Washington, D.C. – Former White House chief medical adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci addressed concerns about former President Trump’s health after a failed assassination attempt last week, noting he suffered from a “superficial wound.”
“I don’t think there is much more to it,” Fauci told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer Friday, after watching clips of Trump speaking about his ear, which was grazed by a bullet during the shooting in Pennsylvania. “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.”
Fauci said that according to the physicians who examined the former president, there was no further damage.
His comments come after 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks climbed a roof with a direct line to the former president and began firing off shots during a campaign stop in Butler, Pa., just outside Pittsburgh. Crooks and one event attendee were killed, and two others were critically injured, per the Secret Service, which has come under intense scrutiny following the event.
Fauci, who served under both the Trump and Biden administrations, added that he thinks the former president is “in the clear” related to the “bullet itself.”
“As far as I can see, I mean, it’s dangerous to make diagnoses from a distance. From what I’m seeing, the way he’s acting now and what his physicians report saw, it seems to have been a superficial wound to the ear that’s all,” Fauci said in comments, highlighted by Mediaite.
Just days after the assassination attempt, Trump formally accepted the GOP presidential nomination at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee.
While Trump had a visible presence at the convention this week, little indication was given that he is experiencing lingering effects from the shooting. However, some close to the former president have expressed concern about his ear injury.