Trump confessed ear injury was ‘not too bad' at RNC despite wearing oversized bandage, Congressman says
The then-presidential nominee told Byron Donalds that doctors had advised him to keep the bandage on, the Florida Congressman said, speaking at a GOP conference over the weekend.
Trump arrived at the convention in July 2024 wearing the bandage, two days after surviving an attempted assassination while out campaigning in Butler, Pennsylvania, during which a bullet clipped his right ear.
Many convention goers decided to mimic the look in solidarity, also sporting bandages of their own.
However, Donalds recalled, Trump himself was unenthused about his medical head accessory when the pair met shortly after his convention speech. "I see the bandage, and the second thing [Trump says] is 'what do you think of the bandage?'" Donalds said.
"I said, 'I don't like it. Take it off.' That's what I said. 'I don't like it. Take it off.' I said 'let everybody see the ear.''
"He was like, 'you know, it's not too bad. It's not too bad'..."Doc Ronny [Jackson] says, I gotta wear the bandage."
'I'm like 'so what? You're the president just take the thing off,' Donalds added.
The president's bandage became the inspiration for many at the RNC, with one Arizona delegate Joe Neglia describing it at the time as 'the newest fashion trend.'
'Everybody in the world is going to be wearing these pretty soon,' Neglia told CBS, while sporting a piece of white tape over his own ear. 'When he came in [to the convention], and there was that eruption of love in the room, I thought, 'what can I do to honor the truth? What can I possibly do?''
'And then I saw the bandage and I thought, I can do that. So, I put it on simply to honor Trump and to express sympathy with him and unity with him.'
At a rally shortly after the convention, Trump appeared to have downgraded his ear bandage, instead sporting a skin-colored band-aid covering the top part of his right ear.
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We must fight for a Texas, and a country, where every voter, in every neighborhood, has an equal voice. After all, a hallmark of a thriving American democracy is that voters choose their elected leaders − not the other way around. Opinion: Texas Democrats know they're fighting a losing cause. At least they're fighting. As chair of the Progressive Caucus' redistricting effort, I've led these fights before, and I'm prepared to do it again. As a Latina and proud daughter of the Rio Grande Valley, I refuse to sit back while Republican leaders silence our communities, try to erase Latino political power and rig our democracy behind closed doors. That's why I joined my fellow Texas Democrats, as I did in 2021, in leaving the state, denying Republicans the required quorum they need to pass these manipulated maps. They've left us no choice. I must do everything in my power to stand up for my constituents and all Texans. 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That means the stakes are high, but so is the opportunity. This is not just a fight about maps. It's a fight about who counts, and who has power in our democracy. History has its eyes on us, and it will remember who met this moment with resolve to win. And who stayed silent. Democratic Rep. Gina Hinojosa chairs the Texas House Progressive Caucus' redistricting effort.
