USA Trump after assassination attempt: "I should be dead"

Former US President Donald Trump has expressed his gratitude after an assassination attempt on him that went relatively lightly. In an interview with the tabloid "New York Post", he said: "By luck or by God - and many people say it was God's work - I'm still here".

Referring to Saturday's attack, in which he was injured in the ear, he went on to tell the newspaper: "I shouldn't be here. I should be dead. I should be dead."

As Trump described in the joint interview with the "Washington Examiner", a small gesture during the campaign event may have saved his life. He had pointed to a poster on the subject of migration at the very moment of the attack and therefore turned his head slightly away. "I'm only slowly realizing that. I rarely look away from the crowd. If I hadn't done it at that moment, well, then we wouldn't be talking today, would we?"

Photos taken immediately before the attack show Trump turning slightly to the right and pointing his hand in the direction of the poster. The shooter then hit him in the right ear with a bullet, according to his own account.

"The doctor at the hospital said he had never seen anything like it, he said it was a miracle," the New York Post quoted Trump as saying. The Republican wore a white bandage over his right ear during the interview, but his staff did not allow any photos to be taken, the newspaper reported.