The speech former President Donald Trump had planned to give at the convention in Milwaukee this week will now look very different following Saturday’s assassination attempt.
Trump has decided he wants the focus of his speech to be on national unity.
“The speech I was going to give on Thursday was going to be a humdinger,” he told the Washington Examiner's Salena Zito “Had this not happened, this would’ve been one of the most incredible speeches” directed at President Biden’s failed policies. “Honestly, it’s going to be a whole different speech now.”
Trump told the outlet that he’s been presented with an opportunity “to bring the country together” with the new speech. "The speech will be a lot different, a lot different than it would’ve been two days ago,” he said.
The 45th president explained that his decision to turn away from the crowd and look at a screen with border data resulted in the bullet grazing his ear instead of going into his head.
On Truth Social, Trump wrote that it was "God alone who prevented the unthinkable from happening. We will FEAR NOT, but instead remain resilient in our Faith and Defiant in the face of Wickedness. Our love goes out to the other victims and their families. We pray for the recovery of those who were wounded, and hold in our hearts the memory of the citizen who was so horribly killed."
Trump also told Zito that the now-iconic image of him defiantly raising his fist with blood across his face was to show his supporters that he was OK.
“The energy coming from the people there in that moment, they just stood there; it’s hard to describe what that felt like, but I knew the world was looking. I knew that history would judge this, and I knew I had to let them know we are OK," he said.