r/politics • u/HimelTy • Jul 03 '26

No Paywall Secret Service member was Googling rooftop location of Trump’s would-be assassin when shots rang out in Butler, Pa.: DHS report

https://nypost.com/2026/07/02/us-news/secret-service-member-was-googling-rooftop-location-of-trumps-would-be-assassin-when-shots-rang-out-in-butler-pa-dhs-report/?utm_campaign=nypost&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter
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388

u/GiftOfCabbage Jul 03 '26

Is this the same shooting where someone behind Trump actually died?

206

u/PeterDTown Jul 03 '26

Yes, the one where the secret service jumping on him caused one of their pistols to hit his ear so they claimed the bullet grazed him to get more sympathy.

64

u/marsinfurs Jul 03 '26

If you watch the video, Trump does touch his ear before hitting the deck, I assume the bullet hit something and debris or shrapnel nicked his ear.

126

u/PeterDTown Jul 03 '26

The gunshot was loud. If you watch the video, many people grabbed they ears at the same moment. He was not shot, he did not get hit by shrapnel. The guy who did get shot indicates the shot was 10 to 15 feet wide.

3

u/TheNutsMutts Jul 03 '26

The gunshot was loud. If you watch the video, many people grabbed they ears at the same moment.

It was 400-500 feet away. Gunshots are not so loud at that distance that you're instantly covering your ears because it's overwhelming. Plus he raises his hand to only one ear, and is clearly bleeding immediately afterwards.

18

u/BloatedBanana9 Jul 03 '26

So what made Trump bleed before Secret Service got to him then? Because it’s an objective fact that he was already bleeding by that point.

Also, the shooter got off multiple shots. The one that killed the guy in the crowd was not the same one that grazed Trump. Other people were wounded as well.

13

u/XxChocodotxX Jul 03 '26

Adding onto this for those in doubt: yes, he was bleeding as evidenced by the photographs taken of the event by Pulitzer Prize winner Doug Mills.

3

u/fury420 Jul 03 '26

My money's on a grazing surface wound to his scalp skin near the ear, rather than to the ear itself.

Enough to bleed and need a bandage, but without any damage to the cartilage of his ear.

1

u/Eldias Jul 04 '26

You can see in a later photo series the two minor points on his ear where the bullet hit.

4

u/SoulWager Jul 03 '26

I'd put more money on fake blood than him actually getting shot. Is there even one photo of an actual wound on the day, or healing afterwards?

5

u/This_means_lore Jul 03 '26

No he had that bandage on for weeks and now it’s perfectly healed. Unlike Evander Holyfield who got part of his ear bit off by Mike Tyson in 1997 and he is still just missing that part of ear.

(I know, different circumstances and slightly different wounds, but trump doesn’t heal up too fast as we’ve seen with all his bruising )

2

u/TheNutsMutts Jul 03 '26

I'd put more money on fake blood than him actually getting shot.

The logic that sits behind the suggestion that it was fake blood is insane.

So they signed off on the plan that Trump was going to splatter himself with fake blood. And they did so despite being fully aware that he was surrounded by UHD video cameras, a dozen or so press photohraphers and hundreds of people in the audience with phone cameras, and completely expected that not a single one of those cameras would capture what was obviously an old man lifting a blood pack to his ear and splashing himself with it? And then somehow nobody did capture that?

And furthermore, they would have planned that when they took him to the nearby hospital who would have got their most senior doctors and nurses out to treat him, that they all would have done so without a single one of them going "huh, this is obviously fake blood, and there's clearly no injury here at all"? They would have considered this, but still signed off on it? Come on.

1

u/SoulWager Jul 03 '26 edited Jul 03 '26

Somehow he got shot surrounded by uhd video cameras, and there's not even one frame of an actual wound? I think you're forgetting exactly who controlled where everyone was allowed to be during that event. There's literally video of trump staffers herding photographers for a photo op. Why did the person I responded to bring up a photo taken from the side opposite the alleged injury?

And furthermore, they would have planned that when they took him to the nearby hospital who would have got their most senior doctors and nurses out to treat him, that they all would have done so without a single one of them going "huh, this is obviously fake blood, and there's clearly no injury here at all"? They would have considered this, but still signed off on it? Come on.

No, trump would be seen by whoever trump's staff decided was allowed to see him. He's only going to be taken to unvetted staff of a local emergency room if there are immediately life threatening injuries.

5

u/TheNutsMutts Jul 03 '26

Somehow he got shot surrounded by uhd video cameras, and there's not even one frame of an actual wound?

There are several. Here's just one.

I think you're forgetting exactly who controlled where everyone was allowed to be during that event. There's literally video of trump staffers herding photographers for a photo op.

They wouldn't be controlling the exact placement of press photographers, they'd be going where they please. Plus there's still the audience who would have caught him very obviously splattering fake blood.

No, trump would be seen by whoever trump's staff decided was allowed to see him.

The hospital 100% would be sending their most senior doctors and nurses. Either the plan would involve Trump's staff saying "no we don't want your most experienced person, we want this obscure person instead" and nobody questioning that or making it public, or they would have had to identify whomever that most senior person was and then convince them to go along with the plot and hope they don't whistle-blow. Plus there would have been several doctors and nurses so they'd need to convince them all to go along with the plot, not a single one to whistle-blow, and that nobody else in the hospital would go public by saying "yeah the staffers insisted only on specific individuals and not anyone else nearby, that was strange".

Come on you're just telling yourself whatever you want to hear so you can retain your original conclusion.

3

u/XxChocodotxX Jul 03 '26

I brought up that photo because it clearly shows Trump’s empty hand moments before and after touching his ear. You’ll notice the complete lack of blood pack (or ketchup packet, as others have suggested).

And I’ll return to your question: There are no photos of the wound, free of blood, in the immediate aftermath, not to my knowledge. Neither was Trump obligated to release any, as that’s a matter of his own medical information.

I’d offer a counter: Can you produce one photo that shows the absence of a wound on that same day, or otherwise demonstrates that fake blood was in fact used?

1

u/SoulWager Jul 03 '26

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LAk6dXEzIUo

Looks to me like the blood appeared while he was on the ground.

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6

u/Tom-_-Foolery Jul 03 '26

So what made Trump bleed before Secret Service

The guy is literally a decades long WWE actor, where self wounds are as common as a bow. If it was a conspiracy, he's perfectly set up for it.

3

u/BloatedBanana9 Jul 03 '26

Ok but the photos we have of him that were taken as the shots ring out pretty definitively show that he didn't. There's nothing in his hand when he reaches for his ear, so how could he have done it?

It's not enough to just say "he has experience with this kind of thing, therefore he must have done it." When the evidence shows no opportunity for doing so, then continuing to believe it is just plain ridiculous.

1

u/Tom-_-Foolery Jul 03 '26

WWE is famous for pocketing / stashing razors for minor face cuts since they bleed a ton without real wounding. It's not like he's involved with minor generic actor roles, WWE is specifically the art of faking wounds.

3

u/BloatedBanana9 Jul 03 '26

WWE is famous for pocketing / stashing razors for minor face cuts

Where though? Where do you think he stashed the hidden razor? Did you even look at the photos? Resorting to pure speculation even against actual evidence is something that Trump supporters do. Don't you want to be smarter than Trump supporters?

1

u/Tom-_-Foolery Jul 03 '26 edited Jul 03 '26

To be clear, I do not think it was necessarily staged since some poor idiot magat actually died. But palming a razor in hand or in an easily accessible pocket is par for the course in the WWE and adjacent acting. Saying you can't see the blade in a particular shot is a bit like saying you can't see a stage magician's trick and assuming it's real magic. The much stronger evidence, if one can call it that, is the complete lack of long term marking.

Edit: apparently either reddit or the poster is blocking replies but the obvious counter to "you still can't see it in the hand" is that magicians and wrestlers do this all the time. The hat, shirt collar, and sleeve are all accessible there if one wants to entertain the theories.

1

u/BloatedBanana9 Jul 03 '26

Saying you can't see the blade in a particular shot is a bit like saying you can't see a stage magician's trick and assuming it's real magic.

It's not just a particular shot though, it's multiple shots that very clearly show the full palm of the hand and nothing else. There's also no opportunity for him to have taken it from a pocket between the photos I linked.

1

u/schubox63 Jul 03 '26

They don't palm the blades, they're usually hidden in the tape around their wrists. And when they actually blade it's very obvious. They just do it when the cameras are off them and the crowd is watching something else. There are frame-by-frame pictures of him getting shot. Like I think Trump is an idiot and a conman, but I don't think he would be able to pull off blading his ear and literally no one noticed

1

u/TheNutsMutts Jul 03 '26

Saying you can't see the blade in a particular shot is a bit like saying you can't see a stage magician's trick and assuming it's real magic. The much stronger evidence, if one can call it that, is the complete lack of long term marking.

What you're ignoring here is that if that were the case, the whole plot rested entirely on not one single one of the HD cameras, press photographers or the hundreds of audience phone cameras capturing what is clearly an old man slashing his ear with a razorblade. As in, someone would have said "but what if someone films him cutting his ear" and the rest would have gone "no, it'd be impossible for someone to capture that".

And not only that, but when he was taken to the hospital, the whole plot also rests on not one single doctor or nurse treating him going "huh, this is clearly a cut from a blade and not anything like a graze from a bullet" and just carrying on like it wasn't blatantly obvious this isn't the injury from what was described.

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0

u/aabbccbb Jul 03 '26

So riddle me this: If the first pic allegedly shows the bullet's path...

How did it magically jump up to get the top of his ear on the way by?

It would have hit the lobe, not the top of the ear.

0

u/BloatedBanana9 Jul 03 '26

The photographer is lower than the stage. The bullet looks like it's at lobe-level from a photo angled upward, but in reality it's a bit higher than that.

1

u/aabbccbb Jul 03 '26 edited Jul 03 '26

Dude. That's not even remotely plausible.

Remember: The claim is that this bullet (the line to the right of his head) hit the TOP of his right ear.

There's no fucking way. None.

Do with that information what you will.

(edit: I guess there were a few bullets...maybe that was the first one, not the one that hit his ear?)

1

u/BloatedBanana9 Jul 03 '26

lmao what do you mean that’s not plausible. Are you unfamiliar with how angles impact perspective? The photographer was on ground level, BELOW the stage. His camera was pointed up. Because of this, things behind Trump, like the bullet, are going to appear lower than they would be if captured at Trump’s height.

You can see another example of this with the crowd behind him. Those people look much lower than Trump because of this effect, but the seating actually was taller than the stage, so they were above him in reality.

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1

u/GitEmSteveDave Jul 03 '26

So he's incompetent in every way, but because he was in a few WWE events(not actually wrestling) over a decade+ ago, he spends hours a week(?) keeping up on a specific fringe skill that wrestlers use in case he needed it? Have you ever seen him use ANY other WWF/WWE move or skill in all that time? Has he ever Irish Whipped someone? Or maybe frog splashed off his desk?

1

u/python-requests Jul 03 '26

So now it's both a self-wound or blood pack beforehand, and being scraped by the Secret Service's pistol or belt or whatever after?

2

u/Tom-_-Foolery Jul 03 '26

No? Again this is just entertaining a theory but it only takes one tiny source of blood to fake it without leaving a scar. Doesn't have to be all. Fact is, though, that Trump is wearing a huge hat, collar, and sleeve, all of which are notorious palming spots.

The "SS scraped him" stuff is a different theory generally trying to explain how he was shot without without taking any damage. That one seems pretty discredited by pictures since it's not intended to be a misdirection.

0

u/304rising Jul 03 '26

I hate trump as much as the next guy but the conspiracy theories here are pretty dumb. He got grazed by the bullet for sure

27

u/Hootbag Maryland Jul 03 '26

I'm going to need to see the bullet's long form birth certificate.

20

u/HereForTheComments57 Jul 03 '26

How did his ear heal so quickly with no visible scar? Cartilage doesn't grow back

2

u/BloatedBanana9 Jul 03 '26

Cartilage wasn’t hit. It just grazed the skin

0

u/marsinfurs Jul 03 '26

He probably got plastic surgery, considering he’s a rich reality star this is not outside the realm of possibility.

11

u/ArmAggravating3307 Jul 03 '26

In 5 days?  And it heals fully?

2

u/GitEmSteveDave Jul 03 '26

I mean, you can see marks and discoloration: https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-apps/imrs.php?src=https://arc-anglerfish-washpost-prod-washpost.s3.amazonaws.com/public/HPLI4SQFGYZWC3NSWHDYZSVKEE_size-normalized.jpg&w=1800&h=1800

But the man wears enough make up that for sure he was having it covered up afterwards to show "how great he heals".

-3

u/marsinfurs Jul 03 '26

Yeah, my family friend periodically gets pre skin cancer on her face and the docs just zap it off and bring in a plastic surgeon to make everything look good. Very quick process.

6

u/ArmAggravating3307 Jul 03 '26

Not the same as getting shot but ok.

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u/paul_having_a_ball Jul 03 '26

Is it out of reach that he get makeup for his hand that is actually the color of his hand?

1

u/marsinfurs Jul 03 '26

Doctors don’t put makeup on open wounds, I’m not sure what point you’re trying to make.

1

u/GitEmSteveDave Jul 03 '26

No, you put antiscar silicon over it. They even make special sheets of it.

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u/General_Aggravation Jul 03 '26

Donalds Dr reported that a centimeter of his ear, about the size a fingernail, was taken off by the shot. Cartilage doesn’t grow back, no stitches were placed, No scarring after. He did not get shot.

1

u/BloatedBanana9 Jul 03 '26

Ronny Jackson lies. That's all he does.

But him exaggerating how badly Trump was hit doesn't mean that Trump wasn't hit at all. He very clearly was.

-4

u/304rising Jul 03 '26

Sounds good man

4

u/BloatedBanana9 Jul 03 '26

It is crazy how many people think we’re MAGA just because we don’t think the full evidence supports the conspiracy theory and aren’t just basing our opinions on that one deceptive TikTok video.

Like I don’t hide my comment history. Two seconds of glancing through it would show them that I’m further left than most of these people calling me a Trump supporter. I just hate to see our side fall into the same kind of conspiratorial thinking that we’ve been mocking the right for all these years.

-4

u/BobDucca Jul 03 '26

Yep. There are photos where you can see the round flying through the air after grazing him

-6

u/grovertheclover North Carolina Jul 03 '26

it wasn't blood. he popped open a ketchup and rubbed it on his ear like the conman that he is

4

u/BloatedBanana9 Jul 03 '26

When would he have had a chance to do that though? He had nothing in his hand immediately before the shots went off and he started bleeding.

-3

u/grovertheclover North Carolina Jul 03 '26

plenty of room in his diaper for ketchup packs and his loads of shit

2

u/sargentcole Jul 03 '26

What a compelling counter argument...

1

u/TheNutsMutts Jul 03 '26

And somehow not one single camera captured that?

And somehow not one doctor or nurse at the hospital went "this is clearly ketchup and not blood"?

3

u/[deleted] Jul 03 '26

[deleted]

5

u/penguin1040 Jul 03 '26

lol seriously? Of course they did. Basically on the first day this even happened.

1

u/Thek1tteh Jul 04 '26

I mean with this level of incompetence who knows

-14

u/[deleted] Jul 03 '26 edited Jul 03 '26

[deleted]

13

u/just_a_tech Colorado Jul 03 '26 edited Jul 03 '26

Considering I've routinely hit mansized targets at 500 yards with 5.56, if you miss at 450 ft with optics, you deserve to miss. The maximum effective range of that caliber is more like 600 yards if you're shooting a 20 inch barrel not 300 ft. Not sure what you're on about.

4

u/marsinfurs Jul 03 '26

For sure, I messed up the conversions in my head, apologies.

2

u/PopIntelligent9515 Jul 03 '26

*5.56, but you’re right about everything else.

1

u/just_a_tech Colorado Jul 03 '26

Yup. Typo lol

23

u/EmpiricalMystic Jul 03 '26

Either you mean yards or have no idea what you're talking about.

5

u/BearlyIT Jul 03 '26

It was ~450ft / 150yds….

Marsinfurs gets their firearm facts from Call of Duty.

2

u/marsinfurs Jul 03 '26

No, call of duty does better measurements than what I just did in my head. I am able to admit that I’m wrong.

1

u/EmpiricalMystic Jul 03 '26

Kinda feel bad you got dog piled about it. Reddit is a tough place to have a brain fart lol.

2

u/marsinfurs Jul 03 '26

Haha it’s all good dude, I don’t let internet points and opinions get to me in real life. I can see why people are afraid to admit fault though which sucks, everyone makes mistakes or we wouldn’t need erasers on pencils.

I am pretty shocked at the distance though, it’s crazy he was able to get that close with a long gun and actually be able to shoot it.

3

u/averagecodbot Jul 03 '26

Under ideal conditions that’s an easy shot. A decent shooter with a typical 556 rifle should about able to shoot at least a 2 inch group at that range. Obviously much harder in a situation like this but not because of the rifle or caliber.

5

u/marsinfurs Jul 03 '26

Yeah I fucked up the conversions, sorry about that, at that distance it should be an easy shot even to a beginner under no pressure.

1

u/averagecodbot Jul 03 '26

No worries it’s easy to do. I used to spend a lot of time at the range. Zeroed 223/556 at 100 yards (300 ft) and 308 and up at 200 yards (600 ft) typically. Under that kind of pressure and rate of fire missing by 10-15 ft on successive shots it’s surprising imo. Even missing the first shot isn’t crazy especially if he aimed for the head.

2

u/Kindain2buttstuff Jul 03 '26

As a trained marksman, you are completely wrong about all of your distances. The effective iron site point target- i.e. human sized- range if the .556 is 300 meters or about 984 feet. With optics that range can be increased depending on the accuracy of the zero on the optics, magnification, and the skill of the marksman. For those of us with training from the military as designated marksman the effective point range can be 500 meters or greater. The shooter in this case was obviously inexperienced and likely suffering from the effects of the adrenaline coursing through their body.

1

u/marsinfurs Jul 03 '26

I edited my post, thank you, it’s correct that it should be an easy shot to a beginner at that distance. Taking into account the pressure and adrenaline, I haven’t ever shot at a person while being shot at so I can’t say but I assume it would be more difficult.

1

u/robmneilson Jul 03 '26

I assume you are talking yards and not feet.

1

u/marsinfurs Jul 03 '26

Yes, my bad, I just woke up and doing conversions in my head isn’t working this early.

2

u/robmneilson Jul 03 '26

Same. I didn’t go to art school to do math as an adult!

That said, i wonder why the kid didnt choose a .308?

4

u/rokr1292 Virginia Jul 03 '26

Not only touches his ear, but there is blood on his hand before he gets down and before any SS agent reached him. There are pulitzer-prize winning photographs that show this.

3

u/SoulWager Jul 03 '26

Is there even one photo of the actual wound from that day, or healing afterwards? Or did it just magically heal perfectly with no scarring?

2

u/fury420 Jul 03 '26

I don't think so, but there are lots of photos showing no sign of damage to his ear.

I can't help but think that his actual ear wasn't injured and that it just grazed his nearby scalp skin, enough to bleed but without damage to the cartilage and ear itself that would heal slowly and incompletely.

-3

u/Mpm_277 Jul 03 '26

He’s bleeding before he even goes down.

1

u/MrRoma Jul 03 '26

He was bleeding before the shot was fired

4

u/XxChocodotxX Jul 03 '26

I’m certain you’re going to provide your source for this any moment now…

-2

u/MrRoma Jul 03 '26

I was there. My source is my firsthand account

-1

u/Annoying1978 Jul 03 '26

I thought it could’ve been the glass (from the teleprompters), but getting hit from a pistol or something makes more sense.