Charles sends personal message to Trump after former president was shot
King Charles yesterday sent a private message to Donald Trump after the former US President was shot in an assassination attempt at a rally in Pennsylvania.
Charles’ message to Trump was delivered on Sunday via the UK Embassy in Washington DC.
Buckingham Palace said the contents of the correspondence will be kept private.
It is understood Charles’s message was in keeping with Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer‘s conversation with Mr Trump, in which he condemned the violence, expressed his condolences for the victims and their families, and wished the former president and those injured a quick recovery.
Trump, 78, was left bloodied and wounded when a bullet pierced the ‘upper part’ of his right ear just minutes into his speech in Butler on Saturday night.
King Charles yesterday sent a private message to Donald Trump after the former US President was shot in an assassination attempt
Trump is bundled off the stage by Secret Service agents to chants of ‘USA’ form the MAGA crowd
Trump pumped a fist at the crowd and did not seem to severely injured as he walked on his own off the stage, surrounded by secret service
Donald Trump and his wife Melania meet with Charles and Camilla during his State Visit to the UK in June 2019
Camilla, Charles, Trump, and Melania pose for the cameras ahead of a dinner at Winfield House (the residence of the US Ambassador) in June 2019
Gunman Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, fired at least eight bullets from an ‘AR-style rifle’ at the 45th US President from a rooftop just 130 yards.
One spectator was killed in the attack while two others were seriously wounded.
Crooks, a registered Republican, was gunned down by a US Secret Service sniper.
Trump told US media he is ‘supposed to be dead’ and he was only saved ‘by luck or by God’.
In February Trump sent his prayers to Charles in February after the monarch’s shock cancer diagnosis.
In an all-caps message written on his Truth Social platform he said: ‘KING CHARLES HAS CANCER. HE IS A WONDERFUL MAN, WHO I GOT TO KNOW WELL DURING MY PRESIDENCY, AND WE ALL PRAY THAT HE HAS A FAST AND FULL RECOVERY!’.
And he predicted that Charles would do ‘very well’ as King and would likely ‘refrain’ from discussing certain elements of politics after ascended to the throne following Queen Elizabeth II’s death.
Charles previously wrote to Trump in 1995 when the then-Prince of Wales thanked him for offering an honorary membership to his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.
The-then Prince of Wales chats with Trump and his wife Melania during a reception at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 2005
Trump raises his glass to Charles during the dinner at Winfield House for the-then Prince of Wales in 2019
Trump shakes Charles’ hand after he steps off Marine One for his welcome ceremony at Buckingham Palace, June 2019
Trump and Charles stroll side-by-side at Buckingham Palace during the-then US President’s three-day State Visit
Melania, Trump, Charles, and Camilla share a laugh as they have tea at Clarence House, June 2019
Trump signs the visitors book after their tour of Westminster Abbey in June 2019 in which he wrote: ‘Thank you so much. This has been a great honor. Special place.’
As bullets rang out and whizzed by in Pennsylvania on Saturday night, Trump suddenly grabbed hold of his ear before hitting the floor as Secret Service agents swarmed on top of him.
With blood trickling down his cheek, Trump rose to his feet and raised his fist in the air and repeatedly mouthed the words ‘fight’ as he refused to leave the stage without his shoes.
In his first interview since the attack, he said: ‘The most incredible thing was that I happened to not only turn [my head] but to turn at the exact right time and in just the right amount,’ he said, adding that the bullet that grazed his ear could have easily killed him.
‘I’m supposed to be dead, I’m not supposed to be here,’ he told the New York Post.
Trump revealed how turning his head away from the crowd to look at a video screen may have saved his life and how he wanted to keep talking after being shot.
He said on Sunday: ‘I rarely look away from the crowd. Had I not done that in that moment, well, we would not be talking today, would we?’
Trump noted that he had turned slightly to the right so that he could read a chart on illegal immigrants.
‘The most incredible thing was that I happened to not only turn but to turn at the exact right time and in just the right amount,’ he added.
‘If I only half-turn, it hits the back of the brain. The other way goes right through [my skull]. And because the sign was high, I’m looking up. The chances of my making a perfect turn are probably one tenth of one percent, so I’m not supposed to be here.’
The former president appeared to be shot in the ear
Donald Trump raises his fist moments after being injured in a shooting at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Saturday evening
The former president addressed the now-iconic moment where he raised his fist and mouthed ‘fight’ to the stunned audience.
‘A lot of people say it’s the most iconic photo they’ve ever seen,’ Trump said. ‘They’re right and I didn’t die. Usually you have to die to have an iconic picture.’
He said he wanted his fans to know he was all right ‘and that America goes on, we go forward, that we are strong’.
‘The energy coming from the people there in that moment, they just stood there; it’s hard to describe what that felt like, but I knew the world was looking. I knew that history would judge this, and I knew I had to let them know we are OK,’ Trump added.
‘I said, I’ve got to walk out, I have to walk out,’ Trump said during his flight to Milwaukee, according to the Examiner. ‘I did not want to be carried out. I’ve seen people being carried out, and it’s not good. And I had no problem with walking.’
Trump was full of praise for his adoring audience, citing how they reacted to the situation.
‘A lot of places, especially soccer games, you hear a single shot, everybody runs. Here there were many shots and they stayed. I love them. They are such great people.’
Trump accepted Joe Biden’s phone call after the shooting, calling it ‘fine’ and saying the president was ‘very nice.’
He added that the ‘reality is just setting in’ with him regarding the shooting and the chaotic aftermath. Trump pointed to his nose and said they killed Crooks ‘with one shot right between the eyes.’
Despite the controversy over the Secret Service for allowing the shooting to happen, he praised the speed and strength of his security.
