Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has described former US President Donald Trump’s reaction to being shot as “one of the most badass things I’ve ever seen in my life.”
The remarks were made almost a week after a gunman shot Donald Trump through the ear at a Presidential campaign rally in Pennsylvania.
Addressing the crowd from the podium last Saturday, Trump moved his head slightly just before the would-be assassin’s shot was fired, causing the bullet to simply graze his ear, missing his head by as little as an inch. This was followed by a flurry of other shots, leaving one campaign attendee killed and two others critically injured, before the 20-year-old shooter himself was shot dead by Secret Service snipers.
In the panic immediately following the shooting, as Secret Service agents attempted to rush the candidate from the stage, a blood-smeared Trump stood up and rose his fist in an act of defiance, telling the crowd to “Fight, fight, fight.”
In an interview with Bloomberg on Friday, Mark Zuckerberg said that he would not be endorsing “either of the candidates” in November’s Presidential election. However, he described the weekend’s events as “historic”.
“On a personal note, seeing Donald Trump get up after getting shot in the face, and pump his fist in the air with the American flag, is one of the most badass things I’ve ever seen in my life,” he said.
“I think on some level, as an American, it’s hard to not get kind of emotional about that spirit and that fight.”
He added: “I think that’s why a lot of people like the guy.”
Meanwhile, speaking at the Republican Party national convention on Friday, Trump spoke publicly for the first time since the shooting, in a wide-ranging 90-minute speech focused on national unity.
With a bandage on his wounded ear, the former President emphasised that the “division” in American society “must be healed.”
“We must heal it quickly,” he said.
“As Americans, we are bound together by a single fate and a shared destiny. We rise together, or we fall apart.
“I am running to be president for all of America, not half of America, because there is no victory in winning for half of America.”