The FBI confirmed on Friday that former president Donald Trump was hit by a bullet or bullet fragment during the failed assassination attempt earlier this month, days after its chief suggested that it was something other than a bullet.
“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.
The definitive statement came after FBI director Christopher Wray speculated during congressional testimony on Wednesday that the object that struck Trump’s right ear could have been a bullet, shrapnel, or glass.
“There’s some question about whether or not it’s a bullet or shrapnel that hit his ear,” Wray testified, before seemingly suggesting it was a bullet. “I don’t know whether that bullet, in addition to causing the grazing, could have also landed somewhere else.”
Such questions about the attack have drawn backlash from the former president and his allies, including his former White House doctor. Representative Ronny Jackson (R., Texas), who has been treating Trump since the attempt on his life nearly two weeks ago, pushed back on Wray’s comment.
“There is absolutely no evidence that it was anything other than a bullet,” Jackson wrote in an update posted to Truth Social earlier Friday. “Congress should correct the record as confirmed by both the hospital and myself. Director Wray is wrong and inappropriate to suggest anything else.”
Butler Memorial Hospital treated Trump’s injury as a “Gunshot Wound to the Right Ear,” the congressman confirmed after reviewing the medical records himself.
“Having served as an Emergency Medicine physician for over 20 years in the United States Navy, including as a combat physician on the battlefield in Iraq,” he added. “I have treated many gunshot wounds in my career. Based on my direct observations of the injury, my relevant clinical background, and my significant experience evaluating and treating patients with similar wounds, I completely concur with the initial assessment and treatment provided by the doctors at nurses at Butler Memorial Hospital on the day of the shooting.”
Neither the FBI nor the Secret Service provided information about Trump’s injuries until Friday night, and the first full medical account of Trump’s condition wasn’t released until last Saturday night. In the letter, Jackson wrote the bullet’s trajectory “produced a 2 cm wide wound that extended down to the cartilaginous surface of the ear” and revealed that Trump had received a CT scan of his head at the hospital.
In addition to Jackson, Senator Lindsey Graham (R., S.C.) urged Wray to correct his testimony in a letter. Trump also shot back at the FBI director over his ambiguous statement.
“No, it was, unfortunately, a bullet that hit my ear, and hit it hard,” Trump posted on Truth Social on Thursday. “There was no glass, there was no shrapnel. 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!”
Following the FBI’s official statement about confirmation of the bullet, Trump accepted what he described as an apology on his social-media platform and at an event in West Palm Beach, Fla.
“I assume that’s the best apology that we’ll get from Director Wray, but it is fully accepted,” he wrote.
“Did you see the FBI today apologized? It just never ends with these people,” the Republican presidential nominee told the crowd. “We accept their apology.”