President Donald Trump has described the day he was shot in an attempted assassination to social media personality and boxer Jake Paul, calling it a “bloody mess.”
Paul, 29, sat for a talk with Trump earlier this week while the president was visiting Kentucky for a political rally. The boxer and influencer asked Trump about the assassination attempt against him in Butler, Pennsylvania, in the summer of 2024.
“Was it like, hot on your ear? Could you feel the bullet?” Paul asked Trump.
The president said he felt a “throbbing feeling” when he was shot.
“You knew there was something. It was a bloody mess,” Trump said.
The president then went on to explain why ears tend to bleed more than one may expect when they’re injured and said “it was bloody as hell.”
“I said that’s either the biggest mosquito bite in history or I just got shot,” Trump said.
Following their conversation, Trump said that Paul had his “complete and total endorsement,” even though Paul isn’t running for any office.
Trump appears to believe that a Jake Paul political campaign is an inevitability, predicting that the boxer would run “in the not-too-distant future.”
Potential political ambitions weren’t the only elements of Paul’s future discussed during the meeting. Trump and Paul also talked about his fighting career and who his next opponent may be.
Paul has made a name for himself fighting mostly past-their-prime boxers or mixed martial artists who agree to adhere to boxing rules. He was knocked out in his most recent fight against two-time former heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua.
The match left Paul with a broken jaw.
Just as Paul asked Trump about his brush with death, Trump asked Paul about his willingness to face Joshua again.
“So, who do you fight next? Would you ever fight [Joshua] again? No?” Trump asked.
Paul said he wouldn’t and that he needs to stay in his own weight class for future fights. He named Francis Ngannou, a former UFC champion fighter from Cameroon, as someone he’d like to fight next.
He also suggested he’d fight Tommy Fury again. Before Joshua, Fury was Paul’s only other professional loss.
“Who would you wanna see me fight?” Paul asked Trump.
Trump suggested Khabib Nurmagomedov, one of the most dominant UFC champions in the sport’s history.
Paul said he was “down,” and he and Trump ended their time together dancing to “YMCA.”
Nurmagomedov retired from the UFC in 2020 as the lightweight champion. He was never defeated in 29 bouts.
Trump is a fan of in-ring action. He’s the only president to be inducted into the World Wrestling Entertainment Hall of Fame — he was even part of a storyline called the “Battle of the Billionaires” in 2007 — he’s attended multiple UFC fights, and calls UFC president Dana White his close friend.
As part of the U.S. 250th anniversary celebration this year — and to mark Trump’s 80th birthday — the UFC is expected to host a fight on the White House lawn. The bout is scheduled for June 14.
