A statement issued by the FBI following last year’s attempt on Donald Trump’s life has resurfaced this week after a conspiracy theorist claimed the entire incident was staged from within.
For context, in July 2024, while attending an outdoor campaign rally near Butler, Pennsylvania, a 20-year-old man opened fire with an AR-15-style rifle from a rooftop, firing eight rounds at the former president.
Trump, then 79, sustained a minor injury when one of the shots grazed his ear. The shooter, Thomas Matthew Crooks, tragically k!lled a rally attendee and left two others critically injured.
As blood ran down the side of his face, Trump was swiftly escorted off stage by security, while Crooks was shot dead by a Secret Service agent.
Later that day, Trump posted on social media saying he’d been “shot with a bullet that pierced the upper part of my right ear,” adding that he’d heard a “whizzing sound, shots, and immediately felt the bullet ripping through the skin.”
In the following week, Trump’s team released a note from a former White House physician confirming a gunshot wound to Trump’s ear.
The note stated the bullet had missed entering his skull by less than a quarter of an inch, striking the top of his right ear, and affirmed that Trump was recovering well.
As the first anniversary of the assassination attempt approaches, some skeptics have been reviewing photos of Trump’s ear taken before and after the attack, claiming they appear identical.
These critics argue that the unchanging appearance of his ear is “proof” that the shooting was staged to gain sympathy and voter support, insisting Trump had suffered “no damage” in reality.
One user on Twitter remarked, “Ear cartilage generally does NOT regrow,” while another accused the event of being “likely the biggest scam ever.”
At the time of the attack, FBI Director Christopher Wray acknowledged some uncertainty about whether Trump was directly hit by a bullet or injured by shrapnel.
Testifying before the House Judiciary Committee, he was asked whether all eight bullets fired by Crooks had been recovered, to which he replied that he did not immediately have that information.
He explained, “With respect to former President Trump, there’s some question about whether or not it’s a bullet or shrapnel that hit his ear,” adding that it was conceivable the bullet that caused the grazing might have ended up elsewhere, though he believed all the cartridge casings had been accounted for.
A bureau spokesperson later told Newsweek that their position had been “consistent and clear” that this was an attempted assassination of the former president, resulting in his injury, one fatality, and other victims wounded.
The spokesperson elaborated
“FBI Director Wray provided extensive congressional testimony on Wednesday about the FBI’s investigation. This was a heinous attack, and the FBI is dedicating significant resources to uncover every detail about the shooter and his motives.
The FBI’s Shooting Reconstruction Team is still examining evidence from the scene, including bullet fragments, and the investigation is ongoing.”
Reflecting on the FBI’s remarks, a Reddit user commented, “I do think it’s odd that Trump hasn’t shown us the damage to his ear yet…in my mind that supports the shrapnel theory.”
Another added, “The lack of damage contradicts his whole ‘I TOOK A BULLET FOR DEMOCRACY’ branding.”
A third person wrote, “I’ve been asking them to release the photos and people just call me a ‘conspiracy theorist’. I’m not going to take the word of someone with 34 felony convictions without evidence.”
Someone else noted, “I saw a video of him playing golf yesterday. There was a close-up shot, and you could clearly see his ear — no visible injury.”
