FBI Is Not Fully Convinced Trump Was Struck by a Bullet

FBI Director Christopher Wray revealed during a marathon testimony on Wednesday that investigators still do not know if former President Donald Trump was grazed by a bullet or a piece of shrapnel during his attempted assassination.

But making this distinction doesn’t guarantee clicks, so let’s keep the headline from being too clear about it.

I think the FBI is saying they know where each round ends up and it's not in a trajectory that could have injured Trump. But they can't just say that to the Republican Congressman asking the question.
It's a distinction without a difference. "Trump wasn't injured by a bullet, he was injured by shrapnel from the bullet" doesn't let the FBI or the SS off the hook for missing this kid before he started shooting.

The distinction here is hardly relevant.

It is relevant to history. You can either tell the Trump story that a bullet hit his ear, or you can say that he caught shrapnel.
- The only way that would be relevant would be if there was a determination that the shooter was trying to do some kind of ad hoc false flag thing, as opposed to writing his own name into history. Everything we know at this point indicates that the latter is true, and the former is not.
  Whether Trump's injury was the result of a fired projectile or a piece of shrapnel, the injury was caused by an assassination attempt.
If it was shrapnel then it dispels the idea that if he'd turned his head just a few inches it would've been death.
- And it makes the whole divine intervention thing seem less likely, but they are already reaching so hard anyways I'm sure they will just reach a bit further... it's a cult after all.
- If my grandmother had wheels, she'd be a bicycle, too.
- I mean, sure? But we are getting pretty far into "what if" territory that can never be known and doesn't really matter. If he was hit by a bullet, or shrapnel from a bullet doesn't change the fact he was injured by a shooter.
- Clickbait?!? From The Daily Beast?!? Impossible!!!
The only interesting thing about it might be that it once again points out the hypocrisy of the right.
They mocked John Kerry as undeserving of his purple hearts, and wore fake bandaids because he was hit with shrapnel.
- ... it once again points out the hypocrisy of the right.
  We could climb that pile into orbit.
It’s relevant to the folks who believe in divine intervention, isn’t it?
- The folks who believe in divine intervention don't care about what actually happens in reality in any case, so no, it's not relevant to them, either.
- People who believe in fantasy and fairytales aren’t going to be swayed by the nuance of fact.
I think what you're trying to say is that "either way he still survived an assassination attempt", which I agree with, but the details still matter.
It's relevant in that Trump is probably dishonest again.
The situation is shocking enough if he was hit by glass in an assassination attempt, but they couldn't resist lying and saying the bullet hit his ear.

Trump responded with a post on Truth Social while the hearing was still taking place, calling for Wray to resign—but not for anything he said about the assassination attempt. Instead, Trump lambasted the FBI director for claiming that he found his interactions with President Biden “uneventful and unremarkable.”

He’s such a batshit narcissist. And rapist. And a fraud. And a crook, a pathological liar, vain to the point of gruesome, and many other qualities that explain how he’s running the entire republiQan party.

He wants to be treated like royalty. Like a Tsar. Like Putin.

He was struck by...a smooth criminal.

Donny are you OK?
- Are you OK Donnie?

A Secret service agent there said it was a piece of glass that sliced his ear which made a lot more sense with how it looks, and is in line with Trump's retelling of the story at the RNC, (he heard a buzz go by) but it doesn't really change anything from either side. Trump would have said Jesus personally blocked the bullet no matter what and getting hit by glass rather than a bullet doesn't make it much less traumatic of an event to imagine for those of us with empathy.

If it was a bullet, he should be missing part of his ear. It would probably look like Holyfield's ear post Tyson fight.

FBI Director Christopher Wray revealed during a marathon testimony on Wednesday that investigators still do not know if former President Donald Trump was grazed by a bullet or a piece of shrapnel during his attempted assassination.

There's no way a bullet "grazes" an ear and it's not obvious... He'd be legitimately missing cartilage, he was seen golfing days later without even a bandaid on it
I don't think at any point any source has said he was shot.
Just that he was shot at, and came up with a bleeding ear.
Not saying he cut it himself, just that it probably got scratched at some point.
Due to Trump's age and, well, just everything about him, he's most likely on blood thinners. Which would make even a tiny scratch bleed like a motherfucker. It makes you bleed fast and takes forever to clot. A normal nick that barely bleeds normally would look like a murder scene
Add in the adrenaline and it's really going to pump out.
The most logical explanation is (and always has been) a SS agent accidentally scratched his ear while he kept trying to stand up.
- Beyond physical injury, Trump's description of the event -- along with Wray saying the FBI is unsure -- really makes me lean toward it not being a direct wound.
  Trump said he heard bullets "whizzing" by. A supersonic bullet directly next to your ear isn't going to make a whizzing sound like on TV; there's going to be a loud, distinct crack from the sonic boom as it passes by.
  I fully believe Trump would be leaning into that hard if that's what he'd heard. "It was like thunder next to my head. The loudest thunder. The greatest thunder you've ever heard. HUEG thunder." It's exactly the kind of thing he loves to play up.
- The most logical explanation is (and always has been) a SS agent accidentally scratched his ear while he kept trying to stand up.
  There’s blood on his hand right after he touches his ear, before he even ducks down
  https://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/1e2q931/the_photograph_sequence_of_the_bullet_that_hit/
  https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/14/us/politics/photo-path-trump-assassination.html
Who was he attempting to assassinate?
- One conspiracy is that he was paid off to shoot up the rally and Trump would cut his ear WWE style to garner sympathy.
  Edit: I do not believe in this theory btw
- Yeah, what if this whole thing was actually to kill Corey Comperatore.

The take-away here seems to be not that Herr Furher is stealing valor, rather, that he was standing adjacent to it.

Best photo of the ear we have right now, far as I can find:

Armchair analysis: Maybe it sorta looks like some of the helix (both tubercle and crus sides) flesh is missing from a graze?

I don't know what I believe, but it doesn't matter. I just want the facts.

For some reason I remember initial reports saying glass struck him.

I bet any amount of money that he cut himself while he was down on the ground

He has blood on him before he even ducks down you dense wet cabbage.

It wouldn't honestly surprise me. This is where we're at.

I thought people had concluded that it was a glass shard from the teleprompter that the bullet hit. Is that debunked?

Some of the footage shown on TV had something whizzing by in a still picture of the scene. This could be anything of course bullet or shrapnel or the thing I saw was simply fake.

It could have been a bee sting.

Amber Heard intensifies

Whom vs who of ballistics dissembling. If it was a chunk of teleprompter that nicked him the bullet must have been only slightly off.

Maybe they knew about the kid. Then they swapped the munitions with fake ones. Next they told felon Trump to duck if he heard a noise, and to slam a ketchup packet on top his ear?

It's plausible.