Rep. Ronny Jackson, the former White House doctor for Donald Trump, is spitting mad about what FBI Director Christopher Wray told Congress on Wednesday about the July 13 attempt on Donald Trump’s life. Wray said that it’s not clear yet “whether or not it’s a bullet or shrapnel that … hit [Trump’s] ear.”
That’s blasphemy in Trump world. So Jackson is out to refute it. In a letter posted on Trump’s Truth Social site, Jackson insisted, “There is absolutely no evidence that it was anything other than a bullet. Congress should correct the record as confirmed by both the hospital and myself. Director Wray is wrong and inappropriate to suggest anything else.”
In fact, the hospital has not confirmed any such thing.
The hospital has released very little information about the injury, the treatment, or Trump’s condition. That’s led commentators like Sanjay Gupta, a neurosurgeon and the chief medical correspondent for CNN, to call for a “full public assessment of Trump’s injuries,” saying it “is necessary, for both the former president’s own health and the clarity it can provide for voters about the recovery of the man who could become president of the United States once again.”
The only medical information the Trump campaign has released comes from the disgraced Jackson, who was demoted by the Navy after a Defense Department report found he drank on the job, among other misbehavior. Jackson was not Trump’s attending physician immediately following the shooting. Furthermore, he reportedly no longer has a valid medical license and is certified only to provide emergency treatment or to practice on military bases.
The lack of information around Trump’s injury is troubling. In what universe is a presidential candidate shot and the hospital doesn’t make a statement about the treatment? More information should be public knowledge by now.
It also shouldn’t matter if Trump was injured by glass or shrapnel. It doesn’t change the fact that he survived an assassination attempt—and should be cooperating with the investigation to find out all the answers.
Instead, he’s lashing out against Wray. “No, it was, unfortunately, a bullet that hit my ear, and hit it hard. There was no glass, there was no shrapnel,” Trump posted Thursday on Truth Social. “The hospital called it a ‘bullet wound to the ear,’ and that is what it was. No wonder the once storied FBI has lost the confidence of America!”
Trump needs to bolster the mythology that he, in his words, “took a bullet for democracy.” It wasn’t enough to have survived a horrendous assassination attempt. The MAGA hagiography demands more drama, that he be “shot”—a whole convention was centered on that.
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