Trump defends ‘beautiful’ female Secret Service agent who faced backlash after shooting

Donald Trump has sung the praises of an embattled female Secret Service agent, commending her bravery and claiming she “wanted to take a bullet” for him despite her small stature, during the attempt on his life earlier this month.

Female agents have faced a swathe of criticism and misogyny from prominent right-wing conservatives following the assassination attempt of the former president on July 13.

Thomas Crook, 20, fired a volley of eight rounds from a rooftop using an AR-15 rifle towards the Republican presidential nominee at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, striking Trump in the ear, killing one rallygoer and injuring two more.

Deflecting the attacks from online pundits, Trump praised the actions of one female agent who he has described as “brave” and “beautiful” during a rally in St Cloud, Minnesota this past weekend.

“There was great bravery displayed… Every one of them. There wasn’t one that was slow,” Trump said at the event on Saturday. “There was a woman to my right shielding me. A beautiful person. She was shielding me with everything she could.”

He continued: “She got criticized by the fake news because she wasn’t tall enough. She was criticized and she was so brave.”

Trump said that one of the women who bundled him off the Pennsylvania stage “was shielding me with everything. She wanted to take a bullet”.

The former president’s comments come as criticism swirled online over the women working for the Secret Service – who make up almost 25 percent of the agency’s employees, a careers page on its website says.

Billionaire Elon Musk claimed that the bodyguards need to be “large enough” to defend Trump, who stands at 6ft 3in.

“There should not be any women in the Secret Service,” Daily Wire show host Matt Walsh