"I shouldn't have been here, I should have been dead," Trump said aboard his plane en route to Milwaukee for the Republican National Convention, where he is to be confirmed as the party's presidential nominee.
Former US President Donald Trump told the New York Post he "should have been dead" after surviving an assassination attempt, which he described as a "very surreal experience".
"I shouldn't have been here, I should have been dead," Trump told the Post in an interview aboard his plane en route to Milwaukee for the Republican National Convention, where he is to be confirmed as the party's presidential nominee.
He recounts this "very surreal experience" with a white bandage over his right ear.
Trump, 78, was shot in the ear by a gunman at a campaign rally on Saturday.
He was left with a bloody face while a bystander was killed and two other people were injured.
Trump said he would have been dead had he not tilted his head slightly to the right to read a chart about illegal immigrants while speaking at the rally.
"By luck or by God, a lot of people say it's by God that I'm still here," he said.
He praised Secret Service agents for killing the shooter.
"They killed him with one shot right between the eyes," he said.
"They did a fantastic job," he added. "It's unreal for all of us."
The photo of Trump, with his fist raised defiantly as agents led him out, made front pages around the world and went viral on social media.
"A lot of people say it's the most iconic photo they've ever seen," the former president said, adding: "They're right and I didn't die. You usually have to die to have an iconic photo."
Trump said he rewrote the speech he had prepared for the Republican convention after the assassination attempt.
He said he had "prepared an extremely tough speech" about Biden's "terrible administration. But I scrapped it" for one he hoped would "unite our country."
"But I don't know if that's possible. People are very divided." | BGNES
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