‘I’m supposed to be dead’: Trump describes split-second moment that saved his life after assassination attempt

Donald Trump has said that he’s “supposed to be dead” as he spoke out about the split-second moment that saved his life when a would-be assassin opened fire during a campaign rally at the weekend.

In one of his first interviews since the shooting in Butler, Pennsylvania, the former president described his survival story as a “miracle” and claimed that it had given him new perspective heading into the Republican National Convention to “unite the country”.

“The doctor at the hospital said he never saw anything like this, he called it a miracle,” Trump told The New York Post while traveling to the event in Milwaukee.

“I’m not supposed to be here, I’m supposed to be dead. I’m supposed to be dead.”

In a moment that will go down in history, the former president was the target of an assassination attempt.

Just minutes into his campaign speech on stage in Butler, gunman Thomas Matthew Crooks opened fire on the former president from the rooftop of a building just outside of the rally security perimeter.

Trump was struck in the ear by a bullet and leaped to the ground behind the podium as shots continued to ring out.

Secret Service agents returned fire on the gunman, shooting him dead at the scene.

Corey Comperatore, a 50-year-old former fire chief attending the rally with his family, was killed as he threw his body over his loved ones to protect them from the shooter’s spray of bullets.

Two other rallygoers – David Dutch, 57, and James Copenhaver, 74 – were injured and rushed to hospital in critical condition. By Sunday afternoon, their conditions had been updated to stable.

Trump meanwhile escaped the attack largely unscathed, with the bullet grazing his ear.

The former president acknowledged that things would have turned out