Mr. Trump honored the family of Corey Comperatore, a firefighter who was killed during the assassination attempt against Mr. Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania, last year.
“Gunfire rang out, and a sick and deranged assassin unloaded eight bullets from his sniper’s perch into a crowd of many thousands of people,” the president said. “My life was saved by a fraction of an inch, but some were not so lucky.”
The president said Comperatore was “a firefighter, a veteran, a Christian, a husband, a devoted father, and above all, a protector” who, when the sound of gunshots rang out, “knew instantly what it was and what to do.”
“He threw himself on top of his wife and daughters, and shielded them from the bullets with his own body,” the president said, while noting that Comperatore’s wife and daughters were in the gallery.
“Corey is looking down on his three beautiful ladies right now and he is cheering you on,” Mr. Trump said. “Corey was taken from us much too soon, but his destiny was to leave us all with a shining example of the selflessness devotion of a true American patriot.”
The president added that he believes his life was saved in Butler that day “for a very good reason.”
“I was saved by God to make America great again, I believe that,” he said, reiterating a line he said in his inaugural address.