Trump discusses assassination attempt in leaked call with presidential rival
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Donald Trump compared the bullet that grazed his ear in a failed assassination attempt to the “world’s largest mosquito” in a leaked phone call.
The Republican discussed the attempt on his life with Robert F. Kennedy, in what appeared to be a charm offensive to secure the independent candidate’s endorsement as he seeks to regain the presidency.
Trump also echoed Mr Kennedy’s well-known vaccine scepticism, claiming that babies were being given “massive” vaccine cocktails that caused “radical” changes, and told him that his re-election “would be so good for you”.
It comes after Thomas Matthew Crooks, a 20-year-old gunman, attempted to shoot the former president as he addressed a rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday.
“It felt like a giant, the world’s largest mosquito,” Trump told Mr Kennedy, whose father, Bobby Kennedy, and uncle, former US president John F. Kennedy, were fatally shot in the 1960s.
Referring to Crooks’ AR-15 semi-automatic rifle, he added: “That’s a big gun. Pretty tough guns, right?”
Trump appeared to suggest that he would “love” Mr Kennedy’s support. Those present for the discussion have reportedly said the Republican was seeking his endorsement for his re-election bid.
“I think it would be so good for you and so big for you, and we’re going to win. We’re going to win – we’re way ahead of the guy,” Trump continued, referring to Joe Biden, the US president.
Mr Kennedy is polling around nine per cent in the presidential race, and his endorsement of a candidate would have a significant impact in an election where the margins are extremely tight. Trump has opened up a two-point lead over Mr Biden since the Democrat’s dire debate performance last month.
‘Something wrong with vaccination system’
Seemingly in an attempt to win over the independent candidate, Trump claimed that there was “something wrong with that whole system” of vaccination.
The topic is close to Mr Kennedy’s heart, and he has previously criticised the former president’s rollout of the Covid-19 vaccine during his time in the White House.
“When you feed a baby, Bobby, a vaccination that is like 38 vaccinations and it looks like it’s bred for a horse not a 10 pound or 20 pound baby,” Trump said.
Trump, who has previously called the development of the Covid-19 vaccine a “miracle”, continued: “Then you see the baby all of a sudden starting to change radically. I’ve seen it too many times. And then you hear that it doesn’t have an impact, right?”
Mr Kennedy, who said on Monday that he had discussed “national unity” with Trump, said he was “mortified” by the leak and apologised to the former president.
“When president Trump called me I was taping with an in-house videographer. I should have ordered the videographer to stop recording immediately,” he said.
Joe Costello, a spokesman for the Biden campaign, accused “Trump and his anti-vax bud ‘Bobby’” of “spreading dangerous conspiracy theories”.
“This leaked footage is further proof Trump can’t be trusted to protect Americans’ health care,” he added.
06:42 PM BST
‘Sloping roof’ used by assassin was too dangerous for our agents, says Secret Service chief
Kimberly Cheatle, who is facing calls to resign, admits shooter was identified as a ‘potential person of suspicion’, but had not been stopped, write Joe Barnes and Tony Diver.
The US Secret Service did not put agents on the rooftop where an assassin shot at Donald Trump for health and safety reasons, the head of the agency has said.
Kimberly Cheatle, the Secret Service director, said the “sloped roof” where Thomas Matthew Crooks was positioned on Saturday could have posed a risk to agents.
“That building in particular has a sloped roof at its highest point. And so, you know, there’s a safety factor that would be considered there that we wouldn’t want to put somebody up on a sloped roof,” she told ABC News on Tuesday.
“And so, you know, the decision was made to secure the building, from inside.”
06:16 PM BST
On first night of conference, speakers revert to fiery rhetoric
If there were any doubts that Donald Trump and his allies would depart from the kind of divisive rhetoric they have become known for after his shooting, they were dispelled on Monday.
The former president has adopted an air of magnanimity since his near-fatal miss on Saturday night, making references to God and a wish to unite America.
But as he kicked off the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, speakers rattled through the issues that critics say have polarised America.
High on the list was LGBTQ rights and gender ideology.
“Let me state this clearly: There are only two genders,” said Marjorie Taylor Greene, the rightwing congresswoman from Georgia. The day before she called the Democrats the “party of pedophiles”
Michigan Congressman John James appeared to take aim at transgender women playing alongside biological women in sport.
“Our daughters were sold on hope, and now they’re being forced on the playing fields and changing rooms of biological males,” James said.
Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson said: “This fringe agenda includes biological males competing against girls and the sexualization and indoctrination of our children.”
05:53 PM BST
Trump gunman shot from roof that wasn’t secured by any agency
The gunman who tried to assassinate Donald Trump fired from a rooftop that the US Secret Service had declared to be outside its security perimeter -- a fatal omission that the agency should not have made, according to two of its former officials.
Two local Pennsylvania police officers who went to check out a dispatch call of a suspicious person in the area were alone when one of them, hoisted up by a partner to check the roof, was confronted by the gunman, 20-year-old Thomas Crooks, Butler County Sheriff Michael Slupe said in an interview.
That exposed a major hole in the security, said Kenneth Valentine, a former Secret Service special agent in charge: “He shouldn’t have been able to get up on the roof.”
Mr Valentine said the agency also should have had someone watching the rooftops and able to stop the threat as the next line of defense.
The Secret Service, which is responsible for Trump’s safety as both a former president and the Republican presidential candidate, did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
05:27 PM BST
Comment: Trump’s shooting helps Biden to stay, but not to win
If I were a Democratic legislator looking for electoral success this November, I would be worried, writes Charles Moore.
Donald Trump thinks that God intervened to make sure the assassin’s bullet nicked his ear, rather than entered his brain. If he is right, I would suggest the Almighty, being generous to all His children, has also done Joe Biden a favour.
Shortly before Sunday’s shocking attack, President Biden had been trying, and largely failing, to escape from the Democrats’ doubts about his cognitive abilities. He had called President Zelensky “President Putin” and renamed his Vice-President, Kamala Harris, as “Vice-President Trump”. The media were publishing lengthening lists of colleagues who wanted him to step aside from the attempt at a second term.
That feels unachievable now. The President thinks he is rallying the nation, and woe betide a Democratic politician appearing to undermine that. Barring some truly catastrophic and public failure of Mr Biden’s faculties, he has surely now put himself above the party dogfight. Just as the mantle of the president was beginning to slip from his shoulders, terrible events have placed it firmly back in place.
Read Charles Moore’s full piece
05:09 PM BST
Watch: Trump’s leaked conversation with RFK Jr
This is a clip of the leaked conversation Robert F Kennedy Jr had with Donald Trump.
Trump can be heard describing the bullet that clipped his ear as a mosquito. He also seems to delight in having survived a shot from such a “tough gun.”
05:01 PM BST
Pictured: Former presidential candidates speak ahead of today’s convention
Vivek Ramaswamy and Ron DeSantis gave speeches during preparations for the second day of the Republican National Convention at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee.
Donald Trump kicked off the first day of the convention to rapturous applause, with the crowd shouting “Fight! Fight! Fight!” in response to Trump’s shooting and the defiance he has shown since.
04:43 PM BST
Trump supporters still say no to gun limits
Their presidential candidate had just narrowly escaped an assassination attempt, a bullet grazing his ear on Saturday from an AR-15-style semiautomatic weapon - a rifle frequently used by mass shooters in the United States.
Yet in interviews with 12 Donald Trump delegates at his Republican Party nominating convention in Milwaukee, none advocated for limits or bans on assault rifles, raising the legal age to buy a gun, or even more robust background checks.
The delegates were dead set against any type of reform to America’s gun laws.
Most viewed even mild measures, such as expanded background checks, or raising the legal age to buy an assault weapon to 21, as infringements on the US Constitution’s Second Amendment, which grants citizens the right to own guns.
Instead, the delegates said any gun-related reforms should focus on funding better mental health support for troubled citizens, a standard Republican position. They blamed gun massacres and gun crime - including the assassination attempt on Trump - largely on mental illness and weapons falling into the wrong hands.
“It’s all about mental health,” said Will Boone, a delegate from Montana. “The right to have a gun is enshrined in the Constitution. Once you start infringing on that, you’ll start other rights being taken away.”
Steve Kramer, from Georgia, said it was a “lie” that expanded background checks would help.
“If you look at most of the killings, someone stole the gun, so background checks wouldn’t matter,” Mr Kramer said.
04:31 PM BST
Angela Rayner hits back at Vance’s criticism of UK
Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner has hit back after Donald Trump’s candidate for US vice president described the UK under Labour as the first “truly Islamist” country with a nuclear weapon.
Ohio senator JD Vance, who was chosen as Mr Trump’s running mate on Monday night, made the comments in an address to the National Conservatism conference in Washington DC last week.
Saying he had to “beat up on the UK”, he told the conference he had been discussing with a friend which would be “the first truly Islamist country that will get a nuclear weapon”.
He said: “We were like maybe it’s Iran, maybe Pakistan kind of counts, and then we sort of decided maybe it’s actually the UK since Labour just took over.
“But to my Tory friends, I have to say, you guys have got to get a handle on this.”
Figures from both the Labour Party and the Conservatives criticised Mr Vance’s comments on Tuesday morning.
Ms Rayner told ITV that Mr Vance had said “quite a lot of fruity things in the past” and she “looked forward” to meeting him and Mr Trump if they won the US election in November.
03:16 PM BST
Musk plans to give $45 mln a month to new pro-Trump PAC, WSJ reports
Billionaire Elon Musk has said he plans to commit around $45 million a month to a new pro-Trump super political-action committee, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday, citing people familiar with the matter.
Mr Musk had indicated that he planned to start his donations in July to the America PAC, backing former President Donald Trump’s presidential run, the newspaper said. However, the South Africa-born businessman was not listed on a Monday filing by the group, which shows that it has raised more than $8 million.
Lonsdale Enterprises and the Winklevoss twins were among the donors to America PAC. Lonsdale donated $1 million, and Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss each contributed $250,000.
Mr Musk, the world’s richest person and the billionaire chief executive of Tesla, did not respond to a Reuters request for comment. On X, he replied to a Wall Street Journal post of the report with a meme featuring the words “fake gnus,” in an apparent reference to so-called fake news.
03:00 PM BST
Tenacious D cancels rest of tour after shooting reference
The comedy rock duo Tenacious D — made up of Jack Black and Kyle Gass — has canceled the rest of their tour after Gass’ remarks about the assassination attempt on Donald Trump.
While onstage at a concert in Sydney on Sunday, Gass was presented with a birthday cake and asked to “make a wish” by Black. Gass responded, “Don’t miss Trump next time,” an apparent reference to Trump’s assassination attempt.
“I was blindsided by what was said at the show on Sunday. I would never condone hate speech or encourage political violence in any form,” Black said in a Tuesday statement on Instagram.
“After much reflection, I no longer feel it is appropriate to continue the Tenacious D tour, and all future creative plans are on hold. I am grateful to the fans for their support and understanding.”
Following Black’s statement, Gass apologized on Instagram.
"Don't miss miss Trump next time" - Tenacious D bandpic.twitter.com/swpUOzTyYe
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) July 15, 2024
02:19 PM BST
How JD Vance went from calling Donald Trump ‘America’s Hitler’ to his running mate
Raised in an unstable home by a drug-addicted mother, the pick for VP couldn’t have come from more different beginnings, writes Rozina Sabur.
When JD Vance released his ode to a forgotten Middle America in 2016, he became an instant literary icon.
Hillbilly Elegy, his memoir-cum-analysis of the Rust Belt’s decline, and a candid account of the poverty it had wrought, was a cult success which drew on his first-hand experience of violence and addiction.
The timing of the publication was significant. Donald Trump was making his longshot bid for the presidency the same year by tapping into the frustrations of working-class voters who felt left behind by a political elite.
Trump’s surprise success made Mr Vance a useful intermediary between his blue-collar base and a bemused US news media.
Both understood something many establishment politicians had failed to grasp: America’s working class was ready to leave the Democratic Party behind.
And yet the two men could not have been more different, both in their backgrounds and visions for the future.
01:54 PM BST
Senator calls for Tenacious D to be deported after ‘evil’ joke
An Australian senator has called for the rock band Tenacious D to be deported after one of its members made a joke on stage about Donald Trump’s shooting.
Kyle Gass, one half of the band’s comedy duo, was presented with a birthday cake at the gig in Sydney and told to make a wish by his co-member Jack Black.
He replied “don’t miss Trump next time”.
Senator Ralph Babet called the comment “filthy” and “evil” and called for the pair to be immediately removed from the country.
There is no place in Australia for those who wish for the assassination of others. pic.twitter.com/wuvgQxeeDS
— Senator Babet (@senatorbabet) July 16, 2024
01:32 PM BST
Joe Biden again rejects notion he will stand down
Joe Biden again rejected the idea that he might drop out of the race ahead of the election in November, following his disastrous debate performance last month.
Donald Trump’s shooting has knocked speculation around Mr Biden’s commitment for reelection off the news agenda. But he was again pressed by NBC on Monday whether he would run, to which he suggested he would.
He then focused on the myriad falsehoods Trump unleashed during the debate.
01:11 PM BST
Biden calls on Congress to crack down on large rent hikes by corporate landlords
President Joe Biden has called on Congress to pass legislation that would compel corporate owners of rental housing units to cap annual rent increases at 5 per cent or lose some tax benefits.
The White House also unveiled efforts to use public land for as many as 15,000 affordable housing units in Nevada and to boost neighborhoods in Las Vegas and elsewhere.
Mr Biden, a Democrat, is traveling in Nevada, a political swing state that he hopes to win in the Nov. 5 election against Republican Donald Trump.
01:03 PM BST
Crowd chants ‘Fight! Fight! Fight’ as Trump returns to stage
Donald Trump made a triumphant entrance on the first night of the Republican National Convention on Monday, receiving a raucous ovation from the party faithful two days after a would-be assassin’s bullet grazed his right ear.
Trump walked into the Fiserv Forum in downtown Milwaukee with a thick bandage over the ear as the crowd chanted “Fight! Fight! Fight” and pumped their fists, a reference to his reaction in the moments after he was wounded.
The former president mouthed the words “Thank you” and settled into a box with some of his children and US Senator JD Vance, Trump’s choice for running mate announced earlier in the day.
