Former President Donald Trump suffered only a “superficial” flesh wound in an assassination attempt over the weekend, Dr. Anthony Fauci said on Thursday of a bullet graze that caught Trump’s right ear.
Fauci, who led the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases under both Trump and President Biden throughout that coronavirus outbreak conversed with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer about Trump’s recent assassination wounds.
The photo of Trump clinching his ear in the aftermath of an assassination attempt during his campaign rally in Pennsylvania has gone viral.
“I don’t think there is much more to it,” Fauci said on Friday night. “I mean, from what we’ve seen and what we’ve heard, it was a bullet shot that grazed his ear and injured his ear, according to the physicians who examined him. There was no other further damage.”
Based on a report of Trump’s physician and the directive which Trump has carried out since then, including going to Milwaukee for the Republican National Convention two days later and delivering an 84 minute speech Thursday night, Fauci thinks he is “in the clear.”
Even so, CNN’s chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta posited that Trump could be suffering from “psychological trauma” due to shooting at the event.
Gupta said Trump should undergo a “full public assessment” to address voters about the injury, explaining that his strategy has not laid out how he is being treated or whether he will be monitored over weeks.
“The concern is that gunshot blasts near the head can cause injuries that aren’t immediately noticeable, such as bleeding in or on the brain, damage to the inner ear, or even psychological trauma,” Gupta explained.
Trauma neurosurgeon Gupta continued: “The good news is that most physical symptoms of an injury would probably have revealed themselves over the past few days. At this point, however, the Trump campaign hasn’t yet shared whether a full workup was done at the time or if there has been any follow-up since.”
