Fact Check: Former President Donald Trump said, “It took my entire ear off. The whole ear.”

Former President Donald Trump said, “It took my entire ear off. The whole ear.” stated on July 21, 2024 in an Instagram post:

Former President Donald Trump suffered a 2-centimeter-wide ear wound during the recent assassination attempt at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania, as reported by Rep. Ronny Jackson, R-Texas, Trump’s ally and former White House physician. The injury didn’t need stitches, and it wasn’t because his ear was blown off.

A purported screenshot of a post from X suggests a different story.

“It took my entire ear off,” the supposed July 19 post said. “The whole ear. But I went to the doctor, and he said, and this is true, he said, you heal faster than anyone I’ve ever seen. Nobody is healthier than you. And the next day, my ear was growing back, and the doctor said, nobody regrows ears like that, and its a really remarkable thing, regrowing an ear like that, most people can’t do it. And I know that, because its not me saying this, it’s the doctor, its everybody saying, just, you’re the best at regrowing ears.” 

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A post shared by Big Greg (@buckienaked)

As the quote spread online, some users were puzzled by its origins.

“I’m trying to figure out if this is satire or something he really said,” one person wrote on Reddit.

“Same,” another replied.

An Instagram post sharing the image of the purported X post was flagged as part of Meta’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed.

Trump hasn’t posted on X in almost a year, since he shared a jail booking photo on August 24. There’s no evidence that Trump made such a statement on his Truth Social, Facebook, or Instagram accounts.

His campaign also released Jackson’s letter detailing his medical care since the July 13 assassination attempt.

When Trump accepted the Republican nomination for president in Milwaukee on July 19, he described a bullet “whizzing” by and feeling something hit him “really, really hard” on his right ear, but he didn’t claim the ear was taken off. Trump appeared with a white patch on his right ear at the convention, a look some attendees mimicked by wearing their own ear coverings.

This X post is fabricated. We rate claims that it’s authentic False.