Trump releases letter detailing medical care since assassination attempt

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump shared a letter signed by Rep. Ronny Jackson, R-Texas, on Saturday detailing the care he has received since last weekend's assassination attempt at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania.The letter 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 a close Trump political ally since leaving the White House and later successfully running for Congress.Jackson stated that Trump sustained a 2 cm wide wound "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 third 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.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, shared by Trump online on Truth Social, also provides new details about the medical care Trump 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."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."Jackson, who served as White House physician to both Trump and former president Barack Obama, garnered scrutiny 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 a damaging Pentagon inspector general's report that substantiated allegations about his inappropriate behavior as a White House physician.In Congress, Jackson has been staunchly pro-Trump and demanded that President Biden take a drug test before his CNN debate with Trump in June.Hannah Knowles contributed to this report.