- cross-posted to:
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- cross-posted to:
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Updates:
Might be best for mods to lock this post at this point (is that a thing on Lemmy?) because this story is basically wrapped. The FBI says a bullet caused some ear damage. Maybe it was bullet shrapnel from a ricochet or something like that, but later photos show the teleprompters in-tact so it wasn’t shards of glass from those. Trump’s usage of the bandage (and the assassination attempt) as symbols and political tools has been discussed at length and I don’t think conspiratorial thinking beyond that is very productive. Pete Souza took his own account down after getting a lot of harassment, so no further conspiracies are needed regarding X-formerly-known-as-Twitter at this time.
A photo of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump taken on Saturday without his ear bandage has sparked a wave of speculation.
The image, taken by Alex Brandon of the Associated Press on July 27 and shared by photojournalist Pete Souza on X, formerly Twitter, shows Trump walking up an airplane staircase with an apparently fully healed ear wound just weeks after he was shot with a high-powered rifle.
Souza, known for his tenure as the chief official White House photographer for Presidents Ronald Reagan and Barack Obama, posted Brandon’s photo on his now-deactivated X account on Saturday, writing, “AP photo this morning. Look closely at his ear that was ‘hit’ by a bullet from an AR-15 assault rifle.”
Souza’s profile, @PeteSouza, which had over 200,000 followers, now reads, “This account doesn’t exist, try searching for another,” implying that he has deleted or deactivated it. If he had been banned, it would read, “Account suspended. X suspends accounts which violate the X rules.”
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Speaking for myself, my eyebrows are not raised. I remember reading that day that it was a shattered teleprompter or other shrapnel that nicked or sliced his ear, not that a bullet had passed through it. In any case, I personally don’t quite understand the importance of the distinction. He was shot at either way, no? If it were a nick by glass I imagine it would’ve healed by now.
Edit: I forgot to mention… Fuck Trump and his ilk, they deserve being two-time losers come November.
Getting hit by a bullet makes it more dramatic and makes him more of a martyr for his rabid cult fans. If it didn’t hit him then there’s always the hint of the question - “was he the actual target?”. Which makes him less important to his fans.
It was just a mass shooting: you know, the thing that keeps happening in America that no one cares about…
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Plus, although being shot at is pretty close to dying of course, a bullet grazing your head is exponentially closer to dying than it missing by several feet and some shrapnel or whatever gives you a little nick
Good point, I guess that gives me some justification for my stance that it isn’t important. I wouldn’t want to stoop to the level of his fans.
“was he the actual target?”
I mean he probably was, right?
FBI officially stated that it was a bullet, not shrapnel, after expressing initial uncertainty plus unhealthy 78 year olds heal slowly, hence the raised eyebrows.
Probably he was legit shot at - I think it’s irrational to believe it was staged with the evidence we currently have - but fascists love false-flag and staged attacks. Hitler’s Reichstag Fire, Putin’s Russian Appartment Bombings are two recent examples. Even Pisastratus, the 5thC BCE tyrant of Athens staged a fake attack on himself to generate sympathy and justify an armed guard which he then used to seize the acropolis.
So I can definitely see why eyebrows raise quickly when a would be tyrant is suspiciously unscathed.
“What struck former President Trump in the ear was a bullet, whether whole or fragmented into smaller pieces, fired from the deceased subject’s rifle,” the agency said in a statement.
They’re saying it could have been a fragment of a bullet, which would qualify as shrapnel. They’re not using that word.
Thank you! So the FBI is still saying it was shrapnel, they just stopped using the word shrapnel so trump can have his BS narrative. That’s healthy for our democracy.
speculation from last week by FBI director Christopher Wray about whether Trump’s ear was hit by a bullet or by shrapnel. The FBI later confirmed he was hit by a bullet.
But then you have to click ‘hit by a bullet’ to find out they’re using bullet as a euphemism for shrapnel.
they’re not using the word cause they don’t want to deal with the diaper baby having a tantrum at them, so they are caving to him.
Good point, interesting examples too, thanks.
The fact that trump wont release his medical records to anyone, or even allow the FBI to question him or see his ear, is all the proof you need that he didnt get shot.
We know trumps personality. If his ear really got shot by an actual bullet, He’d be ripping the bandage off at every fucking opportunity and pointing to it and screaming about what biden/the liberals/etc did to him.
You might not understand the importance of the distinction, but Trump does in his messaging.
In an interview with The New York Post in the days after the shooting, Trump said that a bullet had hit him, taking a chunk out of his ear.
“The doctor at the hospital said he never saw anything like this, he called it a miracle,” he said. “I’m not supposed to be here, I’m supposed to be dead.”
He’s touting this as an honest to God miracle that he survived. His followers have said God personally intervened to spare Trump, which strengthens their belief that he’s some sort of holy figure destined to rule. If it turns out that he was scratched by some shrapnel and not shot, that doesn’t sound nearly as divine-interventiony.
Yeah that gives a lot of context. He’s a pathological liar. Unfortunately, people attributing this to an act of God won’t be persuaded by any images or video showing that his ear is fully intact for whatever reason. They’ll assign it as another one of God’s miracles.
So he stood there in a hail of bullets so close he got hit by debris and you’re telling me it wasn’t an act of God?
Sorry, just giving you a preview of their answer. Having been shot at in my life, it doesn’t really matter. They’re going to call those bullets missing him a miracle. Especially because at 100 meters, he should be dead. He’s alive for only one of two reasons, that shooter fucked up or divine intervention.
I love the idea that an all powerful God would be like “sure I could stop this whole thing from happening in a million different ways, but I’m just gonna wait until the last possible microsecond and deflect the bullets into this firefighter instead.”
Sorry God was on her lunch break when the Secret Service did their pre game prayer circle.
Yeah this is pretty much the entire point.
Furthermore, denying it isn’t good politics. We’re not going to make his base disbelieve him and we’re going to look like conspiracy theorists to moderate Republicans and centrists unless we have extremely solid evidence.
Until we get that, he was shot, he has recovered. The ear and head area is famous for producing a lot of blood from very little. He was extremely lucky to only be grazed and we all renounce this kind of violence.
No one should be shot at, period. It’s the act of taking a bad thing (where someone did die) and embellish it for use for his advantage. If he had any shame…but…
It matters because he was wearing a giant bandage. Stop helping him by diffusing this.
“Helping him” is a bit hyperbolic, no? What an enraging take to read. I feel like arguing over this as if it matters gives weight to the idiocy of people who idolize him. I even said I assumed he was hit by a teleprompter. Fuck you. Vote.
Is it very stupid that Souza’s account was deleted for this picture?
Yes.
Is Trump a nonstop POS liar?
Also yes.
Is it possible Trump got astoundingly lucky, and the bullet just barely grazed the top of his earlobe, and this would cause the amount of blood seen, and basically just a superficial scratch?
Again, yes.
This kind of wound is typically called a ‘graze’. It is consistent with the trajectory the shooter was firing from and the direction Trump was facing.
There is another bandage pic of Trump with more localized bandaging which to me indicates the bullet likely just barely grazed the top rear ish of his upper earlobe:
Could it possibly have been caused by shrapnel or fragments of a teleprompter or some other object?
Yes, but, in the case of shattering teleprompter glass, shattered glass fragments are generally more rough and jagged surfaces than a spinning bullet, which on average would lead to an even more fucked up wound and more blood.
I keep hearing this claim that the teleprompter shattering was what actually caused the wound, despite the picture of what seems to literally be the bullet and it warping the air passing in an exact trajectory that would align with an astoundingly lucky and light graze.
Are there pictures, video, audio showing the teleprompter shattered, or being shattered?
Pete Souza posted on Instagram that he suspended his Twitter account himself. Apparently he was receiving a lot of hate (big surprise) and also drew fire inadvertently to the photographer of the photo
“Free speech is the most important thing… But if you call me out on my bullshit I’ll kill your fucking family”
-these people
That’s all fine. But also, Trump could and should just release the record of the medical visit. That would quiet a lot of this down. The outrage comes from the “oh my god I was shot with a bullet” and the “look how strong I am” vibe trump is giving off while also not releasing any real evidence aside from the footage of the day.
But I would suspect all of that to be intentional. A void of information creates a vacuum that fills with misinformation and speculation and that causes discourse which is all trump wants.
Oh yes, I completely agree with you that Trump should release the records of the hospital visit and cooperate with instead of needlessly antagonize investigators.
Unfortunately, he’s Trump, and as you say, he is probably at least somewhat cognizant that a vacuum of information has already lead to baseless speculation, and he certainly knows that in a chaotic miasma of people operating with entirely different ‘facts’, he can later stir the pot to his advantage.
There’s a frame showing both teleprompters intact after he was shot
A picture taken after the attempt showed that both teleprompters were in tact
Souza deleted his own account.
https://thehill.com/policy/technology/4798519-former-white-house-photographer-deletes-x-account/
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Did you read his Instagram post linked in the article?
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Ear lobes are on the bottom
Ok, sure, the technical phrasing would be something like ‘a superficial grazing bullet wound to the exterior, superior portion of the helix of the right ear.’
The picture doesn’t give a 3D placement for the bullet, it doesn’t prove anything. We are seeing an x,y picture without any frame of reference for the z-axis. The trail tells us little due to the limitations of digital photography and the camera used.
The glass fragments are not more rough, that’s not really a good way to describe the two surfaces. The glass also would not have shattered, it would have ruptured. The two are different mechanical differences for what happened. The amount of kinetic energy in the glass fragments would have been very high.
The glass fragments would have been much sharper than the rounded bullet. It’s essentially 1,000 flying small knives bumping into each other.
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The photo could have been mirrored for stylistic purposes, but you’d think the photographer would have come out and said something by now.
Someone in another thread mentioned that it doesn’t appear to be mirrored judging by how Trump has his hair, it’s asymmetrical and stylized toward the left. Hence not mirrored.
BREAKING NEWS: TRUMP CONTINUES HIS MASSIVE STREAK OF UNABATED LYING
😱
I still expect Trump’s ear wound appearance was fixed with cosmetics, I mean why wouldn’t they? He doesn’t want to look like Frankenstein. I got downvoted to hell in another thread for posting that though.
Are you insane? There is no way Trump would pass up that sort of imagery.
No, trump is vain and an attention seeker. Hed rather talk about the ear while looking perfect. (He also has a distorted self-image but that’s another thing)
He could have just kept wearing the bandage, if he wanted that.
I was fully expecting the bandage to stay on for months.
But you can’t expect anything from the guy, so…
I honestly wouldn’t be surprised if he forgot he got shot.
People started making fun of him for it. He is fragile enough that being called out for his sanitary pad ear would probably bother him.
I do not agree. I think he see it a sign of weakness. He wants everything to look perfect, there are no way he want to look week.
Since when are scars a sign of weakness. They scream courage or bravery to me
He literally made fun of a war prisoner because he got caught! We are talking a bout trump here.
Fair enough…
Why wouldn’t they? Because they want to sell the strong tin leader narrative. I’m surprised he took the bandage off. I’m surprised he isn’t wearing a T-shirt with his little PR photo tiny-handed fist in the air. I’m sure he asks his sycophants if it looked more manly than the photo of shirtless Putin riding a stallion.
He is incredibly vain.
He’s a real boy now.
Because it will raise eyebrows
That was my first thought too. Makeup to cover it up. I didn’t know why you’d be DVed, except my Trump Cultists maybe. As if he’s not always caked in bronzer as is. Guys can wear makeup - every actor in Hollywood does, at the very least.
Since his base is so evangelical, sometimes a bible quote is apt:
And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast.
- Revelations 13:3
Enough has been said - sense and nonsense - about the facts and particulars of this. I just want to add one thing:
The image, taken by Alex Brandon of the Associated Press
Let’s go, Brandon.
“Jesus was a healer and he healed Trump” narrative incoming. Kamala being the new nominee stole all his thunder anyways, so who cares?
Revelations 13:3 is a better christian narrative for it.
Revelations 13:3 One of its heads seemed to have a mortal wound, but its mortal wound was healed, and the whole earth marveled as they followed the beast.
You’d think with how much he panders to the evangelicals he’d be right on top of showing them all just how holey he is 🤷
Musk can and will have his database team wipe accounts and posts from behind the scenes without making it appear like the user was banned.
Donald Trump photo without eyebrow bandage raises ears.
I hate to defend Trump, but as someone who had a cartilage piercing accidentally torn out, I can attest to the insane amounts of blood that can come from a rather small ear wound.
It wasn’t even an insane amount of blood in the pic I saw…
No, but it really could splatter all over his face from a very small cut.
A bit conspiratorial. A very minor gunshot wound can heal within weeks according to Google, and the ear has so many bits in it which seem to pop and make a lot of blood easily enough. You even saw the blood on the live footage as well as the photos taken, so I don’t see how he could have faked it
Because fake blood doesn’t exist right?
How’d he get it on so quickly?
I also dont believe it was faked. Dude got hit with something , but he went down for a couple seconds. More than enough time for a blood pill or a blade job. Wrestling has taught us it can be super quick.
Wouldn’t the hospital be able to tell, though?
Let’s see the medical report.
I demand to see the long-form medical report! The earer movement cannot be stopped!
Would the hospital be able to tell us either way?
Fair point
Anyone else just kind of forget about the assassination attempt? I guess that goes in line with Trump always doing new bullshit that nothing sticks, it’s become so common that even the assassination attempt doesn’t really feel notable already.
It was very anti cliamactic.
Has it been determined that he most likely was hit by a bullet vs. shrapnel?
The FBI said it was a bullet.
Not sure why this was downvoted. That’s what I heard too. FBI said it was a bullet or bullet fragment. They don’t seem to think it’s from something else like teleprompter glass. He probably just barely got hit with a tiny fragment.
There was an article 3/4 days ago in a debreif the FBI said they don’t believe it was a bullet and was most likely shrapnel but they didn’t confirm either.
That’s exactly what I heard, and haven’t heard anything to contradict it.
Duh! One of the great benefits of skin suits is how easy they are to repair.
I’ve seen a lot of spinals, dude… And this guy’s a fake. A fucking gold bricker.
Stay away from me, mister !
