Amid chaos and gunfire, Trump raised his fist and projected a characteristic image of defiance

NEW YORK (AP) — He was bleeding from the head after a barrage of bullets flew through his rally when Secret Service agents gave the go-ahead that it was safe to move from the stage.

But Donald Trump had something he needed to do.

“Wait, wait, wait!” the former president could be heard telling his agents, who had encircled him in a protective bubble and helped him to his feet.

Trump, his face smeared with blood, forced his right fist through a tangle of agents’ arms. He raised it high into the air before pumping his fist.

“Fight!” he mouthed to the crowd and cameras as he pumped his arm sharply three times, in a sign of undeniable defiance and assurance that he was OK. The gesture sent the crowd cheering, with many rising to their feet.

“We gotta move, we gotta move!" an agent shouted.

The moment was an extraordinary illustration of Trump's raw political instincts and of how keenly aware he is of the images he projects. Even during unimaginable chaos, Trump stopped and delivered his message, creating iconic photographs and video that are sure to become an indelible part of history.

In an interview with the Washington Examiner, Trump said that when he looked up and saw that the crowd hadn't left, he felt he needed to offer assurance and project strength.

“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,” he said.

Trump has always paid close attention to imagery, aware of his facial expressions, his clothing and camera angles during interviews.

The mug shot he took in Atlanta — in which he glared at the camera — was seared immediately into the collective memory and emblazoned on campaign T-shirts, posters and other merchandise.

During his criminal hush money trial in New York, Trump would mug for the cameras, looking stern and angry, when photographers were led in for a minute each day to document history. As soon as they left, his expression typically relaxed.

After he tested positive for the coronavirus in 2020, Trump refused to let on how sick he really was, according to a book by his former chief of staff, Mark Meadows. And after his release from Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, where he received intense treatment, Trump staged a dramatic return to the White House, emerging from Marine One and climbing the South Portico steps.

On the balcony, he removed his mask and gave a double thumbs-up to the departing helicopter at sunset, American flags arranged behind him.

In her book “Confidence Man,” New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman wrote that Trump had considered an even more dramatic scene in which he “would be wheeled out of Walter Reed in a chair” and, once outside, “would dramatically stand up, then open his button-down dress shirt to reveal” another with a “Superman logo beneath it.”

Trump said in a social media post Saturday night that he “knew immediately that something was wrong” when he “heard a whizzing sound, shots and immediately felt the bullet ripping through the skin."

A bullet had pierced the upper part of his right ear, Trump said later.

He crouched behind his lectern as agents rushed the stage and piled atop him.

When they gave the all-clear that the shooter was down, Trump could be heard telling his agents several times to “let me get my shoes” as they tried to quickly usher him to safety,

While he was led across the stage, he held his arm in the air and vigorously pumped it again — so violently one agent seemed to duck to avoid being hit by his elbow — before he was helped down the steps.

The crowd erupted into chants of “USA!”

As he climbed into his SUV, he raised it high one last time before his agents closed the bulletproof door behind him.

For supporters in the crowd, Trump's response gave them assurance that he would not back down.

Jondavid Longo, the mayor of Slippery Rock, Pennsylvania, who was sitting in the front row when the shots began, said he jumped to shield his wife, made sure no one in his immediate vicinity had a firearm, then started yelling for others to get down.

“I was making sure everybody was OK and then I kept looking at the president, of course, because I had just seen the president get shot,” Longo said. “I saw him grab his ear. Then I saw the Secret Service pounce on top of him. I saw them bringing him up. I saw blood on the right side of his head."

Soon after, he said, Trump “put his fist in the air. He let us know he was OK, and they escorted him away. It was just incredible."

Kristen Petrarca, 60, said she is a Democrat, but supports Trump and wanted to experience one of his rallies. She and a group of friends arrived early and she got a seat in the bleachers behind Trump.

Suddenly, she heard gunshots: “Pop, pop, pop, pop," she said during a Zoom interview from a nearby hotel hours after the attack.

She watched as Trump grabbed his ear and the Secret Service agents rushed the podium. She saw the former president raise his fist in the air as blood streamed from his ear.

“I didn’t feel that he was scared. He was angry, he was mad,” she said. “He wanted to fight, and he wanted us to fight.”

__ Associated Press writers Stefanie Dazio in Los Angeles and John Raby in Charleston, West Virginia, contributed to this report.

Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump is helped off the stage by U.S. Secret Service agents at a campaign event in Butler, Pa., on Saturday, July 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump is helped off the stage by U.S. Secret Service agents at a campaign event in Butler, Pa., on Saturday, July 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

Amid chaos and gunfire, Trump raised his fist and projected a characteristic image of defiance

Amid chaos and gunfire, Trump raised his fist and projected a characteristic image of defiance

Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump is surround by U.S. Secret Service agents at a campaign rally, Saturday, July 13, 2024, in Butler, Pa. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

LAKE CITY, Ark. (AP) — Standing alongside the twisted steel tractors on his family farm in northeast Arkansas, Danny Qualls looked on while friends and relatives helped him begin cleaning up.

The home where he spent his childhood but no longer lives was flattened by one of many tornadoes that left behind destruction from Oklahoma to Indiana — the first in a round of storms expected to bring historic rains and life-threatening flash floods across the nation’s midsection in the coming days.

“My husband has been extremely tearful and emotional, but he also knows that we have to do the work,” Rhonda Qualls said Thursday. “He was in shock last night, cried himself to sleep.”

At least six people were killed in western Tennessee, Missouri and Indiana in the initial wave on Wednesday and early Thursday that spawned powerful tornadoes — one of which launched light debris nearly 5 miles (8 kilometers) into the air above Arkansas.

Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee said it was too early to know whether there were more deaths as searches persisted.

“The devastation is enormous. What’s most difficult about it is, you know that those are lives destroyed,” Lee said in the hard-hit town of Selmer. “In some cases, true life lost, but in other cases, everything people owned, up in trees.”

Those who died included a Tennessee man and his teenage daughter whose home was destroyed, and a man whose pickup struck downed power lines in Indiana.

Forecasters warned Thursday of catastrophic weather soon ahead. Satellite imagery showed thunderstorms lining up like freight trains — taking the same tracks over communities in Arkansas, Tennessee and Kentucky, according to the national Weather Prediction Center in Maryland.

The bull's-eye centered on a swath along the Mississippi River and included the more than 1.3 million people around Memphis, Tennessee.

More than 90 million people were at risk of severe weather from Texas to Minnesota and Maine, according to the Oklahoma-based Storm Prediction Center.

Round after round of heavy rains were expected in the central U.S. through Saturday and could produce dangerous flash floods capable of sweeping away cars. The potent storm system will bring “significant, life-threatening flash flooding” each day, the National Weather Service said.

With more than a foot (30 centimeters) of rain possible over the next four days, the prolonged deluge is something that “happens once in a generation to once in a lifetime,” the weather service said. “Historic rainfall totals and impacts are possible.”

Water rescue teams and sandbagging operations were being staged across the region, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency was ready to distribute food, water, cots and generators.

Water rescues were already underway in flooded parts of Nashville, Tennessee, where the rain could persist for days after an unnerving night of tornado warnings that drained the batteries of some city sirens, the fire department said.

Western Kentucky was bracing for record of rain and flooding in places that normally do not get inundated, Gov. Andy Beshear said.

Flash flooding is particularly worrisome in rural areas of the state where water can quickly rush off the mountains into the hollows. Less than four years ago, dozens died in flooding across eastern Kentucky.

Extreme flooding across the corridor that includes Louisville, Kentucky and Memphis, which have major cargo hubs, could also lead to major shipping and supply chain delays, said Jonathan Porter, chief meteorologist at AccuWeather.

Forecasters attributed the violent weather to warm temperatures, an unstable atmosphere, strong wind shear and abundant moisture streaming from the Gulf.

Under darkened skies Thursday morning, the remains of a used car dealership in Selmer stood roofless and gutted, with debris scattered across the car lot and wrapped around mangled trees. Some homes were leveled to their foundations in the Tennessee town, where three tornadoes were suspected of touching down.

“Thank God we came out without a scratch,” said Willie Barnes, who had only enough time to get in a bathroom with his wife before the storm wrecked his home.

The Tennessee Highway Patrol released video of lightning illuminating the sky as first responders scoured the ruins of a home, looking for anyone trapped.

In neighboring Arkansas, a tornado near Blytheville lofted debris at least 25,000 feet (7.6 kilometers) high, according to weather service meteorologist Chelly Amin. The state's emergency management office reported damage in 22 counties from tornadoes, wind, hail and flash flooding.

Workers on bulldozers cleared rubble along the highway that crosses through Lake City, where a tornado with winds of 150 mph (241 kph) sheared the roofs off homes, collapsed brick walls and tossed cars into trees.

Mississippi's governor said at least 60 homes were damaged. And in far western Kentucky, four people were injured while taking shelter in a vehicle under a church carport, according to the emergency management office in Ballard County.

This story has been updated to correct that Lake City is in northeast Arkansas, not northwest.

Walker IV reported from Selmer, Tennessee, and Seewer from Toledo, Ohio. Associated Press writers Andrew DeMillo in Little Rock, Arkansas; Jonathan Mattise in Nashville, Tennessee, Seth Borenstein in Washington; Isabella O'Malley in Philadelphia; Kathy McCormack in Concord, New Hampshire; Bruce Schreiner in Louisville, Kentucky; Jeff Martin in Atlanta; Hallie Golden in Seattle; and Ed White in Detroit contributed.

Lisa Davis reviews paperwork in a business that was damaged in the Triad Building, a business plaza, after severe weather passed through Thursday, April 3, 2025, in Louisville, Ky. (AP Photo/Jon Cherry)

Mike Davis moves debris from a damaged business in the Triad Building, a business plaza, after severe weather passed through Thursday, April 3, 2025, in Louisville, Ky. (AP Photo/Jon Cherry)

A storm damaged home is seen Thursday, April 3, 2025, in Selmer, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)

People remove items from a business damaged in the Triad Building, a business plaza, after severe weather passed through on Thursday, April 3, 2025, in Louisville, Ky. (AP Photo/Jon Cherry)

In an aerial view, damaged structures are seen at the Triad Building, a business plaza, after severe weather passed through Thursday, April 3, 2025, in Louisville, Ky. (AP Photo/Jon Cherry)

Storm damaged homes and broken trees are seen Thursday, April 3, 2025, in Selmer, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)

Rep. David Kustoff, R-Tenn., speaks about the storm damage during news conference Thursday, April 3, 2025, in Selmer, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)

Debris and goods are removed from damaged businesses in the Triad Building, a business plaza, after severe weather passed through Thursday, April 3, 2025, in Louisville, Ky. (AP Photo/Jon Cherry)

People remove debris from a damaged business in the Triad Building, a business plaza, after severe weather passed through on Thursday, April 3, 2025, in Louisville, Ky. (AP Photo/Jon Cherry)

In an aerial view the interior of a damaged business is seen at the Triad Building, a business plaza, after severe weather passed through on Thursday, April 3, 2025, in Louisville, Ky. (AP Photo/Jon Cherry)

Daniel Fraser carries a computer in the damaged second floor offices of Specialty Distributors after a tornado passed through an industrial industrial park on Thursday, April 3, 2025, in Jeffersontown, Ky. (AP Photo/Jon Cherry)

A storm damaged home is seen Thursday, April 3, 2025, in Selmer, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)

The interior of the destroyed Gordon-Hardy building after a severe weather passed through an industrial industrial park on Thursday, April 3, 2025, in Jeffersontown, Ky. (AP Photo/Jon Cherry)

Gov. Bill Lee speaks about the storm damage during a news conference Thursday, April 3, 2025, in Selmer, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)

Storm damaged homes are seen Thursday, April 3, 2025, in Selmer, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)

Damaged equipment sits on a farm struck by Wednesday night's tornado on Thursday, April 3, 2025, in Lake City, Ark. (AP Photo/Adrian Sainz)

Danny Qualls speaks with a reporter about damage to his family farm on Thursday, April 3, 2025, in Lake City, Ark. (AP Photo/Adrian Sainz)

Lauren Fraser picks up paperwork in the damaged second floor offices of Specialty Distributors after a tornado passed through an industrial industrial park on Thursday, April 3, 2025, in Jeffersontown, Ky. (AP Photo/Jon Cherry)

Dana Hardin, a 25-year former employee of Gordon-Hardy, which was destroyed, looks on near the debris of the KEP Electric building after a tornado passed through an industrial industrial park on Thursday, April 3, 2025, in Jeffersontown, Ky. (AP Photo/Jon Cherry)

A shipping and receiving bay door is damaged along with the interior of the Gordon-Hardy building after a tornado passed through an industrial industrial park on Thursday, April 3, 2025, in Jeffersontown, Ky. (AP Photo/Jon Cherry)

A specialty distributors building is in ruins after a tornado passed through an industrial park on Thursday, April 3, 2025, in Jeffersontown, Ky. (AP Photo/Jon Cherry)

William Fraser takes photographs inside the warehouse of a damaged building of Specialty Distributors after a tornado passed through an industrial industrial park on Thursday, April 3, 2025, in Jeffersontown, Ky. (AP Photo/Jon Cherry)

A home is in ruins after severe weather passed through Lake City, Ark., on Thursday, April 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Adrian Sainz)

People clean up a damaged warehouse after severe weather passed the area in Carmel, Ind., Thursday, April 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy)

A resident along Tippah County Rd. 122 in the Three Forks Community near Walnut, Miss., makes his way down his driveway Thursday, April 3, 205, to inspect the tornado damage in the daylight hours. (Thomas Wells /The Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal via AP)

Family and friends begin picking up whats left of a house that was ripped off it's foundation and thrown over 75 feet away along Tippah County Rd. 122 in the Three Forks Community near Walnut Miss., Thursday, April 3, 2025. (Thomas Wells /The Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal via AP)

A piece of home decor rests inside a claw foot bathtub that was thrown from it's house along Tippah County Rd. 122 in the Three Forks Community near Walnut Miss., Thursday, April 3, 2025. (Thomas Wells /The Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal via AP)

People look over the debris around a home at Lake City, Ark., on Thursday, April 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Adrian Sainz)

Willy Barns gathers cloths at his house after severe weather passed the area in Selmer, Tenn., Thursday, April 3, 2025. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)

Jamar Atkins helps to clean up a house after severe weather passed through Selma, Tenn., Thursday, April 3, 2025. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)

Jamar Atkins helps to clean up Willy Brown's house after severe weather passed the area in Selma, Tenn., Thursday, April 3, 2025. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)

Titan Atkins cleans up his grandmother's house after severe weather passed the area in Selma, Tenn., Thursday, April 3, 2025. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)

A damaged truck sits under a section of collapsed warehouse wall after violent storms and tornadoes tore through the area on Thursday, April 3, 2025, in Jeffersontown, KY. (AP Photo/Jon Cherry)

A car drives through a flooded section of road near Lions Park Beach Wednesday, April 2, 2025, in St. Joseph, Mich., after heavy storms moved through Southwest Michigan. (Don Campbell/The Herald-Palladium via AP)

A tractor trailer from an O'Reilly warehouse sits on its side after severe weather passed the area in Brownsburg, Ind., Thursday, April 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy)

Brownsburg irefighters survey storm damage to a warehouse in Brownsburg, Ind., Thursday, April 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy)

A smashed truck sits under a section of collapsed warehouse wall after violent storms and tornadoes tore through the area on Thursday, April 3, 2025, in Jeffersontown, Ky. (AP Photo/Jon Cherry)

In an aerial view, a smashed truck sits under a section of collapsed warehouse wall after violent storms and tornadoes tore through the area on Thursday, April 3, 2025, in Jeffersontown, Ky. (AP Photo/Jon Cherry)

A trailer sits on top of a semi truck parked at J & J Transportation on Thursday, April 3, 2025, in Jeffersontown, Ky. (AP Photo/Jon Cherry)

Brownsburg firefighters survey storm damage to a warehouse in Brownsburg, Ind., Thursday, April 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy)

Debris litter the parking lot from storm damage to a warehouse in Brownsburg, Ind., Thursday, April 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy)

Brownsburg irefighters survey storm damage to a warehouse in Brownsburg, Ind., Thursday, April 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy)

Warehouse workers gather at the site of a storm damaged warehouse in Brownsburg, Ind., Thursday, April 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy)

Storm damage from severe weather on Sunday at a farm along 84th Street near Hanna Lake Avenue in Gaines Twp., Mich. on Monday, March 31, 2025. (Joel Bissell/MLive.com/Kalamazoo Gazette via AP)

A barn that collapsed from Sunday's severe storm along 92nd Street SE in Gaines Twp., Mich., on Monday, March 31, 2025. (Joel Bissell/MLive.com/Kalamazoo Gazette via AP)

Gary Deripaska, left, cleans up storm damage at his home off 96th Street North just west of Garnett Road, Wednesday, April 2, 2025, in Owasso, Okla. (Mike Simons/Tulsa World via AP)

A toppled tree with its roots showing on Woodworth Street in Linden, Mich., on Tuesday, April 1, 2025. (Jacob Hamilton/Ann Arbor News via AP)

An aerial image of a barn that collapsed after a severe storm hit Sunday along 92nd Street SE in Gaines Twp., Mich., on Monday, March 31, 2025. (Joel Bissell/MLive.com/Kalamazoo Gazette via AP)

An early morning severe storm damaged homes, destroying the roofs and knocked down power lines, trees, and fences off 96th Street North near Garnett Road, Wednesday, April 2, 2025, in Owasso, Okla. (Mike Simons/Tulsa World via AP)

A tree fell and knocked down power lines and blocked a street in a residential neighborhood during storms on Wednesday, April 2, 2025, in Memphis, Tenn. (AP Photo/Adrian Sainz)

Lightning strikes as storms move through the area Wednesday, April 2, 2025, in Ashland City, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)

Severe storm damage is shown off 96th Street North between Garnett Road and Mingo Road Wednesday, April 2, 2025, in Owasso, Okla. (Mike Simons/Tulsa World via AP)

Ryland Mosley, 18, who was on the 2nd story of his home when the storm passed, stands outside of it observing the damage, Wednesday, April 2, 2025 in Owasso, Okla. (Mike Simons/Tulsa World via AP)