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.”

  • @[email protected]
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    2 months ago

    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.

    • @[email protected]
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      652 months ago

      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.

      • @[email protected]
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        282 months ago

        It was just a mass shooting: you know, the thing that keeps happening in America that no one cares about…

        • @[email protected]
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          2 months ago

          Let’s see how much they make of it when it’s one of their self-selected elites injured by the gunman.

          And let’s remind them it’s too early to speak about shootings. Let’s get some clarity and distance from this vigilante shooting over a crowd of people with an AR before we weigh in.

      • @[email protected]
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        102 months ago

        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

      • @[email protected]
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        42 months ago

        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.

    • Hegar
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      2 months ago

      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.

      • @[email protected]
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        182 months ago

        “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.

        • Hegar
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          92 months ago

          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.

        • @[email protected]
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          22 months ago

          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.

      • @[email protected]
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        12 months ago

        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.

    • @[email protected]
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      2 months ago

      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.

      • @[email protected]
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        62 months ago

        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.

      • @[email protected]
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        22 months ago

        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.

        • @[email protected]
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          32 months ago

          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.”

          • @[email protected]
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            2 months ago

            Sorry God was on her lunch break when the Secret Service did their pre game prayer circle.

    • Rhaedas
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      52 months ago

      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…

      • @[email protected]
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        12 months ago

        “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.

    • @[email protected]
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      22 months ago

      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.

  • @[email protected]
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    2 months ago

    There’s just no fucking way his ear was hit by .223 (let alone the hotter 5.56) and there’s still an ear left.

    There would be a hole and massive damage, at least. Most likely just a twisted stump.

    It’s much more likely that someone scratched it with their fingernail in the chaos and it just bleed a lot because: adrenaline of being shot at, adrenaline of a rally, how high blood pressure is in the ear, and how blood thinners making even a small scratch look like a murder scene.

    If he’d really have been shot there’d never have been a bandage and trump wouldn’t go anywhere without 15 doctors in tow to explain how brave and strong he is to survive a gunshot wound.

    • @[email protected]
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      592 months ago

      At minimum he was struck by glass. His reaction was instantaneous with the shots and clearly he was reacting to being hit in the ear. It could have just been reacting to a close fly by at his ear, except the chances of him then being injured and bleeding from the same ear from an agent are slim to none. But however he was injured, it clearly wasn’t much of an injury regardless.

      It would be kind of a moot point as he WAS shot at and injured, and a bystander and the shooter were both killed. Those are the important facts here. But then Trump had to throw a fit over the FBI saying they weren’t sure he’d actually been struck by a bullet or by shrapnel. He made such a stink out of it that now that he was clearly barely injured, it just makes him look silly and egotistical (go figure!) for so vehemently insisting he was hit with a bullet.

    • @[email protected]
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      2 months ago

      I think you overestimate the size and power of a 5.56 round. Much of the destructive force comes from speed and the area it hits - such as the chest or hips. Bones can cause it to ricochet and spin, causing cavitation and greater destruction.

      They can leave a tiny entrance wound. With how thin the ear is, it’s unlikely to have left an exit wound any larger than the entrance. It may have even hit the tip of the ear.

      Either way, I think there would still be a visible wound unless it just nicked the tip of the ear. The bleeding may be due to blood thinners or something, considering his cardiovascular health.

      • @[email protected]
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        352 months ago

        Much of the destructive force comes from speed

        You should’ve stopped there.

        If it had hit his ear, it would have ripped a chunk of the ear off, not just caused a scratch that was unnoticeable days later. This isn’t the first time he’s been seen without a bandage. He was photographed like a day later and it was fine.

        I think there would still be a visible wound unless it just nicked the tip of the ear

        You’re missing the point.

        The bullet “nicking” his ear isn’t possible because (due to speed) it would have ripped a chunk off.

        • @[email protected]
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          212 months ago

          The bullet “nicking” his ear isn’t possible because (due to speed) it would have ripped a chunk off.

          Please demonstrate this. If a paper target can get hit by these rounds every day in target practice and not get blown to pieces, why would an ear (especially if the ear was only “nicked” by the bullet) be any different?

          • @[email protected]
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            22 months ago

            Paper is thinner and will immediately tear and perfectly so. Squishy thicker flesh will rip and tear slower as the force goes everywhere before the entire region just fails.

          • enkers
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            22 months ago

            Yeah, after watching some of the ballistic recreations, it’d either punch through in the case of full hit or nick it pretty good on a grazing hit. Either way, it wouldn’t take a chunk off.

            There’d still definitely be a wound, though. I think the most likely case is that he was indirectly hit with some sort of shrapnel.

            • @[email protected]
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              42 months ago

              Personally, it doesn’t matter to me which outcome it was. He was shot at, and very minimally damaged by the bullet or something else. The outcome is the same.

              • enkers
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                12 months ago

                Agreed, although he’s certainly been playing his injury up wearing that ear patch around, when it’s at most been a little scratch.

          • @[email protected]
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            22 months ago

            Compare the size of the whole to the bullet

            The holes is always bigger, and an ear has much more tear resistance than an ear. But Trump doesn’t even have a bullet sized hole in his ear.

            He has literally zero visible wounds…

            There’s not even a “nick”

            • @[email protected]
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              62 months ago

              The holes on paper aren’t bigger than a bullet. Bullets go fast. .223/5.56 is better than mach 2. That’ll breeze right through a surprising amount of material.

              He definitely didn’t have a bullet go through his ear though. Even at a magical angle a bullet wouldn’t be able to go right through.

              I kind of think it either barely touched or he got cut when he reached up to touch his ear or something, or a chunk of shrapnel from something else popped him. Honestly, that last one might make the most sense.

            • @[email protected]
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              32 months ago

              Oh, I see. You were using hyperbole and not actually claiming a “nick” by the bullet would take a chunk out of his ear. Fair enough.

        • @[email protected]
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          52 months ago

          The bullet “nicking” his ear isn’t possible because (due to speed) it would have ripped a chunk off.

          This does not follow at all.

          If the bullet went directly into his earlobe, yes it obviously would have taken a or multiple chunks out.

          If it barely grazed the top of his earlobe, it certainly could have basically just barely knicked it, with only tens or hundreds of microns of the bullet actually contacting tens or hundreds of microns of skin on the ear.

          At that scale, a bullet has a microscopically rough surface, and in addition to travelling at a high speed through its trajectory, is also rotating at high speeds.

          The analogy I have been taught to make sense of how bullet wounds work is that of a long range, high speed drill press.

          In this case, the drill does not so much punch a hole through flesh, as it does basically scrape right on top of an area with a large amount of blood flow under very thin skin.

        • @[email protected]
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          2 months ago

          Much of the destructive force comes from speed

          You should’ve stopped there.

          Let me rewrite that:

          The destructive force of a 5.56 round is exponentially increased by the tissue it hits. If it hits purely soft tissue - such as a pass through the deltoid or quadriceps - it may not cause much damage at all.

          The real destruction comes from hitting hard tissue (like bone), which causes it to tumble and cavitate or cause it to ricochet and hit more soft tissue, on top of probably breaking whatever bone it hit.

      • @[email protected]
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        382 months ago

        There’s pictures of right after that show his ear…

        https://www.usatoday.com/gcdn/authoring/authoring-images/2024/07/14/USAT/74396917007-20240713-t-235354-z-1577583182-rc-2-mu-8-aisn-4-v-rtrmadp-3-usaelectiontrump.JPG?width=1320&height=882&fit=crop&format=pjpg&auto=webp

        No bullet wound. Just what seems like an insane amount of blood… If you’ve never seen an excited elderly person on blood thinners get the smallest scratch imaginable.

        • @[email protected]M
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          272 months ago

          As an excited elderly person on blood thinners, I absolutely get that. “Hey! Where’d all this blood come from! Oh, wait!”

          • @[email protected]
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            202 months ago

            My dad carried one of those little tubes of super glue…

            Bandaids were a waste of time, if he got a cut on his hand he’d just immediately glue it shut.

            • Bahnd Rollard
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              142 months ago

              Thats what super glue was originaly designed as, quick-setting liquid bandages. It also just happens to stick to just about everything else as well.

            • @[email protected]
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              2 months ago

              Bro… my grandmother super glued her earlobe when something caught her earring and literally ripped off of her ear. At that moment, I realized my grandmother was a bad ass woman.

        • @[email protected]
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          192 months ago

          Just gonna leave this here, and additionally note that Trump was heavily involved with professional wrestling for YEARS

        • @[email protected]
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          82 months ago

          Not to mention, a cut above your shoulders (i.e neck ,face,head) will bleed heavily. Now add the adrenaline and you will bleed like a stuck pig or fat Republican.

      • @[email protected]
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        122 months ago

        THANK YOU! Jesus folks, if you don’t have experience with shooting AR-15 loads, just stop, admit you’re not really sure.

        Also, I’m thinking a lot of people are imaging the big, bad AR as shooting monster bullets. (That’s a joke pic BTW.) ARs are illegal to hunt with in some states because they’re not deadly enough to produce a clean kill. It’s a military round meant to be incapacitating and lightweight.

      • @[email protected]
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        2 months ago

        From the Herrera vid, the first shot on the lower portion of the ear is more indicative of what, imo, likely occurred, inasmuch as:

        There is no missing chunk, it is actually just a graze.

        All you have to do is get a shot like that to just barely graze across the top of the upper rear earlobe, as opposed to blowing completely through the ear as their second shot does.

        A shot like that, just barely grazing along the upper ear lobe, is consistent with the scene as it played out, as well as the relatively rapid healing of basically a superficial scratch to an area with tons of small blood vessels.

        • @[email protected]M
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          22 months ago

          I was thinking he wouldn’t even necessarily need to have actually been hit. The pressure wave from a bullet alone would have been enough to open up a bleedy wound on an ear.

          • @[email protected]
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            32 months ago

            I find that highly unlikely.

            It would have made an extremely loud supersonic ‘crack’ or ‘snap’ as it passed very close to his ear and may have caused some degree of temporary, possibly permanent hearing loss, but uh, no the air pressure differential almost certainly would not cause external bleeding.

            You can cause blood vessels to burst if you put part of a human body in a significantly low (negative) pressure situation for a significant duration of time, but a .223 passing by would cause no where near the needed negative pressure, it would be for an astoundingly short period of time and finally such pressure differential situations usually cause internal bleeding which is sometimes visible due to the broken capillaries at the top layer of the skin, but this blood pools within the skin and does not break through its surface.

            You would need something to actually contact and break the skin for the blood from those broken capillaries to leak outside of the body.

            • @[email protected]M
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              22 months ago

              You’d be surprised, here’s an experiment shooting a bullet down the center of a tube made out of aluminum foil:

              https://youtu.be/VXIUfMGEXX8

              They don’t specify the caliber, but they do mention it’s going about 1,600fps which is about 1/2 the speed of an AR round.

              If that were ear tissue instead of foil, it would get ripped up pretty good.

              • @[email protected]
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                2 months ago

                They say its a slug, meaning its out of a shotgun. They do not mention the gauge, but its safe to say basically any shot gun slug is significantly larger than a .223 round and thus has way, way more air displacement.

                Also, they’re using aluminum foil, not human flesh or any kind of analog to it. Utterly, completely different and non analogous material, especially to ‘demonstrate’ what you are claiming it does.

                Could a near miss from a .223 or a shotgun slug cause a pressure wave that temporarily makes a bit of your ear wiggle?

                Sure, maybe a tiny bit.

                Would this cause your ear to start externally bleeding?

                No. To verify this, flick your upper ear, such that it moves by a centimeter.

                Is your ear now bleeding externally?

                Unless you broke the skin with your nail, no, it is not.

    • warm
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      2 months ago

      It was just grazed and he might have had it covered with makeup, prosthetic or whatever since.

      The conspiracy is crazy.

    • @[email protected]
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      32 months ago

      Some have stated it was shrapnel from the teleprompter being shattered and a chip of it scratching him.

  • @[email protected]
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    862 months ago

    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:

    https://img.thedailybeast.com/image/upload/c_crop,d_placeholder_euli9k,h_785,w_1396,x_71,y_417/dpr_2.0/c_limit,w_740/fl_lossy,q_auto/v1721521240/2024-07-20T234811Z_1974208635_RC2BZ8AIGZCS_RTRMADP_3_USA-ELECTION-TRUMP-VANCE_tdyjjf

    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?

    • @[email protected]
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      422 months ago

      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

      • @[email protected]
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        152 months ago

        “Free speech is the most important thing… But if you call me out on my bullshit I’ll kill your fucking family”

        -these people

    • @[email protected]
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      312 months ago

      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.

      • @[email protected]
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        82 months ago

        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.

      • @[email protected]
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        32 months ago

        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.’

    • @[email protected]
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      62 months ago

      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.

    • Media Sensationalism
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      22 months ago

      The photo could have been mirrored for stylistic purposes, but you’d think the photographer would have come out and said something by now.

      • @[email protected]
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        2 months ago

        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.

  • @[email protected]
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    622 months ago

    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.

    • Captain Poofter
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      332 months ago

      Are you insane? There is no way Trump would pass up that sort of imagery.

    • @[email protected]
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      172 months ago

      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.

    • @[email protected]
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      42 months ago

      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.

  • @[email protected]
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    562 months ago

    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
  • @[email protected]
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    472 months ago

    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.

  • @[email protected]
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    2 months ago

    “Jesus was a healer and he healed Trump” narrative incoming. Kamala being the new nominee stole all his thunder anyways, so who cares?

      • Riskable
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        62 months ago

        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.

    • Riskable
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      32 months ago

      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 🤷

  • @[email protected]
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    302 months ago

    I genuinely, since the day it happened, have not believed that Trump was shot.

    I watched over and over again and I swear what I saw was WWE theatre.

    I would have believed an attempt on his life, from someone anywhere on the Political spectrum (I even said this before info about the shooter came out).

    However, I don’t believe Trump. He has had a white mark on his ear for years. The “scab” that he’s playing off as a wound has been there for years.

    He is the liar/the first beast!

    • @[email protected]
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      Two people died. It’s asinine to ignore that and let your desire to distrust trump metastasize into conspiracy theories.

      It’s conspiracy theories like the Obama birther movement that got us into this situation. So just zip it.

      He was shot at, the bullet grazed his ear leaving very little substantial damage. We don’t need leftwing misinformation any more than we need rightwing misinformation.

      Let’s be better than that, AND let’s not bring that sort of vibe onto Lemmy. Because I guarantee you Russia and other foreign state actors are looking to promote misinformation this election season as they do any other. Lemmy don’t need that stuff.

      • Todd Bonzalez
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        Look, a bullet from an AR-15 passing that close to your head is going to create a shockwave sufficient enough to cause permanent hearing damage and probably a minor concussion.

        If it connected with his flesh, even just a “graze”, it would have done a lot more damage, and wouldn’t be completely healed so quickly.

        There’s plenty of evidence of dishonesty here. Trump, at least to some extent, is playing this event up. For example, if the damage to his ear was this minor, why has he been wearing a huge obvious bandage over his whole ear? That alone shows some degree of performance here, the question is exactly how much of this was a performance.

        It’s conspiracy theories like the Obama birther movement that got us into this situation. So just zip it.

        Accusing a well know liar of lying is nowhere near the same as that racist smear campaign, and you fucking know it. Zip it.

        let’s not bring that sort of vibe onto Lemmy. Because I guarantee you Russia and other foreign state actors are looking to promote misinformation

        “Let’s not bring conspiracy energy to Lemmy” Immediately goes full Russiagate

          • Todd Bonzalez
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            22 months ago

            So AP news publishes a story where literally every source is some 3-letter agency, with the message “even your fellow Americans are Russian Propagandists”, and you’re not even a little bit critical because…

            checks notes

            AP NEWS, bitch

            huh, well, I can’t say I was expecting your critical thinking skills to be good, but somehow I’m still disappointed.

            • @[email protected]
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              12 months ago

              Says the guy arguing the Trump shooting was a political stunt.

              …which by the way, just keeps it in the media cycle and makes it seem like people give a shit about Trump.

              The conservatives were getting upset that the story went away so fast, the dumb asses like you bring it back to be all “Look at his ear!”

              So thanks for keeping politics stupid.

        • @[email protected]
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          62 months ago

          “Young Fox” great name, it’s what the “T” in “tgs” stands for.

          This is my point. I’ve grieved for those dead at the event. I believe they were killed.

          I don’t believe Trump was shot and so I come to the conclusion he has planned this entire thing. This is what I’ve come to expect from Trump in his reach for Power.

          If I am wrong, I’m sorry and willing to admit being wrong.

          However, the reason I would be wrong is because Trump is a liar.

            • @[email protected]
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              22 months ago

              We know Trump is a liar. He could have released medical records, but he didn’t. So everyone should be suspecting he is still lying about everything, whenever it’s convenient. As for what, you decide. From the start, we knew shrapnel or gear from his bodyguards were possibilities. Those are still on the table.

              Can you imagine how it would have been if instead of grandstanding, he would have immediately offered support for the deceased’s families? If he’s written off the wound as a scratch from the scuffle, instead of necessarily a bullet wound? That would have been a small positive end to a tragic situation. Instead we have reality. Meh.

              • @[email protected]
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                22 months ago

                Oh yes. Certainly be very suspicious of Trump faking injury (or at least exaggerating).

                My point is “believe” implies you’ve 100% made up your mind.

        • @[email protected]
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          22 months ago

          the earth trembles and the sky parts at the thunderous roar of the might ar15.

          Conspiracies are cool, but don’t just make shit up.

        • @[email protected]
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          2 months ago

          Look, a bullet from an AR-15 passing that close to your head is going to create a shockwave sufficient enough to cause permanent hearing damage and probably a minor concussion.

          This is absolutely false. A .50 cal can go right by your head, and as long as it doesn’t contact, your head, you’ll be fine, possibly with some hearing damage. 5.56 is a lot smaller than that.

      • @[email protected]
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        I see it as asinine to believe that Trump wouldn’t have his own supporters killed.

        You bring up Russia but false flags are right out of the Pig Putins Book. A man with much praise from Trump.

        I won’t zip it because I don’t believe he was shot. Until he admits otherwise, I am under the belief that he had his own supporter killed to use their names as a Martyr and say he took a bullet for America

        The thing is he couldn’t even wear the Pressure Bandage for more than one night at the RNC. He won’t even pretend he has a boo boo for America.

        He is the liar

        Edit. Let me add that since bringing this up I realized Trump met with a Putin puppet 2 days before shooting.

        • @[email protected]
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          92 months ago

          You’re a conspiracy theorists idiot then. As bad as any of the “left wing are cultural marxist elites running Capitalism” people.

          Because you’re also operating on political assumptions rather than what’s know.

          The FBI has said he was shot, they will have brought in crime scene detectives and ballistics experts and mapped the trajectory of the bullet already, and they’ve ALREADY SAID he was shot. But stand back everyone “some guy on the internet” has the real facts!

          You can’t trust the FBI and US officials - because u/tgs1999 has decided they know more about it!

          It’s idiotic conspiracy mongering where it’s not needed.

          • @[email protected]
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            32 months ago

            Call me what you will but I still don’t believe he was shot from the second i saw the video. I won’t be quiet about that the way my mother was never quiet about Kennedys assissination in Dallas.

            • @[email protected]
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              42 months ago

              I’m a conspiracy theorists they way my mother was a conspiracy theorists about a different conspiracy theory.

              …do you at least get that backing a conspiracy theory up with reference to another conspiracy theory… And a family tradition, isn’t a rational or reasonable argument to present to others.

              Like, I don’t care if your family believes in Gremlins or Dragons, but that’s not a reason to bother other people about it. Believe what you like, but not expect others to consider “conspiracy theories backed by other conspiracy theories” as a valid approach to reality.

              • @[email protected]
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                22 months ago

                Kennedys assassination is no conspiracy either. It’s been proven and admitted to not be what was stated by the FBI.

                To act like there is no real “conspiracy” in reality is not reality.

          • @[email protected]
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            22 months ago

            You can’t trust the FBI and US officials

            This is true though, but I don’t see any reason they would lie about this

      • @[email protected]
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        Your tone is so ignorant, like there is no way you are wrong.

        Did it not occur to people it was both, he was infact shot at, but it was shrapnel that hit him.

        Either way, you are not correct and your attitude is shit. Get off your high horse.

            • @[email protected]
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              11 month ago

              I mean just logically McD’s thickens & clogs the blood. It’s fucking horrible. I’ve donated plasma & it pulls the fat right out of your blood, it can clog the filter. Perhaps Trump can survive any superficial wound, because he eats so much McD’s the wound just seals shortly after it’s inflicted. Like a white trash Wolverine.

              Question is, are the blood thinners powerful enough to counteract the McD’s & their artery clogging effects? 🤔

      • YeetPics
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        82 months ago

        Trump still believes his birther bullshit. His base still believes his birther bullshit.

        Don’t act like it’s not possible for trump to have faked an assassination attempt as a means to seize power.

        It fits his modus operandi. It fits the evidence I see.

        The fact 2 people died, while sad, is a toll I believe trump would gladly pay for a chance at acting as Putin’s puppet as POTUS.

        • @[email protected]
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          62 months ago

          The most likely thing is it was a real attempt on his life, but he just got a scratch from some shrapnel or glass and was playing it up until he got bored of it.

          A little bit before the attempt, people were discussing the testimony surrounding a dropped case against him, the woman recounted being 13 and was orally raped by Trump in '94. She refused to continue to testify after receiving death threats or something.

          https://www.mic.com/articles/158432/jane-doe-lawyer-lisa-bloom-calls-off-press-conference-on-donald-trump-rape-allegations

          So this guy might have just been playing some pedo hunter fantasy out. He doesn’t have an online presence, if he did there would be some indication of being recruited if that was the case.

  • @[email protected]
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    282 months ago

    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.

  • @[email protected]
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    2 months ago

    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.

  • Media Bias Fact CheckerB
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    212 months ago
    Newsweek Media Bias Fact Check Credibility: [High] (Click to view Full Report)

    Newsweek is rated with High Creditability by Media Bias Fact Check.

    Bias: Right-Center
    Factual Reporting: Mostly Factual
    Country: United States of America
    Full Report: https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/newsweek/

    Check the bias and credibility of this article on Ground.News:
    - https://ground.news/find?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.newsweek.com%2Fdonald-trump-photo-without-ear-bandage-raises-eyebrows-1931403
    - https://ground.news/find?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.newsweek.com%2Ftopic%2Frepublican%29
    - https://ground.news/find?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.newsweek.com%2Ftopic%2Fdonald-trump%29
    - https://ground.news/find?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.newsweek.com%2Ftopic%2Ftwitter%29%2C
    - https://ground.news/find?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.newsweek.com%2Ftopic%2Fbarack-obama%29%2C


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  • @[email protected]
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    162 months ago

    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.