Donald Trump supporters and GOP delegates wore bandages over their right ears at this week’s Republican National Convention in a show of support for their presidential candidate, who sported a similar look after he was grazed by a bullet during an assassination attempt on Saturday.
Among those following the leader in Milwaukee were Arizona delegates Joe Neglia and Stacey Goodman.
“It’s just in sympathy with Donald Trump,” Neglia told the Guardian while sporting a cartoonishly large covering over his ear.
Blood gushed from Trump’s ear Saturday after 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks opened fire during a rally in western Pennsylvania. Trump was immediately rushed away for treatment only minutes after his speech began.
“Much bleeding took place, so I realized then what was happening,” the former president later wrote on his social media site.
The 78-year-old candidate’s son Eric Trump told CBS News his dad’s injury required no stitches, but said the gunfire caused a “nice flesh wound.”
Trump showed up at the convention Monday wearing what appeared to be white gauze over his entire right ear. Supporters viewed Trump’s presence in Milwaukee as a sign of resilience.
However critics, including tennis great Martina Navratilova, mocked the gauze as a “PR stunt,” saying Trump had “no dressing on his ear … not even a Band-Aid” the day after the shooting.
President Joe Biden called for an end to political violence in a prime-time address to the nation after shots were fired at Trump.
“Here in America we need to get out of our silos, where we only listen to those with whom we agree, where misinformation is rampant, where foreign actors fan the flames of our division to shape the outcomes consistent with their interests, not ours,” Biden said.
Trump, who is set to address the convention crowd Thursday night — his first public speech since the rally shooting — is also expected to deliver a message of unity.
Polling shows Trump holding a slight lead over President Biden, whose campaign was at least temporarily sidelined when the 81-year-old Democrat tested positive on Wednesday for COVID-19.
