NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump’s campaign released an update on the former president’s health on Saturday, a week after he survived an assassination attempt at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
The memo from Texas Rep. Ronny Jackson, who served as Trump’s White House doctor, offers novel details about the nature of the Republican candidate’s injuries and the treatment he received immediately after the attack.
According to Jackson, Trump suffered a gunshot wound to the right ear caused by a high-powered rifle that “came less than half an inch from his head and struck the top of his right ear.”
The bullet mark, he said, “left a 2 cm wide wound that reached the cartilage surface of the ear. There was initially considerable bleeding, later a significant swelling of the entire upper ear.”
Although the swelling has since gone down and the wound is “starting to granulate and heal properly,” Trump still has intermittent bleeding that requires the bandage that was on display at the Republican National Convention last week. At Saturday’s rally, the white gauze on Trump’s ear was replaced with a skin-colored bandage.
“Due to the width and blunt nature of the wound itself, no sutures were required,” Jackson wrote.
Trump was initially treated by medical personnel at Butler Memorial Hospital. According to Jackson, doctors “conducted a thorough examination for additional injuries, including a CT scan of his head.”
Trump, he said, “will undergo further evaluations, including a comprehensive hearing test if necessary. He will follow up with his primary care physician as directed by the physicians who initially evaluated him,” he wrote.
“In summary, former President Trump is doing well and recovering as expected from the gunshot wound he sustained last Saturday afternoon,” he added.
The letter is the first official update on the former president’s condition since the night of the shooting.
Jackson, a staunch Trump supporter, said in the letter that as Trump’s former doctor, he was deeply concerned about the former president’s well-being after the attack and met him slow Saturday in Bedminster, New Jersey, after Trump returned from Pennsylvania “to personally check on him and offer my assistance where possible.”
He said he has been with Trump since then, examining and treating his wound daily, including traveling with him on Saturday to Michigan, where the former president will hold his first rally since the shooting, along with his newly named running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance.
According to a state Department of Health database, Jackson appears to be licensed to practice medicine in Florida. Records from the American Board of Emergency Medicine also show that Jackson holds an emergency medicine certification that is valid through the end of 2025.
There was no immediate response from a spokesman for the congressman, and the Trump campaign team did not immediately respond to questions.
Last year, on President Joe Biden’s 81st birthday, Trump’s campaign released a letter from Dr. Bruce A. Aronwald, a New Jersey physician who said he had been the former president’s physician since 2021.
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An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated that Jackson’s emergency certification was valid through the end of 2015. In fact, it is valid through the end of 2025.
___ Associated Press writer Cedar Attanasio contributed to this report.
