Trump: Xi wrote ‘beautiful note’ after slay attempt
WASHINGTON—Former US President Donald Trump said on Saturday that Chinese President Xi Jinping wrote him a note after the Republican presidential nominee suffered a gunshot wound to his ear during an assassination attempt last week.
“[Xi] wrote me a beautiful note the other day when he heard about what happened,” Trump told a crowd in Grand Rapids, Michigan, his first campaign rally since narrowly escaping the July 13 assassination attempt.
Trump mentioned Xi’s letter while discussing his economic policy toward China during his presidency, adding that “I got along very well with President Xi.”
‘Bullet for democracy’
The former US president also referenced messages from other world leaders following the shooting at a rally in Pennsylvania.
Xi was among the world leaders who responded immediately to that incident, with the Chinese Foreign Ministry saying in a brief statement that he “expressed his condolences to former President Trump.”
A rallier, 50-year-old firefighter Corey Comperatore, was killed amid shots fired from a nearby rooftop by 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, who was shot dead by Secret Service snipers soon after.
Trump also praised the “brilliant” Xi Jinping for controlling “1.4 billion people with an iron fist.”
But he rejected criticisms that he was an autocrat, saying that “I took a bullet for democracy.”
On Thursday, Trump accepted the Republican Party’s nomination to be its candidate in the Nov. 5 presidential election.
