Donald Trump recently revealed that his youngest son, Barron, was at a tennis lesson when news broke of the failed assassination attempt on the former president in Pennsylvania. Trump, 78, was shot in the right ear while addressing a crowd in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13. In an interview with Fox News’ Mark Levin, Trump shared how his 18-year-old son learned about the shooting.
According to Trump, Barron was in the middle of his tennis lesson when someone ran up to him, shouting, “Barron! Barron! Your father’s been shot!” The news sent Barron running to find his mother, Melania Trump, to understand what had happened. “He loves his father, he’s a good kid, good student, good athlete actually,” Trump said, recounting Barron’s frantic search for answers, told Daily Mail.
“‘Mom! What’s going on? What’s going on?'” Trump recalled his son asking. Trump also shared that Melania had been watching the rally live when the shooting occurred. “She couldn’t believe it. She was actually watching it live, can you imagine?” Trump told Levin. He described how, after being shot, he quickly signaled to the crowd that he was okay.
Supported by Secret Service agents, Trump raised his fist in the air and shouted “Fight! Fight! Fight!” to reassure his supporters. “It was a hit, it was a big hit,” Trump said, emphasizing the seriousness of the attempt on his life. Trump mentioned that Melania is still deeply affected by the incident and struggles to talk about it.
“She can’t even talk about it, which is okay because that means she likes me,” he remarked. He also recounted a conversation with his eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., who is “great with guns.” Trump Jr. expressed disbelief that the shooter missed, saying, “From that distance, it’s supposed to be, like, a sure thing. Like sinking a one-foot putt.”
Trump attributed his survival to divine intervention, noting that the experience has led some of his supporters to become religious. “It’s God. I know people that have become believers in God because of it,” he said. The shooter, 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, was ultimately stopped by a Secret Service countersniper. According to a senior FBI official, Crooks had been researching events involving both Trump and President Joe Biden. He had become “hyper-focused” on the Pennsylvania rally, viewing it as a “target of opportunity.”