After the assassination attempt: “I should be dead”

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Donald Trump has given his first interview since he was the target of an assassination attempt at his rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday evening.

In a joint interview with the New York Post and the Washington Examiner on Sunday, Trump said from his private plane en route to the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee: “I shouldn’t be here. I should be dead.”

The presidential candidate was forced off the stage at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, after being struck in the ear by a bullet, the U.S. Secret Service said Saturday. One person in the crowd was killed by the gunfire and two others were seriously injured. The gunman was killed by Secret Service employees, authorities said.

In the interview, Trump – who, according to the Post, wore a bandage over his ear – described the shooting as a “very surreal experience.”

“The doctor at the hospital said he had never seen anything like it, he called it a miracle,” he said.

Trump praised the Secret Service, saying “they took him out with a shot right between the eyes,” referring to the shooter, identified by authorities as Thomas Matthew Crooks, a 20-year-old from Bethel Park, Pennsylvania.

“They’ve done a fantastic job,” he added. “It’s unreal for all of us.”

Even as the events unfolded, photos began circulating of Trump raising his fist in the air with blood dripping down his cheek. “A lot of people say it’s the most iconic photo they’ve ever seen,” Trump told the Washington Post. “They’re right, and I didn’t die. Usually you have to die to have an iconic image.”

He added: “By luck or by God – many people say it is by God – I am still here.”

Amid an already heated revenge battle between Trump and Joe Biden – with many calling for the latter to drop out of the race so a new Democratic candidate can be elected – the incumbent president addressed the nation on Sunday and called for unity.

“We cannot and must not go down that path in America. The political rhetoric in this country has become very heated,” Biden said. “It’s time to cool it down.”

“Politics must never be a literal battlefield – or, God forbid, a killing field,” Biden added.