Former President Trump on Friday met a Vietnam veteran who was inspired to give Trump his Purple Heart after an assassination attempt on Trump.
“I couldn’t think of anybody more deserving of a Purple Heart,” the man, identified only as Dwight, told Trump on stage during a town hall campaign event in Fayetteville, North Carolina.
“You took it. You laid down there. You got back. And the first words out of your mouth were ‘Fight, fight, fight,’” Dwight said of when Trump was shot in Butler, Pennsylvania, in July by a 20-year-old attempted assassin.
“You didn’t even have anything to shoot back at him. You got guts. It was a minor wound, but it was close to being a terrible one.”
TRUMP ON RETURN TO BUTLER, PA: TONIGHT I’M BACK IN THE AFTERMATH OF TRAGEDY
Former President Trump on Friday met a Vietnam veteran who was inspired to give Trump his Purple Heart after an assassination attempt against Trump. (AP Photo/Karl B DeBlaker)
Trump responded that he was “very lucky, and maybe it wasn’t so much luck. Maybe it is something else, right? Maybe there’s something else up there.”
Earlier in the town hall, the moderator, Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., read the letter the veteran sent to Trump after the July assassination attempt on Trump.
An attempted assassin shot Trump at a Pennsylvania rally in July. (Rebecca Droke/AFP via Getty Images)
“Dear President Trump, watching you during the Butler rally, and you getting back up, both my wife and I gave a sigh of relief as well as a few tears,” Dwight’s letter said. “I would be honored if you would accept this small token I received as a young marine in Vietnam.
The North Carolina Trump supporter said he couldn’t think of anyone more deserving of his military medal than the former president. (Associated Press)
“My wife and I both thought it appropriate. God bless you, your family, and the United States of America. Sincerely, Dwight.”
“I got very lucky,” Trump responded. “And maybe it wasn’t so much luck. Maybe it is something else, right? Maybe there’s something else up there.”
The moment came one day before Trump returned to Butler to hold a massive rally for the first time in the outdoor space where he was shot.
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“As I was saying,” Trump began Saturday’s rally to cheers.
A Purple Heart is given to service members who have been wounded or killed in combat.