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2
Donald Trump Photo Without Ear Bandage Raises Eyebrows (www.newsweek.com)
submitted 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
41 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

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."

top 41 comments
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[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago (1 children)

It was just a mass shooting: you know, the thing that keeps happening in America that no one cares about...

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

Let's see how much they make of it when it's one of their self-selected elites injured by the gunman.

And let's remind them it's too early to speak about shootings. Let's get some clarity and distance from this vigilante shooting over a crowd of people with an AR before we weigh in.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 3 months ago (1 children)

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!

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (2 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

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

[–] [email protected] -1 points 3 months ago

“Young Fox” great name, it’s what the “T” in “tgs” stands for.

This is my point. I’ve grieved for those dead at the event. I believe they were killed.

I don’t believe Trump was shot and so I come to the conclusion he has planned this entire thing. This is what I’ve come to expect from Trump in his reach for Power.

If I am wrong, I’m sorry and willing to admit being wrong.

However, the reason I would be wrong is because Trump is a liar.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago (1 children)

You're a conspiracy theorists idiot then. As bad as any of the "left wing are cultural marxist elites running Capitalism" people.

Because you're also operating on political assumptions rather than what's know.

The FBI has said he was shot, they will have brought in crime scene detectives and ballistics experts and mapped the trajectory of the bullet already, and they've ALREADY SAID he was shot. But stand back everyone "some guy on the internet" has the real facts!

You can't trust the FBI and US officials - because u/tgs1999 has decided they know more about it!

It's idiotic conspiracy mongering where it's not needed.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Call me what you will but I still don’t believe he was shot from the second i saw the video. I won’t be quiet about that the way my mother was never quiet about Kennedys assissination in Dallas.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago (2 children)

I'm a conspiracy theorists they way my mother was a conspiracy theorists about a different conspiracy theory.

...do you at least get that backing a conspiracy theory up with reference to another conspiracy theory... And a family tradition, isn't a rational or reasonable argument to present to others.

Like, I don't care if your family believes in Gremlins or Dragons, but that's not a reason to bother other people about it. Believe what you like, but not expect others to consider "conspiracy theories backed by other conspiracy theories" as a valid approach to reality.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 3 months ago

Kennedys assassination is no conspiracy either. It’s been proven and admitted to not be what was stated by the FBI.

To act like there is no real “conspiracy” in reality is not reality.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 3 months ago

Trump is a liar no conspiracy there.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (3 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (3 children)

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:

https://youtu.be/zfATfPIpDc4#t=4m19s

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago (2 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago (1 children)

What kills me are the states that ban bottleneck cartridges for hunting. Shotguns only. They're only now coming around and allowing straight walled cartridges.

https://www.remington.com/big-green-blog/what-states-can-you-hunt-with-a-straight-all-cartridge.html

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Just saw this and read up a bit. What in the world is the reasoning here?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago

The feeling is that bottleneck cartridges might have too much penetration and range.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 3 months ago (1 children)

You do realize you can get an AR in 22LR, 9MM, 5.56 NATO etc.. right?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago

Just saw your reply. Yep, I'm aware. I often change the bolt in my AR so I can shoot .22LR.

But we're discussing what this guy used, not all the myriad options.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I was thinking he wouldn't even necessarily need to have actually been hit. The pressure wave from a bullet alone would have been enough to open up a bleedy wound on an ear.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I find that highly unlikely.

It would have made an extremely loud supersonic 'crack' or 'snap' as it passed very close to his ear and may have caused some degree of temporary, possibly permanent hearing loss, but uh, no the air pressure differential almost certainly would not cause external bleeding.

You can cause blood vessels to burst if you put part of a human body in a significantly low (negative) pressure situation for a significant duration of time, but a .223 passing by would cause no where near the needed negative pressure, it would be for an astoundingly short period of time and finally such pressure differential situations usually cause internal bleeding which is sometimes visible due to the broken capillaries at the top layer of the skin, but this blood pools within the skin and does not break through its surface.

You would need something to actually contact and break the skin for the blood from those broken capillaries to leak outside of the body.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago (1 children)

You'd be surprised, here's an experiment shooting a bullet down the center of a tube made out of aluminum foil:

https://youtu.be/VXIUfMGEXX8

They don't specify the caliber, but they do mention it's going about 1,600fps which is about 1/2 the speed of an AR round.

If that were ear tissue instead of foil, it would get ripped up pretty good.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

They say its a slug, meaning its out of a shotgun. They do not mention the gauge, but its safe to say basically any shot gun slug is significantly larger than a .223 round and thus has way, way more air displacement.

Also, they're using aluminum foil, not human flesh or any kind of analog to it. Utterly, completely different and non analogous material, especially to 'demonstrate' what you are claiming it does.

Could a near miss from a .223 or a shotgun slug cause a pressure wave that temporarily makes a bit of your ear wiggle?

Sure, maybe a tiny bit.

Would this cause your ear to start externally bleeding?

No. To verify this, flick your upper ear, such that it moves by a centimeter.

Is your ear now bleeding externally?

Unless you broke the skin with your nail, no, it is not.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago (1 children)

My fingertip isn't going 1,600 feet per second or double that. :)

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

...

[–] [email protected] -1 points 3 months ago (1 children)

There's pictures of right after that show his ear...

https://www.usatoday.com/gcdn/authoring/authoring-images/2024/07/14/USAT/74396917007-20240713-t-235354-z-1577583182-rc-2-mu-8-aisn-4-v-rtrmadp-3-usaelectiontrump.JPG?width=1320&height=882&fit=crop&format=pjpg&auto=webp

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.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago (1 children)

As an excited elderly person on blood thinners, I absolutely get that. "Hey! Where'd all this blood come from! Oh, wait!"

[–] [email protected] -1 points 3 months ago (1 children)

My dad carried one of those little tubes of super glue...

Bandaids were a waste of time, if he got a cut on his hand he'd just immediately glue it shut.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

Bro... my grandmother super glued her earlobe when something caught her earring and literally ripped off of her ear. At that moment, I realized my grandmother was a bad ass woman.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 3 months ago

We could talk about if JD fucked a couch if you want....

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (2 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 3 months ago (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago (1 children)

The bullet "nicking" his ear isn't possible because (due to speed) it would have ripped a chunk off.

Please demonstrate this. If a paper target can get hit by these rounds every day in target practice and not get blown to pieces, why would an ear (especially if the ear was only “nicked” by the bullet) be any different?

[–] [email protected] -1 points 3 months ago

Compare the size of the whole to the bullet

The holes is always bigger, and an ear has much more tear resistance than an ear. But Trump doesn't even have a bullet sized hole in his ear.

He has literally zero visible wounds...

There's not even a "nick"

[–] [email protected] -1 points 3 months ago

More than likely it was a slight nick / graze. Not actual full on ear contact.

[–] [email protected] -2 points 3 months ago

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
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