Donald Trump’s staff ban photos as he still wears ‘large’ bandage to cover gunshot wound

Donald Trump 's staff have reportedly banned photos of the former president as he covers up the gunshot wound to his right ear with a bandage.

The Republican presidential hopeful was crowded by Secret Service members and taken off his rally stage in Butler Pennsylvania, on Saturday while blood poured from his ear after he was shot at by Matthew Thomas Crooks. Trump was rushed to hospital and was put under observation but was released shortly afterward.

In his first interview since the assassination attempt, Trump claimed he should have been killed as he revealed what medics had told him. “The doctor at the hospital said he never saw anything like this, he called it a miracle,” Trump told the New York Post .

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“I’m not supposed to be here, I’m supposed to be dead,” he added. The 78-year-old, who spoke aboard his private plane en route to Milwaukee for the GOP National Convention, was wearing a loose, large white bandage that covered his right ear while his staff insisted that no photos be taken of him, the outlet reports.

After the shooting, which killed one spectator and left two others critically injured, Trump took to Truth Social to reveal the extent of his injuries. He wrote: "I was shot with a bullet that pierced the upper part of my right ear. I knew immediately that something was wrong in that I heard a whizzing sound, shots, and immediately felt the bullet ripping through the skin. Much bleeding took place, so I realized then what was happening."

Despite the apparent ban on photos of Trump following the attack, the former president was snapped with a bandage on his ear while he stepped down from his plane as he landed in New Jersey just hours after the shooting. Trump could be seen waving from the plane steps as the white bandage poked out of his right ear.

Crooks, who worked as a dietary aide at a nursing home, was shot dead by Secret Service snipers after he opened fire. The 20-year-old aimed at Trump from the roof of a building outside the rally ground.

Trump praised the Secret Service for their response. “They took him out with one shot right between the eyes,” he said as he pointed to the bridge of his nose. “They did a fantastic job, it’s surreal for all of us.”

Despite Trump's thanks, the attack has been dubbed a devastating failure by the Secret Service, who are now investigating how a gunman armed with an AR-style rifle was able to get close enough to shoot and injure the former president.

The roof Crooks was able to fire multiple shots from was fewer than 150 meters (164 yards) from where Trump was speaking, a distance from which a decent marksman could reasonably hit a human-sized target. President Joe Biden said Sunday he has directed an independent review of the security at the rally.