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.
On July 12, gunman Thomas Matthew Crooks opened fire at Trump's campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, killing firefighter Corey Comperatore, wounding Trump's upper right ear, and critically injuring two others.
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."
The photo, showing Trump's seemingly healed ear only two weeks after it was grazed by a bullet, has raised eyebrows...follows speculation from last week by FBI director Christopher Wray about whether Trump's ear was hit by a bullet or by shrapnel. The FBI later confirmed he was hit by a bullet.
----Newsweek, 07/24
All of this stuff is coming here.
We are wide open.
The door has been left open to the powder store.
All that is needed is match.