Former US President Donald Trump pinned blame for the assassination attempt against him on his political opponents but offered no evidence over the course of an hourlong interview with former talk show host Dr Phil McGraw that was shared on Tuesday.
In the same interview, Trump complained, ironically, that political rhetoric in the country had become too intensely heated.
Though Trump has accused President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris of preventing him from having greater Secret Service protection in the weeks after Thomas Matthew Crooks shot at Trump during an outdoor rally, his new comments go a step further.
The FBI said on Wednesday that it believes Crooks saw Trump as a “target of opportunity,” as the gunman had searched online for information about both Biden and Trump in the month beforehand and had no clear ideological motivation.
Trump spoke extensively about the July 13 shooting with McGraw.
“You know, when this happened, people would ask, ‘Whose fault is that?’ I think to a certain extent it’s Biden’s fault, Harris’ fault. And I’m the opponent,” he said.
“Look, they were weaponising the government against me. They brought in the whole DOJ to try and get me,” Trump went on, referring to the Department of Justice and his false claim that Biden is secretly orchestrating Trump’s many legal woes.
“They weren’t too interested in my health and safety. I would be, if I were in their position. But they weren’t very interested. And they were always making it very difficult to have proper staffing in terms of Secret Service,” he told McGraw.
After ending his talk show last year, McGraw launched a conservative news and entertainment network, Merit Street Media. He has not been a licensed doctor for nearly two decades.
McGraw asked Trump: “I’m not saying that they wanted you to get shot, but do you think it was OK with them if you did?”
“I don’t know. I don’t know. There’s a lot of hatred. I don’t know why. I had a great presidency,” Trump replied.
He complained that Democrats spoke about him too many times at their convention last week, and that calling him a threat to democracy — a line used even by some Republicans — is harmful.
“That turned out to be one of their lines, that Trump is a threat,” Trump told McGraw. “That can get assassins or potential assassins going.”
Trump said that he thought he was not killed that day because of God.
“There had to be some great power,” Trump said, launching into a discussion about how he happened to turn his head to his right and avoided a shot to the head. A bullet instead grazed his ear as he pointed to a large poster board showing immigration figures.
“I used to say 1 million to 1, [but] it’s much more than that, because again, you have to pull down the sign, there has to be a reason to go right, and I never go right, there’s no reason. And not only go right — it’s for about an eighth of a second. It’s not just right. Out of all the time we’re on this planet, it’s one-eighth of a second,” Trump said.
McGraw asked him why he thought he was “spared.”
“The only thing I can think is that God loves our country, and he thinks we’re going to bring our country back,” Trump said.
“If I win that,” he said, referring to November’s election, “that would really serve to say that there’s some incredible power up there that wanted me to be involved in saving — and maybe it’s more than saving the nation, maybe it’s saving the world.”
In recent years, Trump has openly embraced the Q-Anon conspiracy theorists that posit his presidency actually had the secret, loftier purpose of saving the country from the “deep state,” or a shadowy cabal of satanic Democrats. Some right-wing evangelicals have also pushed the idea that Trump has been chosen by God to lead the country — a view that has only been amplified since the attempt on his life.
