MILWAUKEE — Stacey Goodman was not harm.
However to point out her assist for former President Donald Trump within the wake of a bullet showing to graze the tip of his proper ear, Goodman tucked a small sq. of white gauze into the band of her purple “Make America Nice Once more” cap.
“We stand in solidarity with him, and we want him properly. We’re with him 100%,” mentioned Goodman, a Republican Nationwide Committee delegate from Cave Creek, Arizona.
It’s removed from essentially the most outrageous manner hundreds of Republican Nationwide Conference delegates and attendees have sought to face out in a sea of individuals with different creative ideas for expressing their love of Trump. However it’s on the reducing fringe of MAGA developments, provided that Trump was simply wounded on Saturday in an obvious assassination try.
In what’s sure to be a permanent picture, the previous president returned triumphantly to the general public eye two days later at this conference with a bandaged ear. Trump could also be visibly wounded, however his standing right here among the many occasion loyalists who voted Monday to make him their 2024 presidential nominee is as robust because it’s ever been.
Trump’s ear, each bloodied and bandaged, has change into an emblem of resilience after the assault, embodying the occasion’s aspirations for an election lower than 4 months away. “The ear hurts like hell, however will really feel higher in November,” learn an indication from a man who had connected a chunk of paper to the precise aspect of his face with masking tape and lined it with an American flag Band-Assist.
Many of the bandagers seemed to be from Arizona, a key swing state the place Trump is running ahead of President Joe Biden. Craig Berland, the GOP chairman in Maricopa County, Arizona, mentioned a bunch of delegates got here up with the thought Tuesday on their bus. It started with some paper; then they purchased medical gauze. “It was a humorous factor to do, nevertheless it was a severe factor due to the tragedy that occurred,” Berland mentioned.
Liz Harris, a delegate from Chandler, Arizona, mentioned she cried upon studying the information of the try on Trump’s life. “Then I bought upset,” she mentioned, a bandage masking her proper extremity. “I’ve been to many Trump rallies, and he’s only a sitting duck up there. You simply pray nothing like this occurs, after which it occurred. It was unhappy.”