King Charles sends private message to Trump amid assassination attempt

King Charles yesterday sent a private message to Donald Trump after the former U.S. President was shot in an assassination attempt at a rally in Pennsylvania. Charles' message to Trump was delivered on Sunday via the UK Embassy in Washington DC. Buckingham Palace said the contents of the correspondence will be kept private.

It is understood Charles's message was in keeping with Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer 's conversation with Mr Trump, in which he condemned the violence, expressed his condolences for the victims and their families, and wished the former president and those injured a quick recovery.

Trump, 78, was left bloodied and wounded when a bullet pierced the 'upper part' of his right ear just minutes into his speech in Butler on Saturday night. Gunman Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, fired at least eight bullets from an 'AR-style rifle' at the 45th U.S. President from a rooftop just 130 yards away from where Trump was stood.

One spectator was killed in the attack - former fire chief Corey Comperatore - while two others were seriously wounded. Crooks (pictured), a registered Republican, was killed by a U.S. Secret Service sniper. Trump told U.S. media he is 'supposed to be dead' and he was only saved 'by luck or by God'.

Trump and Charles have a long history of exchanging messages with the former sending his prayers to the monarch in February after his shock cancer diagnosis. In an all-caps message written on his Truth Social platform he said: 'KING CHARLES HAS CANCER. HE IS A WONDERFUL MAN, WHO I GOT TO KNOW WELL DURING MY PRESIDENCY, AND WE ALL PRAY THAT HE HAS A FAST AND FULL RECOVERY!'. And he predicted that Charles would do 'very well' as King and would likely 'refrain' from discussing certain elements of politics after he ascended to the throne following Queen Elizabeth II's death.

Charles previously wrote to Trump in 1995 when the then-Prince of Wales thanked him for offering an honorary membership to his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida. In 2019, Charles, the-then Prince of Wales, hosted Mr Trump and his wife Melania for afternoon tea at Clarence House with the then-Duchess of Cornwall during a Nato summit in London. Mr Trump was also feted with a state banquet, hosted by the late Queen, during a state visit to the UK earlier the same year.

As bullets rang out and whizzed by in Pennsylvania on Saturday night, Trump suddenly grabbed hold of his ear before hitting the floor as Secret Service agents swarmed on top of him. With blood trickling down his cheek, Trump rose to his feet and raised his fist in the air and repeatedly mouthed the words 'fight' as he refused to leave the stage without his shoes. In his first interview since the attack, he said: 'The most incredible thing was that I happened to not only turn [my head] but to turn at the exact right time and in just the right amount,' he said, adding that the bullet that grazed his ear could have easily killed him. 'I'm supposed to be dead, I'm not supposed to be here,' he told the New York Post.

Trump revealed how turning his head away from the crowd to look at a video screen may have saved his life and how he wanted to keep talking after being shot. He said on Sunday: 'I rarely look away from the crowd. Had I not done that in that moment, well, we would not be talking today, would we?' Trump noted that he had turned slightly to the right so that he could read a chart on illegal immigrants. 'The most incredible thing was that I happened to not only turn but to turn at the exact right time and in just the right amount,' he added. 'If I only half-turn, it hits the back of the brain. The other way goes right through [my skull]. And because the sign was high, I'm looking up. The chances of my making a perfect turn are probably one tenth of one percent, so I'm not supposed to be here.'

The former president addressed the now-iconic moment where he raised his fist and mouthed 'fight' to the stunned audience. 'A lot of people say it's the most iconic photo they've ever seen,' Trump said. 'They're right and I didn't die. Usually you have to die to have an iconic picture.' He said he wanted his fans to know he was all right 'and that America goes on, we go forward, that we are strong'. 'The energy coming from the people there in that moment, they just stood there; it's hard to describe what that felt like, but I knew the world was looking. I knew that history would judge this, and I knew I had to let them know we are OK,' Trump added. 'I said, I've got to walk out, I have to walk out,' Trump said during his flight to Milwaukee, according to the Examiner. 'I did not want to be carried out. I've seen people being carried out, and it's not good. And I had no problem with walking.'

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