Donald Trump’s former White House physician said the former president was injured by a bullet in the assassination attempt and that the projectile came close to entering his head.
According to a statement posted on X by Ronny Jackson, a former White House physician and now a Texas congressman, a bullet came less than a “quarter of an inch” from entering Trump’s head.
“The bullet passed, coming less than a quarter of an inch from entering his head, and struck the top of his right ear,” Jackson said in the statement. “The bullet track produced a 2cm wide wound that extended down to the cartilaginous surface of the ear.”
An attempt on Trump’s life was made on July 13 when 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks fired several shots toward an outdoor Trump rally in Pennsylvania. Two rally attendees were critically injured and one person was killed in the shooting.
Images from photojournalists showed blood appearing to come from Trump’s right ear. Photos taken by New York Times photographer Doug Mills appeared to show the path of a bullet going past the former president’s head.
Jackson previously told the Times that Trump told him the bullet would have entered his head had he not turned it to look at a chart.
Questions still remain open about the shooter’s motives along with Trump’s injury a week after the incident.
The full impacts of the injury beyond the damage to Trump’s right ear is still not known, and investigators have yet to reveal what kind of projectile, bullet, or debris hit the former president, CNN’s chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta wrote.
A Trump spokesperson did not immediately return a request for comment.
Jackson said in the statement that Trump’s wound was followed by “marked swelling of the entire upper ear” and that further evaluations would be required.
“The swelling has since resolved, and the wound is beginning to granulate and heal properly,” he said, adding that there is “intermittent bleeding requiring a dressing to be in place.”
Jackson served as the White House physician for former President Barack Obama and the first half of the Trump administration.
The Dallas Morning News reported in 2023 that Jackson does not have a Texas medical license, and his Virginia license expired several years ago. The report also said that Jackson’s Florida license hasn’t been valid since he retired from the Navy in 2019.
A spokesperson for Jackson did not immediately respond to a request for comment regarding the congressman’s medical license history.
