Former President Donald Trump has said that he ripped up his Republican National Convention speech blasting the Biden administration and is redoing it with a message of unity.
The changes came after the presumptive Republican nominee was shot in the ear during a failed assassination attempt during a rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday.
Trump discussed the speech with the New York Post on his private jet en route to the convention in Milwaukee on Sunday.
“I’m not supposed to be here, I’m supposed to be dead,” Trump told the newspaper. “I’m supposed to be dead.”
Discussing the photo of him with a blood-smeared face and his fist defiantly in the air, Trump admitted that it is "iconic."
“A lot of people say it’s the most iconic photo they’ve ever seen,” Trump said. “They’re right, and I didn’t die. Usually you have to die to have an iconic picture.”
Trump told the newspaper that he had prepared a tough speech attacking the administration for the RNC but threw it away because he wanted to unite the country.
“I had all prepared an extremely tough speech, really good, all about the corrupt, horrible administration,” he said. “But I threw it away.” BREAKING: Trump has completely scrapped his original RNC speech, says he sees a chance to bring the whole world together during an interview with @ZitoSalena.
“That reality is just setting in. I rarely look away from the crowd. Had I not done that in that moment, well, we would… pic.twitter.com/NGbM8ersu9
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) July 15, 2024
The former president also discussed the speech change in an interview with the Washington Examiner on Monday.
Trump told the outlet, “The speech I was going to give on Thursday was going to be a humdinger. Honestly, it’s going to be a whole different speech now.”
“This is a chance to bring the whole country, even the whole world together. The speech will be a lot different, a lot different than it would’ve been two days ago.”
The attempted assassin fatally shot former fire chief Corey Comperatore, who was shielding his family from the bullets when he was struck. Two other rallygoers were critically injured but are now in stable condition.
The shooter, Thomas Matthew Crooks, was fatally shot by a counter sniper moments after shooting Trump in the ear.
