NEW YORK— One week after a gunman's attempt to assassinate former President Donald Trump at a Pennsylvania rally, the public has an update on his health.
On Saturday, Rep. Ronny Jackson of Texas, who was Donald Trump's White House physician, released a report that details the extent of his injuries, what treatment the Republican presidential nominee received in the hospital, and whether there may be any long-term effects on his health.
Trump's campaign had earlier refused to discuss his condition, release a medical report or records, or make the doctors who treated him available, leaving information to dribble out from Trump, his friends and family.
The first word on Trump's condition came about half an hour after shots rang out and Trump dropped to the ground after reaching for his ear and then pumped his fist defiantly to the crowd with blood streaming down his face. The campaign issued a statement saying he was “fine" and “being checked out at a local medical facility.”
“More details will follow,” his spokesperson said.
It wasn't until 8:42 p.m., however, that Trump told the public he had been struck by a bullet as opposed to shrapnel or debris. In a post on his social media network, Trump wrote that he was “shot with a bullet that pierced the upper part” of his right ear.
“I knew immediately that something was wrong in that I heard a whizzing sound, shots, and immediately felt the bullet ripping through the skin,” he wrote..
Trump appeared at the Republican National Convention this past week with a bandage over his right ear.
Dr. Jackson who served as Trump's White House doctor and traveled to be with him after the shooting, said in a podcast interview Monday that Trump was missing part of his ear — “a little bit at the top" — but that the wound would heal.
“He was lucky," Jackson said on “The Benny Show,” a conservative podcast hosted by Benny Johnson. ”It was far enough away from his head that there was no concussive effects from the bullet. And it just took the top of his ear off, a little bit of the top of his ear off as it passed through."
He said that the area would need to be treated with care to avoid further bleeding — “It's not like a clean laceration like you would have with a knife or a blade, it's a bullet track going by," he said — but that Trump is "not going to need anything to be done with it. It's going to be fine.”
Trump is holding his first public campaign since he survived the attempted assassination, returning to the battleground state of Michigan alongside his new running mate JD Vance.