people deserve to know the truth. We will have Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle and other appropriate officials from DHS and the FBI appear for a hearing before our committees ASAP.”

The shocking event has upended campaigning for the election because one of the central themes for Democrats is to portray Trump as a threat to democracy.

Biden has now postponed a trip to Texas planned for Monday (US time), partly designed to reassure Democrats he is mentally and physically fit to take on Trump and win another term.

Vice President Kamala Harris has also postponed a planned trip to Florida, while Attorney-General Merrick Garland postponed a number of state trips to oversee the FBI probe into security measures.

Trump, meanwhile, posted on social media that he had considered delaying his trip to Milwaukee by two days but would not allow the incident to change his plans. Instead, he will fly to the convention on Sunday (US time) ahead of its official start on Monday.

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