Trump responds to allegations he has an ear injury

Former U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday responded to questions about an ear injury he sustained during an assassination attempt by re-publishing a statement from his former doctor confirming the wound was caused by a bullet and not “shrapnel.” Current Republican Congressman Ronny Jackson of Texas wrote on the former president’s social media platform Truth Society that “there is absolutely no evidence that this was not a bullet.” Trump retweeted the statement.

FBI Director Christopher Wray told U.S. lawmakers on Wednesday that there was doubt “whether it was a bullet or shrapnel that hit him in the ear.”

On July 13, Trump was shot in the right ear at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania. The FBI said he survived after a gunman shot him eight times while he was giving a speech.

The nature of Trump’s injuries has not been confirmed by any medical or law enforcement agency, and Wray’s comments were the first written official details from a senior official on that front.

Two rally attendees were seriously injured in the attack, and a 50-year-old firefighter from Pennsylvania was also shot dead, according to officials. The gunman was killed by a sniper bullet from the Secret Service, the U.S. presidential guard.

Trump, who has made the assassination attempt a pillar of his campaign, told a crowd in Michigan that he “took a bullet for democracy.”

At his election rallies, many of his supporters wore bandages on their right ears to mark the attack.

On Thursday, Trump denied Wray’s comments and accused him of political bias.

“Unfortunately, a bullet hit me hard in the ear,” he said. “There was no glass or debris.”

A New York Times report published on Friday said that “a detailed analysis of bullet trajectories, video footage, photos and audio (…) strongly suggests that Trump was struck by the first of eight bullets fired by the gunman.”

The Trump campaign has not released any medical reports, instead citing a statement from Jackson, a former White House physician and close ally of the former president.