Prayers for Trump pour in from world leaders after shooting

World leaders rushed on Saturday to condemn the deadly shooting at a campaign rally for former President Donald Trump.

The former president and 2024 Republican White House nominee was bleeding from his right ear as Secret Service members whisked him off stage following the attack. A spokesperson for Trump later said the former president was fine and getting checked out by doctors at a medical facility. Trump later wrote on social media that a bullet “pierced the upper part of my right ear.”

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — some of Trump’s closest friends on the international stage — were two of the first world leaders to offer prayers for the former president and condemn the fatal shooting at his campaign rally.

“My thoughts and prayers are with President @realDonaldTrump in these dark hours,” Orbán wrote in a post on X. Orbán met with Trump just two days earlier, skipping the last day of the NATO Summit in Washington to visit the former president’s Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida.

Netanyahu also offered his support to Trump in a social media post.

“Sara and I were shocked by the apparent attack on President Trump,” Netanyahu wrote. “We pray for his safety and speedy recovery.”

As shots rang out in the crowd, Trump appeared to grab his ear before falling in front of the podium onstage. He later stood up surrounded by Secret Service members and, with blood smeared on his face, pumped his fist in the air while shouting “fight, fight!”

Other leaders, like new British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau denounced all forms of political violence.

“I am appalled by the shocking scenes at President Trump's rally and we send him and his family our best wishes,” Starmer said on X. “Political violence in any form has no place in our societies and my thoughts are with all the victims of this attack.”

Trudeau wrote on X that his “thoughts are with former President Trump, those at the event, and all Americans.”

“I’m sickened by the shooting at former President Trump,” Trudeau added. “It cannot be overstated — political violence is never acceptable.”

The shooting at Trump’s rally comes less than two months after an attempted assassination of Slovakia’s Prime Minister Robert Fico. The politically motivated attack left Fico fighting for his life in the hospital.

In 2022, former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was assassinated while delivering a campaign speech in the city of Nara.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that he was “appalled” by Trump’s shooting.

“Such violence has no justification and no place anywhere in the world. Never should violence prevail,” Zelenskyy wrote. “I extend my wishes for strength to everyone who is horrified by this event. I wish America emerges stronger from this.”

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said that she was following updates about Trump with “apprehension” and called for less hatred in the 2024 American elections.

“My solidarity and my best wishes for a speedy recovery go to him, with the hope that the next few months of the electoral campaign will see dialogue and responsibility prevail over hatred and violence,” Meloni wrote.

Josep Borrell, the European Union’s foreign policy chief, also criticized the shooting in a post on X.

“Shocked by the news of the attack on President Trump,” Borrell said. “Once again, we are witnessing unacceptable acts of violence against political representatives.”

Other leaders called the shooting an attack on democracy.

“Violence is a threat to democracies and weakens our life together,” Chilean President Gabriel Boric wrote on X. “From Chile, I express our unqualified condemnation of what happened today in the United States.”

Argentinian President Javier Milei, who has sought to align himself with Trump, blamed the “international left” for Saturday’s shooting.

“I hope for the speedy recovery of President Trump and that the elections in the United States are held fairly, peacefully and democratically,” Milei wrote.