Former President Donald Trump was heard repeatedly telling Secret Service agents to “let me get my shoes” as they protected him on the ground in the immediate aftermath of the attempt on his life at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Saturday.
The presumptive GOP presidential nominee explained the comment — which prompted plenty of commentary and speculation on social media — in an interview with the New York Post’s Michael Goodwin.
“The agents hit me so hard that my shoes fell off, and my shoes are tight,” Trump told Goodwin.
Trump wore a “loose, large white bandage that covered his right ear” during the interview that was conducted on Trump’s private plane as he flew to Milwaukee for the Republican National Convention, according to the report.
No pictures were allowed to be taken of the former president wearing the bandage, per Goodwin.
Elsewhere in the interview, Trump said he’s “supposed to be dead.”
“A lot of people say it’s the most iconic photo they’ve ever seen,” he added of an image of him pumping his fist before being escorted away by agents.
“They’re right and I didn’t die. Usually you have to die to have an iconic picture,” he added.
