WASHINGTON — Donald Trump's former White House physician disputed on Friday (July 26) a suggestion by the FBI director that shrapnel, not a bullet, could have caused the injury to the Republican presidential candidate's right ear during an assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania on July 13.

The narrative that a bullet ripped through Trump's ear, and that he escaped death by just a quarter of an inch, has become a major element of the former president's White House campaign. Many of his supporters say the fact he survived was divine intervention and Trump mentions his brush with death in his speeches.

"I took a bullet for democracy," Trump told supporters at a rally in Grand Rapids, Michigan, on July 20.

Ronny Jackson, Trump's doctor when he was in the White House, released a statement a day after Trump criticised FBI Director Christopher Wray for telling US lawmakers this week it was not clear whether Trump was hit by a bullet, or shrapnel or glass.

"There is absolutely no evidence that it was anything other than a bullet," wrote Jackson, a close Trump ally. "Director Wray is wrong and inappropriate to suggest anything else."

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