Donald Trump Photo Without Ear Bandage Raises Eyebrows
Donald Trump Photo Without Ear Bandage Raises Eyebrows
Famous photographer Pete Souza has seemingly deleted his X account after a post doubting whether Trump was shot in the ear.
Updates:
Might be best for mods to lock this post at this point (is that a thing on Lemmy?) because this story is basically wrapped. The FBI says a bullet caused some ear damage. Maybe it was bullet shrapnel from a ricochet or something like that, but later photos show the teleprompters in-tact so it wasn't shards of glass from those. Trump's usage of the bandage (and the assassination attempt) as symbols and political tools has been discussed at length and I don't think conspiratorial thinking beyond that is very productive. Pete Souza took his own account down after getting a lot of harassment, so no further conspiracies are needed regarding X-formerly-known-as-Twitter at this time.
A photo of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump taken on Saturday without his ear bandage has sparked a wave of speculation.
The image, taken by Alex Brandon of the Associated Press on July 27 and shared by photojournalist Pete Souza on X, formerly Twitter, shows Trump walking up an airplane staircase with an apparently fully healed ear wound just weeks after he was shot with a high-powered rifle.
Souza, known for his tenure as the chief official White House photographer for Presidents Ronald Reagan and Barack Obama, posted Brandon's photo on his now-deactivated X account on Saturday, writing, "AP photo this morning. Look closely at his ear that was 'hit' by a bullet from an AR-15 assault rifle."
Souza's profile, @PeteSouza, which had over 200,000 followers, now reads, "This account doesn't exist, try searching for another," implying that he has deleted or deactivated it. If he had been banned, it would read, "Account suspended. X suspends accounts which violate the X rules."
Speaking for myself, my eyebrows are not raised. I remember reading that day that it was a shattered teleprompter or other shrapnel that nicked or sliced his ear, not that a bullet had passed through it. In any case, I personally don't quite understand the importance of the distinction. He was shot at either way, no? If it were a nick by glass I imagine it would've healed by now.
Edit: I forgot to mention... Fuck Trump and his ilk, they deserve being two-time losers come November.
Getting hit by a bullet makes it more dramatic and makes him more of a martyr for his rabid cult fans. If it didn’t hit him then there’s always the hint of the question - “was he the actual target?”. Which makes him less important to his fans.
Plus, although being shot at is pretty close to dying of course, a bullet grazing your head is exponentially closer to dying than it missing by several feet and some shrapnel or whatever gives you a little nick
Good point, I guess that gives me some justification for my stance that it isn't important. I wouldn't want to stoop to the level of his fans.
“was he the actual target?”
I mean he probably was, right?
FBI officially stated that it was a bullet, not shrapnel, after expressing initial uncertainty plus unhealthy 78 year olds heal slowly, hence the raised eyebrows.
Probably he was legit shot at - I think it's irrational to believe it was staged with the evidence we currently have - but fascists love false-flag and staged attacks. Hitler's Reichstag Fire, Putin's Russian Appartment Bombings are two recent examples. Even Pisastratus, the 5thC BCE tyrant of Athens staged a fake attack on himself to generate sympathy and justify an armed guard which he then used to seize the acropolis.
So I can definitely see why eyebrows raise quickly when a would be tyrant is suspiciously unscathed.
“What struck former President Trump in the ear was a bullet, whether whole or fragmented into smaller pieces, fired from the deceased subject’s rifle,” the agency said in a statement.
They're saying it could have been a fragment of a bullet, which would qualify as shrapnel. They're not using that word.
Good point, interesting examples too, thanks.
The fact that trump wont release his medical records to anyone, or even allow the FBI to question him or see his ear, is all the proof you need that he didnt get shot.
We know trumps personality. If his ear really got shot by an actual bullet, He'd be ripping the bandage off at every fucking opportunity and pointing to it and screaming about what biden/the liberals/etc did to him.
You might not understand the importance of the distinction, but Trump does in his messaging.
In an interview with The New York Post in the days after the shooting, Trump said that a bullet had hit him, taking a chunk out of his ear.
"The doctor at the hospital said he never saw anything like this, he called it a miracle," he said. "I'm not supposed to be here, I'm supposed to be dead."
He's touting this as an honest to God miracle that he survived. His followers have said God personally intervened to spare Trump, which strengthens their belief that he's some sort of holy figure destined to rule. If it turns out that he was scratched by some shrapnel and not shot, that doesn't sound nearly as divine-interventiony.
Yeah that gives a lot of context. He's a pathological liar. Unfortunately, people attributing this to an act of God won't be persuaded by any images or video showing that his ear is fully intact for whatever reason. They'll assign it as another one of God's miracles.
So he stood there in a hail of bullets so close he got hit by debris and you're telling me it wasn't an act of God?
Sorry, just giving you a preview of their answer. Having been shot at in my life, it doesn't really matter. They're going to call those bullets missing him a miracle. Especially because at 100 meters, he should be dead. He's alive for only one of two reasons, that shooter fucked up or divine intervention.
Yeah this is pretty much the entire point.
Furthermore, denying it isn't good politics. We're not going to make his base disbelieve him and we're going to look like conspiracy theorists to moderate Republicans and centrists unless we have extremely solid evidence.
Until we get that, he was shot, he has recovered. The ear and head area is famous for producing a lot of blood from very little. He was extremely lucky to only be grazed and we all renounce this kind of violence.
No one should be shot at, period. It's the act of taking a bad thing (where someone did die) and embellish it for use for his advantage. If he had any shame...but...
It matters because he was wearing a giant bandage. Stop helping him by diffusing this.
"Helping him" is a bit hyperbolic, no? What an enraging take to read. I feel like arguing over this as if it matters gives weight to the idiocy of people who idolize him. I even said I assumed he was hit by a teleprompter. Fuck you. Vote.
Is it very stupid that Souza's account was deleted for this picture?
Yes.
Is Trump a nonstop POS liar?
Also yes.
Is it possible Trump got astoundingly lucky, and the bullet just barely grazed the top of his earlobe, and this would cause the amount of blood seen, and basically just a superficial scratch?
Again, yes.
This kind of wound is typically called a 'graze'. It is consistent with the trajectory the shooter was firing from and the direction Trump was facing.
There is another bandage pic of Trump with more localized bandaging which to me indicates the bullet likely just barely grazed the top rear ish of his upper earlobe:
Could it possibly have been caused by shrapnel or fragments of a teleprompter or some other object?
Yes, but, in the case of shattering teleprompter glass, shattered glass fragments are generally more rough and jagged surfaces than a spinning bullet, which on average would lead to an even more fucked up wound and more blood.
I keep hearing this claim that the teleprompter shattering was what actually caused the wound, despite the picture of what seems to literally be the bullet and it warping the air passing in an exact trajectory that would align with an astoundingly lucky and light graze.
Are there pictures, video, audio showing the teleprompter shattered, or being shattered?
Pete Souza posted on Instagram that he suspended his Twitter account himself. Apparently he was receiving a lot of hate (big surprise) and also drew fire inadvertently to the photographer of the photo
"Free speech is the most important thing... But if you call me out on my bullshit I'll kill your fucking family"
-these people
That's all fine. But also, Trump could and should just release the record of the medical visit. That would quiet a lot of this down. The outrage comes from the "oh my god I was shot with a bullet" and the "look how strong I am" vibe trump is giving off while also not releasing any real evidence aside from the footage of the day.
But I would suspect all of that to be intentional. A void of information creates a vacuum that fills with misinformation and speculation and that causes discourse which is all trump wants.
Oh yes, I completely agree with you that Trump should release the records of the hospital visit and cooperate with instead of needlessly antagonize investigators.
Unfortunately, he's Trump, and as you say, he is probably at least somewhat cognizant that a vacuum of information has already lead to baseless speculation, and he certainly knows that in a chaotic miasma of people operating with entirely different 'facts', he can later stir the pot to his advantage.
There's a frame showing both teleprompters intact after he was shot
A picture taken after the attempt showed that both teleprompters were in tact
Souza deleted his own account.
https://thehill.com/policy/technology/4798519-former-white-house-photographer-deletes-x-account/
Ear lobes are on the bottom
Ok, sure, the technical phrasing would be something like 'a superficial grazing bullet wound to the exterior, superior portion of the helix of the right ear.'
The picture doesn’t give a 3D placement for the bullet, it doesn’t prove anything. We are seeing an x,y picture without any frame of reference for the z-axis. The trail tells us little due to the limitations of digital photography and the camera used.
The glass fragments are not more rough, that’s not really a good way to describe the two surfaces. The glass also would not have shattered, it would have ruptured. The two are different mechanical differences for what happened. The amount of kinetic energy in the glass fragments would have been very high.
The glass fragments would have been much sharper than the rounded bullet. It’s essentially 1,000 flying small knives bumping into each other.
The photo could have been mirrored for stylistic purposes, but you'd think the photographer would have come out and said something by now.
Someone in another thread mentioned that it doesn't appear to be mirrored judging by how Trump has his hair, it's asymmetrical and stylized toward the left. Hence not mirrored.
There's just no fucking way his ear was hit by .223 (let alone the hotter 5.56) and there's still an ear left.
There would be a hole and massive damage, at least. Most likely just a twisted stump.
It's much more likely that someone scratched it with their fingernail in the chaos and it just bleed a lot because: adrenaline of being shot at, adrenaline of a rally, how high blood pressure is in the ear, and how blood thinners making even a small scratch look like a murder scene.
If he'd really have been shot there'd never have been a bandage and trump wouldn't go anywhere without 15 doctors in tow to explain how brave and strong he is to survive a gunshot wound.
At minimum he was struck by glass. His reaction was instantaneous with the shots and clearly he was reacting to being hit in the ear. It could have just been reacting to a close fly by at his ear, except the chances of him then being injured and bleeding from the same ear from an agent are slim to none. But however he was injured, it clearly wasn't much of an injury regardless.
It would be kind of a moot point as he WAS shot at and injured, and a bystander and the shooter were both killed. Those are the important facts here. But then Trump had to throw a fit over the FBI saying they weren't sure he'd actually been struck by a bullet or by shrapnel. He made such a stink out of it that now that he was clearly barely injured, it just makes him look silly and egotistical (go figure!) for so vehemently insisting he was hit with a bullet.
We could talk about if JD fucked a couch if you want....
I think you overestimate the size and power of a 5.56 round. Much of the destructive force comes from speed and the area it hits - such as the chest or hips. Bones can cause it to ricochet and spin, causing cavitation and greater destruction.
They can leave a tiny entrance wound. With how thin the ear is, it's unlikely to have left an exit wound any larger than the entrance. It may have even hit the tip of the ear.
Either way, I think there would still be a visible wound unless it just nicked the tip of the ear. The bleeding may be due to blood thinners or something, considering his cardiovascular health.
Much of the destructive force comes from speed
You should've stopped there.
If it had hit his ear, it would have ripped a chunk of the ear off, not just caused a scratch that was unnoticeable days later. This isn't the first time he's been seen without a bandage. He was photographed like a day later and it was fine.
I think there would still be a visible wound unless it just nicked the tip of the ear
You're missing the point.
The bullet "nicking" his ear isn't possible because (due to speed) it would have ripped a chunk off.
More than likely it was a slight nick / graze. Not actual full on ear contact.
In case it gets taken down completely:
There have been re-creations on YouTube with ballistics gel and pig ears showing what happens to an ear shot by an AR-15 round, I'm not going to lay judgement, just watch the video:
Ballistics gel (language):
https://youtu.be/FsvJzfXZI18#t=6m59s
Pig ears:
There's pictures of right after that show his ear...
No bullet wound. Just what seems like an insane amount of blood... If you've never seen an excited elderly person on blood thinners get the smallest scratch imaginable.
THANK YOU! Jesus folks, if you don't have experience with shooting AR-15 loads, just stop, admit you're not really sure.
Also, I'm thinking a lot of people are imaging the big, bad AR as shooting monster bullets. (That's a joke pic BTW.) ARs are illegal to hunt with in some states because they're not deadly enough to produce a clean kill. It's a military round meant to be incapacitating and lightweight.
From the Herrera vid, the first shot on the lower portion of the ear is more indicative of what, imo, likely occurred, inasmuch as:
There is no missing chunk, it is actually just a graze.
All you have to do is get a shot like that to just barely graze across the top of the upper rear earlobe, as opposed to blowing completely through the ear as their second shot does.
A shot like that, just barely grazing along the upper ear lobe, is consistent with the scene as it played out, as well as the relatively rapid healing of basically a superficial scratch to an area with tons of small blood vessels.
Adorable grocers
Civil war
Lol
Some have stated it was shrapnel from the teleprompter being shattered and a chip of it scratching him.
BREAKING NEWS: TRUMP CONTINUES HIS MASSIVE STREAK OF UNABATED LYING
😱
Since his base is so evangelical, sometimes a bible quote is apt:
And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast.
- Revelations 13:3
I still expect Trump's ear wound appearance was fixed with cosmetics, I mean why wouldn't they? He doesn't want to look like Frankenstein. I got downvoted to hell in another thread for posting that though.
Are you insane? There is no way Trump would pass up that sort of imagery.
No, trump is vain and an attention seeker. Hed rather talk about the ear while looking perfect. (He also has a distorted self-image but that's another thing)
Why wouldn't they? Because they want to sell the strong tin leader narrative. I'm surprised he took the bandage off. I'm surprised he isn't wearing a T-shirt with his little PR photo tiny-handed fist in the air. I'm sure he asks his sycophants if it looked more manly than the photo of shirtless Putin riding a stallion.
Because it will raise eyebrows
That was my first thought too. Makeup to cover it up. I didn't know why you'd be DVed, except my Trump Cultists maybe. As if he's not always caked in bronzer as is. Guys can wear makeup - every actor in Hollywood does, at the very least.
Enough has been said - sense and nonsense - about the facts and particulars of this. I just want to add one thing:
The image, taken by Alex Brandon of the Associated Press
Let's go, Brandon.
"Jesus was a healer and he healed Trump" narrative incoming. Kamala being the new nominee stole all his thunder anyways, so who cares?
You'd think with how much he panders to the evangelicals he'd be right on top of showing them all just how holey he is 🤷
Revelations 13:3 is a better christian narrative for it.
Revelations 13:3 One of its heads seemed to have a mortal wound, but its mortal wound was healed, and the whole earth marveled as they followed the beast.
Musk can and will have his database team wipe accounts and posts from behind the scenes without making it appear like the user was banned.
Donald Trump photo without eyebrow bandage raises ears.
I hate to defend Trump, but as someone who had a cartilage piercing accidentally torn out, I can attest to the insane amounts of blood that can come from a rather small ear wound.
It wasn't even an insane amount of blood in the pic I saw...
No, but it really could splatter all over his face from a very small cut.
A bit conspiratorial. A very minor gunshot wound can heal within weeks according to Google, and the ear has so many bits in it which seem to pop and make a lot of blood easily enough. You even saw the blood on the live footage as well as the photos taken, so I don't see how he could have faked it
Anyone else just kind of forget about the assassination attempt? I guess that goes in line with Trump always doing new bullshit that nothing sticks, it's become so common that even the assassination attempt doesn't really feel notable already.
It was very anti cliamactic.
Has it been determined that he most likely was hit by a bullet vs. shrapnel?
Duh! One of the great benefits of skin suits is how easy they are to repair.
Newsweek Media Bias Fact Check Credibility: [**High**] (Click to view Full Report)
Newsweek is rated with High Creditability by Media Bias Fact Check.
Bias: Right-Center
Factual Reporting: Mostly Factual
Country: United States of America
Full Report: https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/newsweek/Check the bias and credibility of this article on Ground.News:
- https://ground.news/find?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.newsweek.com%2Fdonald-trump-photo-without-ear-bandage-raises-eyebrows-1931403
- https://ground.news/find?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.newsweek.com%2Ftopic%2Frepublican%29
- https://ground.news/find?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.newsweek.com%2Ftopic%2Fdonald-trump%29
- https://ground.news/find?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.newsweek.com%2Ftopic%2Ftwitter%29%2C
- https://ground.news/find?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.newsweek.com%2Ftopic%2Fbarack-obama%29%2C
Thanks to Media Bias Fact Check for their access to the API.
Please consider supporting them by donating.Footer
Media Bias Fact Check is a fact-checking website that rates the bias and credibility of news sources. They are known for their comprehensive and detailed reports.
Beep boop. This action was performed automatically. If you dont like me then please block me.💔
If you have any questions or comments about me, you can make a post to LW Support lemmy community.I've seen a lot of spinals, dude... And this guy's a fake. A fucking gold bricker.
Stay away from me, mister !
Serious question: are we absolutely positive it was his blood?
Right after the assassination attempt there were joking references to Trump's history with professional wrestling and the practice of "[blading](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blading_(professional_wrestling\))", ie, using a concealed razor to cut yourself during a fight in order to make it seem like you'd been injured. It was funny, but I didn't think anyone was taking it seriously.
Now I'm genuinely starting to wonder. What the heck happened here? The odds of a bullet grazing just so exactly perfectly close to make him bleed, but not to produce any actual long-lasting damage, are lower than all kinds of other ridiculous ideas. I don't even see any bruising in this photo. Elderly people often have a tendency to bruise quite easily.
So, I've had hangnails that left more of a wound and took longer to heal.
I wonder if diaper Donnie actually got merc'd that day and this is just a cheap clone from wish.com
I'm 2 decades younger than Trump, got into a bike accident over a year ago, taking a deep scrape on my shin, and I still have a scar.
Hopefully this means mods start issuing apologies to people and restoring all the posts that questioned this to begin with, that they decried as baseless conspiracy theories.
What the fuck? "One person, known to be a prolific liar, might be lying about one particular currently unverifiable fact" literally can't be a conspiracy theory, because it doesn't involve a conspiracy; conspiracies, by definition, involve multiple people. Trump doesn't need to tell his doctor to lie, because the doctor isn't allowed to talk about it. Furthermore, Trump doesn't need to tell his bodyguards anything either, because they are also not allowed to talk about it. Where's the conspiracy? It's not even particularly unlikely!
I genuinely, since the day it happened, have not believed that Trump was shot.
I watched over and over again and I swear what I saw was WWE theatre.
I would have believed an attempt on his life, from someone anywhere on the Political spectrum (I even said this before info about the shooter came out).
However, I don’t believe Trump. He has had a white mark on his ear for years. The “scab” that he’s playing off as a wound has been there for years.
He is the liar/the first beast!
Two people died. It's asinine to ignore that and let your desire to distrust trump metastasize into conspiracy theories.
It's conspiracy theories like the Obama birther movement that got us into this situation. So just zip it.
He was shot at, the bullet grazed his ear leaving very little substantial damage. We don't need leftwing misinformation any more than we need rightwing misinformation.
Let's be better than that, AND let's not bring that sort of vibe onto Lemmy. Because I guarantee you Russia and other foreign state actors are looking to promote misinformation this election season as they do any other. Lemmy don't need that stuff.
Your tone is so ignorant, like there is no way you are wrong.
Did it not occur to people it was both, he was infact shot at, but it was shrapnel that hit him.
Either way, you are not correct and your attitude is shit. Get off your high horse.
Trump still believes his birther bullshit. His base still believes his birther bullshit.
Don't act like it's not possible for trump to have faked an assassination attempt as a means to seize power.
It fits his modus operandi. It fits the evidence I see.
The fact 2 people died, while sad, is a toll I believe trump would gladly pay for a chance at acting as Putin's puppet as POTUS.
I see it as asinine to believe that Trump wouldn’t have his own supporters killed.
You bring up Russia but false flags are right out of the Pig Putins Book. A man with much praise from Trump.
I won’t zip it because I don’t believe he was shot. Until he admits otherwise, I am under the belief that he had his own supporter killed to use their names as a Martyr and say he took a bullet for America
The thing is he couldn’t even wear the Pressure Bandage for more than one night at the RNC. He won’t even pretend he has a boo boo for America.
He is the liar
Edit. Let me add that since bringing this up I realized Trump met with a Putin puppet 2 days before shooting.
Look, a bullet from an AR-15 passing that close to your head is going to create a shockwave sufficient enough to cause permanent hearing damage and probably a minor concussion.
If it connected with his flesh, even just a "graze", it would have done a lot more damage, and wouldn't be completely healed so quickly.
There's plenty of evidence of dishonesty here. Trump, at least to some extent, is playing this event up. For example, if the damage to his ear was this minor, why has he been wearing a huge obvious bandage over his whole ear? That alone shows some degree of performance here, the question is exactly how much of this was a performance.
It's conspiracy theories like the Obama birther movement that got us into this situation. So just zip it.
Accusing a well know liar of lying is nowhere near the same as that racist smear campaign, and you fucking know it. Zip it.
let's not bring that sort of vibe onto Lemmy. Because I guarantee you Russia and other foreign state actors are looking to promote misinformation
"Let's not bring conspiracy energy to Lemmy" Immediately goes full Russiagate
Are we really going to propose baseless conspiracy theories about his ear? This shitty res photo proves nothing at all imo. This didn't happen yesterday and no one on Lemmy has seen the wound clearly.
The only news here is that a photographer got banned for posting it
As the article mentioned, the photographer took down their own account.
They reached out to Souza, but did not confirm that he deactivated it himself.
Souza's profile, @PeteSouza, which had over 200,000 followers, now reads, "This account doesn't exist, try searching for another," implying that he has deleted or deactivated it. If he had been banned, it would read, "Account suspended. X suspends accounts which violate the X rules."
Although seeing as how Elon violated Twitters rules this week by posting AI political content, I wouldn't put it past him to deactivate someone else's account on their behalf.
Oh. I read an earlier article that didn't mention that. Thanks
You think old, pea brained, waddling trump could fake being hit by a bullet and then apply fake blood (or have it applied) while on camera?
While I seriously don't think there is a chance in hell it was a false flag (why would they pick a known conservative instead of someone pretending to be leftist?) it technically could have been applied by SS without Trumps knowledge, which would have been very funny
Not a surprise. Everything about the man is fake
I bet he even used a packet of Hunt's ketchup.
Look. Newsweek. People.
Here’s your headline: “Photo shows Trump lied about ear injury.” Just say what it is.
I'm skeptical of this photo. There's no way Trump can handle stairs like that. Unless the photo was taken after one of his usual, "pause for 3 seconds after each step cuz this is just too much."
Souza's profile, @PeteSouza, which had over 200,000 followers, now reads, "This account doesn't exist, try searching for another," implying that he has deleted or deactivated it. If he had been banned, it would read, "Account suspended. X suspends accounts which violate the X rules."
Looks like the MAGA threats pushed the photographer off “formerly Twitter.”
It's also amazing to see the "fairness meter" down at the bottom of this Newsweek article, which appears to be some kind of user-submitted ranking. Its needle is currently slammed all the way over onto the "unfair left leaning" end of the gauge. How the heck is this "unfair"?
Couldn't it just be a dumb and simple reason like : the picture is reversed and it's showing the left ear ?
Trump's hair is always parted the same direction, from Trump's right to Trump's left.
Trump has an asymmetrical hair-style, making it 100% sure that this is a picture of the correct ear.
Good catch thank you !
Also this whole thread is 48 hours old repost, there is like million other photos since then...
I'm pretty sure a press photographer from AP knows which way around a photo is.
Exactly, so I'm pretty sure a professional photographer knows which way to orient a photo to share their vision, when Eliott Erwin crops a picture of a dog with its owner, it's not at random, there are deliberate choices made before publishing, the photographer could have taken a picture of the subject on their left side, and reversed the picture to show them walking towards the right to achieve whatever vision they had
That should be verifiable. Just check which side his flight's exit ramp was on.
The combover would be going the other direction then.
If he wants to prove there's a hole he should just get a gauge for it. They could make it gold with a diamond T in the middle
It must have barely nicked him. A hit where the entire cross sectional area of the bullet passed through the cartilage would have removed substantial material as well as possibly torn the ear completely. It’s not a bullet with a lot of mass, but it has a crapload of kinetic energy from velocity. Thin pieces of flesh are going to come apart with a direct hit.
Okay got it, newsweek is trash bait.
My eyebrows.... they are indeed raised
It seemed weird from the get go. Nothing made sense.
