Updates:
Might be best for mods to lock this post at this point (is that a thing on Lemmy?) because this story is basically wrapped. The FBI says a bullet caused some ear damage. Maybe it was bullet shrapnel from a ricochet or something like that, but later photos show the teleprompters in-tact so it wasn't shards of glass from those. Trump's usage of the bandage (and the assassination attempt) as symbols and political tools has been discussed at length and I don't think conspiratorial thinking beyond that is very productive. Pete Souza took his own account down after getting a lot of harassment, so no further conspiracies are needed regarding X-formerly-known-as-Twitter at this time.
A photo of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump taken on Saturday without his ear bandage has sparked a wave of speculation.
The image, taken by Alex Brandon of the Associated Press on July 27 and shared by photojournalist Pete Souza on X, formerly Twitter, shows Trump walking up an airplane staircase with an apparently fully healed ear wound just weeks after he was shot with a high-powered rifle.
Souza, known for his tenure as the chief official White House photographer for Presidents Ronald Reagan and Barack Obama, posted Brandon's photo on his now-deactivated X account on Saturday, writing, "AP photo this morning. Look closely at his ear that was 'hit' by a bullet from an AR-15 assault rifle."
Souza's profile, @PeteSouza, which had over 200,000 followers, now reads, "This account doesn't exist, try searching for another," implying that he has deleted or deactivated it. If he had been banned, it would read, "Account suspended. X suspends accounts which violate the X rules."
There's just no fucking way his ear was hit by .223 (let alone the hotter 5.56) and there's still an ear left.
There would be a hole and massive damage, at least. Most likely just a twisted stump.
It's much more likely that someone scratched it with their fingernail in the chaos and it just bleed a lot because: adrenaline of being shot at, adrenaline of a rally, how high blood pressure is in the ear, and how blood thinners making even a small scratch look like a murder scene.
If he'd really have been shot there'd never have been a bandage and trump wouldn't go anywhere without 15 doctors in tow to explain how brave and strong he is to survive a gunshot wound.
In case it gets taken down completely:
There have been re-creations on YouTube with ballistics gel and pig ears showing what happens to an ear shot by an AR-15 round, I'm not going to lay judgement, just watch the video:
Ballistics gel (language):
https://youtu.be/FsvJzfXZI18#t=6m59s
Pig ears:
https://youtu.be/zfATfPIpDc4#t=4m19s
THANK YOU! Jesus folks, if you don't have experience with shooting AR-15 loads, just stop, admit you're not really sure.
Also, I'm thinking a lot of people are imaging the big, bad AR as shooting monster bullets. (That's a joke pic BTW.) ARs are illegal to hunt with in some states because they're not deadly enough to produce a clean kill. It's a military round meant to be incapacitating and lightweight.
You do realize you can get an AR in 22LR, 9MM, 5.56 NATO etc.. right?
Just saw your reply. Yep, I'm aware. I often change the bolt in my AR so I can shoot .22LR.
But we're discussing what this guy used, not all the myriad options.