WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump was on stage at the Iowa State Fairgrounds earlier this month, kicking off the country’s 250th anniversary celebration, when he heard what sounded like fireworks in the distance.
“Did I hear what I think I heard?” Trump remarked as he spoke from behind a wall of thick, bulletproof glass. “Don’t worry, it’s only fireworks. I hope. Famous last words,” he quipped, drawing laughs and cheers.
“You always have to think positive,” he went on. “I didn’t like that sound, either.”
The comments, just days before the first anniversary of Trump’s near-assassination in Butler, Pennsylvania, served as a stark reminder of the lingering impact of the day when a gunman opened fire at a campaign rally, grazing Trump’s ear and killing one of his supporters in the crowd.
The attack dramatically upended the 2024 campaign and launched a frenzied 10-day stretch that included Trump’s triumphant arrival at the Republican National Convention with a bandaged ear, President Joe Biden’s decision to abandon his reelection bid and the elevation of Vice President Kamala Harris as his successor.
One year after coming millimeters from a very different outcome, Trump, according to friends and aides, is still the same Trump. But they see signs, beyond being on higher alert on stage, that his brush with death did change him in some ways: He is more attentive and more grateful, they say, and speaks openly about how he believes he was saved by God to save the country and serve a second term, making him even more dug in on achieving his far-reaching agenda.
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