Trump’s Chief of Staff, Susie Wiles, initially thought the President was dead when shots rang out at his Butler rally, only to learn later that an immigration chart saved his life by forcing him to turn his head away from the gunman’s aim.
At a Glance
- Susie Wiles witnessed the assassination attempt on President Trump and described the “crazy” moments immediately following the shooting.
- An immigration chart Trump was displaying inadvertently caused him to move his head, potentially saving his life from what could have been a fatal shot.
- After the attempt, Trump’s campaign dramatically increased security measures, reducing outdoor rallies.
- Despite previous animosity, Trump received supportive calls from unexpected figures, including Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos, and then-President Biden.
- Wiles credited divine intervention for Trump’s survival, as the bullet only grazed “the upper part of his right ear.”
A Chief of Staff’s Worst Nightmare
In a recent interview, White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles recounted the terrifying moments during the July 2024 assassination attempt on then-candidate Donald Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania. Wiles described the chaos and fear as shots rang out, and her first glimpse of Trump left her fearing the worst.
BREAKING: The shooting at Donald Trump's rally is being investigated as an attempted assassination of the former president, law enforcement officials say. https://t.co/t9MrWYG8Av
— The Associated Press (@AP) July 13, 2024
“We were just crazy the minute he was hit,” Wiles recalled. “You think the worst. You cannot… think otherwise.” It wasn’t until Trump, bleeding from his ear, defiantly raised his fist that she realized he had survived. In those few seconds, the entire presidential campaign hung in the balance.
An Immigration Chart and ‘Divine Intervention’
Wiles later learned a chilling detail about Trump’s survival: it wasn’t just Secret Service agents who saved him, but a simple campaign prop. In what she and others have described as divine intervention, Trump had been holding up an immigration chart to the crowd. The act of turning his head to display the chart moved him at the precise moment a bullet, fired by shooter Thomas Matthew Crooks, would have otherwise struck him with fatal force.
Instead, the bullet grazed what Trump later called “the upper part of his right ear.” In the aftermath, he stated, “It was God alone who prevented the unthinkable from happening.”
Unlikely Allies in a Moment of Crisis
The assassination attempt led to a massive security overhaul for the campaign, with open-air rallies largely eliminated. But perhaps the most surprising outcome was the reaction from some of Trump’s biggest critics. According to Wiles’s account, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos—both frequent targets of Trump’s ire—called to express their support and admiration for his courage.
Even then-President Joe Biden reached out with what Trump described as a “very nice” call. The attempt on a former and future president’s life transcended the normal boundaries of political warfare, forcing even bitter rivals to recognize a shared humanity and condemn the attack.
