FLINT, Michigan – Former President Donald Trump argued that it is “important” presidents who face the threats he has faced in recent months at a public event in Flint, Michigan, the former president’s first since surviving an assassination attempt on Sunday.
“You’re wondering why I got shot, aren’t you? You know, only important presidents get shot, right?” Trump said during the town hall meeting at the Dort Financial Center in Flint.
The event marked the first official stop for Trump’s campaign since the latest assassination attempt on Sunday, when a lone gunman was spotted by U.S. Secret Service agents as Trump played a round of golf at Trump International Golf Club in Florida.
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Former US President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump attends a town hall meeting moderated by Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders at the Dort Financial Center in Flint, Michigan, on September 17, 2024. (Photo by JEFF KOWALSKY / AFP) (Photo by JEFF KOWALSKY/AFP via Getty Images)
The gunman, identified as Ryan Wesley Routh, 58, was spotted by Secret Service agents as Trump moved between the fifth and sixth holes of the course, and the agents shot Routh after seeing his rifle and scope sticking out of the brush.
Trump, who was about 300-500 meters from the shooter at the time of the incident, escaped unharmed.
It is the second time Trump has faced an assassination attempt, and comes just over two months after the former president was grazed in the ear by a bullet fired at him during a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
Trump reflected on the assassination attempts on his life during the Michigan event and said that being president and running for president is a “dangerous business.”
FBI investigators collect evidence from the perimeter of the Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida, Monday, Sept. 16, 2024. (Mega for Fox News Digital)
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“It’s a dangerous business. Being president is kind of dangerous, though. It’s… You know, they think race car driving is dangerous. No, they think bull riding is pretty scary, right? No, this is a dangerous business and we’ve got to keep it safe,” Trump said.
The former president spent much of the event, which took place in a key swing state, attacking Vice President Kamala Harris on issues including inflation and the auto industry.
“What I’m going to say about Michigan is that if I don’t win, there will be no auto industry in two or three years,” Trump said. “China is going to take over all of their business because of the electric car and because they have the material that we don’t have.”
Former US President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump attends a town hall meeting moderated by Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders (R) at the Dort Financial Center in Flint, Michigan, on September 17, 2024. (Photo by JEFF KOWALSKY / AFP) (Photo by JEFF KOWALSKY/AFP via Getty Images)
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Michigan will play a key role in this year’s election. Trump won the state by less than a percentage point in 2016, but lost it to President Biden in 2020 by less than three percentage points.
Polls show a tight race brewing in the state again, with Harris holding a lead of less than a percentage point as of Tuesday, according to the Real Clear Politics polling average.
