Trump releases letter detailing medical care since assassination attempt

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump shared a letter signed by Rep. Ronny Jackson (R-Tex.) on Saturday detailing the care he has received since last weekend’s assassination attempt at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania.

The letter, written by a political ally whose actions as a medical provider have come into question over the years, marks the most extensive medical information Trump’s team has shared publicly about the care he received after the assassination attempt.

Jackson wrote that he has “evaluated and treated” Trump’s wound on his ear daily. Jackson is a former White House physician who has remained close to Trump since leaving the White House and later successfully running for Congress.

Jackson told the New York Times in 2022, that he had allowed his medical license in Florida to expire because he did not have time to see patients. But his medical license remains in “military active” status until early 2025, which the Florida Department of Health states means that “the licensed practitioner, serving in the Armed Forces of the United States, is only authorized to practice in a military facility.”

Jackson stated that Trump sustained a 2 cm wide wound from the track of a bullet “that extended down the cartilaginous surface of the ear.” No sutures were required for Trump’s wound, Jackson said, but “there is still intermittent bleeding requiring a dressing to be in place.”

That dressing, a white square of gauze, was visible at the top of Trump’s ear throughout the convention. It also became a symbol for Trump supporters who sported makeshift bandages atop their right ears on the convention floor in solidarity with the former president. Most recently, at a campaign rally in Michigan on Saturday, he was wearing a standard, skin-tone bandage.

Jackson also noted that the trauma initially caused bleeding and swelling, but that the swelling has since resolved and the wound was beginning to “heal properly.”

The memo, written on Jackson’s U.S. Congress letterhead and shared by Trump online on Truth Social, also provides new details about the medical care his team says he received at Butler Memorial Hospital in Butler, Pa., immediately after the assassination attempt.

Along with treating his wound, Jackson wrote, medical staff at the hospital “provided a thorough evaluation for additional injuries that included a CT [scan] of his head.”

The hospital system where Trump was treated declined to weigh in on the contents of the letter.

“Privacy laws and policies preclude us from commenting on care rendered,” said Tom Chakurda, chief communications and marketing officer for Independence Health Systems, which operates Butler Memorial.

In a speech Thursday night in Milwaukee accepting the Republican nomination for president, Trump dramatically recounted the experience of narrowly missing a would-be assassin’s bullet at the Pennsylvania rally, saying he would describe what happened only once because it was “too painful to tell.”

As he turned his head to the right to see a chart on display at the rally, he recalled, “I started to turn to my right, and was ready to begin a further turn - which I’m lucky I didn’t - when I heard a loud whizzing sound and felt something hit me, really hard, on my right ear.”

“I said to myself, ‘Wow, what was that? It can only be a bullet,’ - and moved my right hand to my ear, brought it down, and my hand was covered with blood,” he continued. “I immediately knew it was very serious, that we were under attack.”

Jackson said in the memo that Trump “will have further evaluations, including a comprehensive hearing exam, as needed.”

“He will follow up with his primary care physician, as directed by the doctors that initially evaluated him,” Jackson continued, adding that he will be at the former president’s side “throughout the weekend to provide any medical assistance he needs.”

Spokespeople in Jackson’s congressional office did not return requests for comment on Saturday.

In Congress, Jackson has been staunchly pro-Trump, and he stated after last Saturday’s rally that members of his family were at the event and that his nephew had been injured.

Jackson worked in the White House medical unit under three presidents but drew scrutiny in a Pentagon inspector general’s report, which states that he provided prescription drugs without proper paperwork - a habit that allegedly earned him the nickname “Candyman.” Jackson has denied the report’s claims, describing them as politically motivated.

He has also garnered criticism for his glowing praise of Trump’s health in 2018, when he said that Trump had “incredibly good genes.”

The Washington Post confirmed earlier this year that the Navy demoted Jackson in July 2022 after the inspector general’s report substantiated allegations about his inappropriate behavior as a White House physician - including making inappropriate sexual comments and erupting into fits of rage.

Hannah Knowles contributed to this report.