For many politicians, a large white bandage on the ear might look awkward. For former President Donald Trump, it’s a badge of honor.
In his appearances at the Republican National Convention this week after Saturday’s appallingly close assassination attempt at a campaign rally, the white gauze covering Trump’s wounded ear has been impossible to ignore.
But there’s no need for the look to be permanent, a plastic surgeon told the U.K.’s Daily Mail.
Plastic surgeon reveals $10,000 surgery Donald Trump would have to undergo to fix his bullet-damaged ear https://t.co/xLhcOEi8KN pic.twitter.com/OtRm0sblQU
— Daily Mail Online (@MailOnline) July 16, 2024
While ear reconstruction surgery can be “complex,” Dr. Dennis Dass of Beverley Hills, California, told the newspaper, Trump was lucky at least in the part of the ear that was wounded.
Trump lost the top third of his right ear to a bullet that came within an inch of ending his life on the stage in Butler County, Pennsylvania.
Tragically, a man who attended the rally died from a bullet while shielding his family with his own body. Two others at the rally were critically wounded.
However close a bullet came to actually ending Trump’s life — and it was agonizingly close — his actual wound was serious but manageable. It would not affect his hearing, according to the Daily Mail, “although the bullet whistling past it may have.” Trump himself has not commented on any hearing loss.
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That portion of the ear “is actually one of the easier areas to reconstruct,” Dass told the Daily Mail.
In the procedure, known as a “helical advancement flap,” surgeons would first remove scar tissue from the wounded ear, then take skin and cartilage from nearby areas of body and use it to shape a new ear.
The operation itself would take one to two hours and require only a local anesthetic, meaning Trump would be awake for the work.
Full recovery would take about six weeks, Dass said, according to the Daily Mail.
And the price? About $10,000.
That might be a daunting number to many Americans, but for a man who counts his wealth in billions, it’s barely pocket change. But is it worth the price?
For Trump, the bigger question about such reconstructive surgery might be how it would play out for voters.
He’s a man who’s been the target of character assassination on a near-daily basis since riding down the escalator at New York’s Trump Tower in 2015 to announce his bid for the presidency.
Now, he’s been the target of an actual assassin — thanks to a mind-boggling failure of security at a campaign event — and he carries the physical reminder of it for every supporter and potential supporter to see. When the bandages are gone, the scar will remain to do the same.
Trump is literally a man who took a bullet for his beliefs.
And in a political context, that could be worth more than any amount of money.
