# What does it matter if Trump's ear was damaged by a bullet or shrapnel? **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Tags:** trump\ **Created:** [July 25, 2024, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-it-matter-if-trumps-ear-was-damaged-by-a-bullet-or-shrapnel/1004789 "2024-07-25T19:49:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2024, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-it-matter-if-trumps-ear-was-damaged-by-a-bullet-or-shrapnel/1004789/21 "2024-07-25T20:37:36Z")
> [@Munch](#): > > Because if it’s teleprompter shrapnel, it means the bullet missed him by several feet, and not several millimeters. Dude still shot at him, but it wasn’t divine intervention that he avoided a shot between the eyes. This. * * * > [@Atamasama](#): > > It is impossible to recreate what happened to Trump… Impossible? 🤔 ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2024, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-it-matter-if-trumps-ear-was-damaged-by-a-bullet-or-shrapnel/1004789/22 "2024-07-25T20:40:29Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > I don’t believe it was divine intervention in either case. Sure it was. God spared Trump so that Trump could be the **loser** to a Black woman. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2024, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-it-matter-if-trumps-ear-was-damaged-by-a-bullet-or-shrapnel/1004789/23 "2024-07-25T20:42:33Z")
One of Trump’s sons said “it blew off half of his ear” I’m sure he was dramatizing it. I’d want to see up close pix of the ear to make a determination. I’ve seen many feral pigs shot at and their dead bodies. Things get blown off, things get grazed, things shot thru and thru. I bet I could tell. Still the man was shot _at_. So it really doesn’t matter. If Maganuts wanna make it an act of God, well it shows how ignorant they are. If some invisible deity was at that rally I bet he wasn’t worried about that at all. He was surely more worried about the innocent children people drag to those things. I hope. ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2024, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-it-matter-if-trumps-ear-was-damaged-by-a-bullet-or-shrapnel/1004789/24 "2024-07-25T20:43:12Z")
> [@ThelmaLou](#): > > Impossible? 🤔 Yes, in a literal sense. You can’t recreate something when you have nothing to compare it against. This is not in any way hyperbole, and is just very simple common sense. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2024, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-it-matter-if-trumps-ear-was-damaged-by-a-bullet-or-shrapnel/1004789/25 "2024-07-25T20:45:54Z")
I’d bet real money it was small graze. Ears bleed like faucets running. So ignore the amount of blood. ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2024, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-it-matter-if-trumps-ear-was-damaged-by-a-bullet-or-shrapnel/1004789/26 "2024-07-25T20:48:54Z")
> [@Beckdawrek](#): > > I’d bet real money it was small graze. > Ears bleed like faucets running. Yes. I remember when I was a little kid (probably 6 or 7) and a bully who lived across the street threw a rock at me that hit the top of my head. It was a small rock and didn’t hit me very hard, nor did it do much damage. But my head bled and bled forever before it stopped. That’s just what head wounds do. I also injured my face many years later in an incident where a branch that I was trying to cut slipped out of my grasp and smacked me like a spiky weapon, and half of my face was a mask of blood. Tiny, shallow wounds that still bled so much that you’d think I was seriously injured. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2024, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-it-matter-if-trumps-ear-was-damaged-by-a-bullet-or-shrapnel/1004789/27 "2024-07-25T21:43:22Z")
Regarding Divine Intervention, it is a darned shame that G-d didn’t like JFK and RFK as much as Trump and Teddy Roosevelt. ---
**Author:** ![CairoCarol](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cairocarol/32/3825_2.png) [@CairoCarol](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CairoCarol)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2024, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-it-matter-if-trumps-ear-was-damaged-by-a-bullet-or-shrapnel/1004789/28 "2024-07-25T21:50:42Z")
> [@Atamasama](#): > > That’s just what head wounds do. For sure, and knowing that can help keep things in perspective if someone has a head wound. A lot of blood doesn’t automatically mean the injury is serious. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2024, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-it-matter-if-trumps-ear-was-damaged-by-a-bullet-or-shrapnel/1004789/29 "2024-07-25T22:05:10Z")
> [@Beckdawrek](#): > > One of Trump’s sons said “it blew off half of his ear” > I’m sure he was dramatizing it. A friend of mine had a teacher in college. Older guy who was hard of hearing. If he couldn’t hear what a student said, he’d cup his hand to his ear and shout, ‘What’s that? I can’t hear you! I’m _deaf!_ I got my _head_ blown off in the _war!_’ ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2024, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-it-matter-if-trumps-ear-was-damaged-by-a-bullet-or-shrapnel/1004789/30 "2024-07-25T22:09:33Z")
If you ever had a shaky headed hound dog. One teeny tiny nick and it looks like a murder scene. Back to Trump’s wound. I see on the news his latest rally he was without the little pillow on his ear. I couldn’t get a good view. But the whole ear was there. I believe that ammo the kid shooter was using would have taken bits off. I mean, it would have to have been the mere-est, tiniest, slightest of grazes not to. Unbelievable. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2024, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-it-matter-if-trumps-ear-was-damaged-by-a-bullet-or-shrapnel/1004789/31 "2024-07-25T22:11:45Z")
It was an astonishingly close call, with his only injury having his ear nicked. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2024, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-it-matter-if-trumps-ear-was-damaged-by-a-bullet-or-shrapnel/1004789/32 "2024-07-25T22:27:06Z")
The Doctor knows. I don’t believe he was struck with a bullet. ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2024, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-it-matter-if-trumps-ear-was-damaged-by-a-bullet-or-shrapnel/1004789/33 "2024-07-25T22:28:36Z")
That wasn’t exactly what I meant, but I didn’t want to get modded. Maybe you can extrapolate… ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2024, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-it-matter-if-trumps-ear-was-damaged-by-a-bullet-or-shrapnel/1004789/34 "2024-07-25T22:31:26Z")
> [@Velocity](#): > > It gives more drama and glory if it was a bullet. > > If it was a bullet, then Trump’s supporters can crow, “He was 1 millimeter from death yet lived!” > > If it was glass shrapnel, then it was more like, “He was several meters from death,” which doesn’t have the same catchet. > [@Velocity](#): > > That’s what I find suspicious too. But my broader point is that having a bullet come within millimeters (and, in fact, the head turning to the right at just the right time) of death gives immensely more drama and a sense of predestination than if it were some flying glass from some object. > > The bullet carries a lot more weight, in the figurative and non-figurative sense. That’s why Trumpers care a lot about it not being shrapnel This exactly. ---
**Author:** ![griffin1977](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/977dab/32.png) [@griffin1977](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/griffin1977)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2024, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-it-matter-if-trumps-ear-was-damaged-by-a-bullet-or-shrapnel/1004789/35 "2024-07-25T22:33:28Z")
It doesn’t matter in the slightest. The reporting (on both the incident and the campaign’s statements) absolutely does. The fact that the campaign just flat out lied about it and the media didn’t call them on it (for a week or two at least, they may be now?) is just crazy. The fact that Trump just lies constantly and usually the media just doesn’t call him on it, has just been normalized. ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2024, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-it-matter-if-trumps-ear-was-damaged-by-a-bullet-or-shrapnel/1004789/36 "2024-07-25T22:45:49Z")
It makes me wonder what if it had lodged in his buttock ---
**Author:** ![Procrustus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/procrustus/32/2994_2.png) [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2024, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-it-matter-if-trumps-ear-was-damaged-by-a-bullet-or-shrapnel/1004789/37 "2024-07-25T22:49:05Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > Regarding Divine Intervention, it is a darned shame that G-d didn’t like JFK and RFK as much as Trump and Teddy Roosevelt. And what did God have against that poor firefighter? ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2024, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-it-matter-if-trumps-ear-was-damaged-by-a-bullet-or-shrapnel/1004789/38 "2024-07-25T22:53:50Z")
> [@Slithy\_Tove](#): > > It makes me wonder what if it had lodged in his buttock Yeah, harder to claim glory off of that. Especially if the iconic photo were him grabbing that area with both hands as the US flag flew patriotically behind him. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2024, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-it-matter-if-trumps-ear-was-damaged-by-a-bullet-or-shrapnel/1004789/39 "2024-07-25T23:16:55Z")
I don’t either, and I’m a Christian. I’m sure the people who were shot, and their families, don’t think there was any divine intervention going on. ---
**Author:** ![Lance\_Turbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lance_turbo/32/6156_2.png) [@Lance\_Turbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lance_Turbo)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2024, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-it-matter-if-trumps-ear-was-damaged-by-a-bullet-or-shrapnel/1004789/40 "2024-07-25T23:27:54Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > The kid was shooting at him. Maybe. No way to know for sure. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-it-matter-if-trumps-ear-was-damaged-by-a-bullet-or-shrapnel/1004789.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-it-matter-if-trumps-ear-was-damaged-by-a-bullet-or-shrapnel/1004789.md?page=3)