Republican presidential nominee and former U.S. President Donald Trump wears flesh-colored bandage on his ear as he holds a campaign rally for the first time with his running mate, Republican vice presidential nominee U.S. Senator J.D. Vance (R-OH) in Grand Rapids, Michigan, U.S. July 20, 2024. REUTERS/Tom Brenner
Correction: After publishing, the Associated Press corrected this story to reflect that Jackson’s emergency medicine certification is valid through the end of 2025, not 2015.
NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump’s campaign released an update on the former president’s health Saturday, one week after he survived an attempted assassination at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
The memo, from Texas Rep. Ronny Jackson, who served as Trump’s White House physician, offers new details on the nature of the GOP nominee’s injuries and the treatment he received in the immediate aftermath of the attack.
According to Jackson, Trump sustained a gunshot wound to the right ear from a high-powered riffle that came “less than a quarter of an inch from entering his head, and struck the top of his right ear.”
The bullet track, he said, “produced a 2 cm wide wound that extended down to the cartilaginous surface of the ear. There was initially significant bleeding, followed by marked swelling of the entire upper ear.”
While the swelling has since resolved and the wound “is beginning to granulate and heal properly,” he said Trump is still experiencing intermittent bleeding, requiring the dressing that was on display at last week’s Republican National Convention. At Saturday’s rally, the white gauze on Trump’s ear was replaced by a skin-colored bandage.
“Given the broad and blunt nature of the wound itself, no sutures were required,” Jackson wrote.
Trump was initially treated by medical staff at Butler Memorial Hospital. According to Jackson, doctors “provided a thorough evaluation for additional injuries that included a CT of his head.”
Trump, he said, “will have further evaluations, including a comprehensive hearing exam, as needed. He will follow up with his primary care physician, as directed by the doctors that initially evaluated him,” he wrote.
“In summary, former President Trump is doing well, and he is recovering as expected from the gunshot wound sustained last Saturday afternoon,” he added.
The letter is the first official update about the former president’s condition since the night of the shooting.
Jackson, a staunch Trump supporter, said in the letter that, as Trump’s former doctor, he was deeply concerned about the former president’s wellbeing in the aftermath of the attack and met him in Bedminster, New Jersey, late Saturday after Trump returned from Pennsylvania “to personally check on him, and offer my assistance in any way possible.”
He said he has been with Trump since that time, evaluating and treating his wound daily. That includes traveling with him Saturday to Michigan, where the former president will hold his first rally since the shooting, joined by his newly named running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance.
Jackson appears to be licensed to practice medicine in Florida, according to a state health department database. Records from the American Board of Emergency Medicine show that Jackson does have a certification in Emergency Medicine, valid through the end of 2025.
A spokesperson for the congressman did not immediately provide a response and Trump campaign’s did not immediately respond to questions.
Last year, Trump’s campaign released a letter on President Joe Biden’s 81st birthday from Dr. Bruce A. Aronwald, a New Jersey physician, who said he had been the former president’s doctor since 2021.
