A year after Trump’s near-assassination, some signs of a changed man

Published

2 months ago

July 12, 2025

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump was on stage at the Iowa State Fairgrounds earlier this month, kicking off the country’s 250th anniversary celebration, when he heard what sounded like fireworks in the distance.

“Did I hear what I think I heard?” Trump remarked as he spoke from behind a wall of thick, bulletproof glass. “Don’t worry, it’s only fireworks. I hope. Famous last words,” he quipped, drawing laughs and cheers.

“You always have to think positive,” he went on. “I didn’t like that sound, either.”

The comments, just days before the first anniversary of Trump’s near-assassination in Butler, Pennsylvania, served as a stark reminder of the lingering impact of the day when a gunman opened fire at a campaign rally, grazing Trump’s ear and killing one of his supporters in the crowd.

The attack dramatically upended the 2024 campaign and launched a frenzied 10-day stretch that included Trump’s triumphant arrival at the Republican National Convention with a bandaged ear, President Joe Biden’s decision to abandon his reelection bid and the elevation of Vice President Kamala Harris as his successor.

One year after coming millimeters from a very different outcome, Trump, according to friends and aides, is still the same Trump. But they see signs, beyond being on higher alert on stage, that his brush with death did change him in some ways: He is more attentive and more grateful, they say, and speaks openly about how he believes he was saved by God to save the country and serve a second term, making him even more dug in on achieving his far-reaching agenda.

“I think it’s always in the back of his mind,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, a longtime friend and ally who was in close touch with Trump after the shooting and joined him that night in New Jersey after he was treated at a Pennsylvania hospital. “He’s still a rough and tumble guy, you know. He hasn’t become a Zen Buddhist. But I think he is, I’ll say this, more appreciative. He’s more attentive to his friends,” he said, pointing to Trump sending him a message on his birthday earlier this week.

Graham added: “It’s just a miracle he’s not dead. He definitely was a man who believed he had a second lease on life.”

Constant reminders

While many who survive traumatic events try to block them from memory, Trump has instead surrounded himself with memorabilia commemorating one of the darkest episodes in modern political history. He’s decorated the White House and his golf clubs with art pieces depicting the moment after the shooting when he stood up, thrust his fist dramatically in the air and chanted, “Fight, fight, fight!”

A painting of the scene now hangs prominently in the foyer of the White House State Floor near the staircase to the president’s residence. Earlier this year, he began displaying a bronze sculpture of the tableau in the Oval Office on a side table next to the Resolute Desk.

And while he said in his speech at the Republican convention that he would only talk about what had happened once, he often shares the story of how he turned his head at just the right moment to show off his “all-time favorite chart in history” of southern border crossings that he credits for saving his life.

During a press conference in the White House briefing room last month, he acknowledged lingering physical effects from the shooting.

“I get that throbbing feeling every once in a while,” he said, gesturing to his ear. “But you know what, that’s OK. This is a dangerous business. What I do is a dangerous business.”

Trump will spend Sunday’s anniversary attending the FIFA Club World Cup soccer final in East Rutherford, New Jersey.

Crediting divine intervention

Trump’s chief of staff, Susie Wiles, who as his then-campaign chief was with him at the rally, said in a podcast interview released last week that Trump walked away from the shooting believing he had been spared for a reason.

“I would say I think he believes that he was saved. I do. And he would never — even if he thought it before, I don’t think he would have admitted it. And he will now,” she told “Pod Force One.”

She, too credited divine intervention. The chart, she noted, “was always the last chart in the rotation. And it was always on the other side. So to have him ask for that chart eight minutes in, and to have it come on the side that is opposite, caused him to look in a different direction and lift his head just a little because it was higher. And that just doesn’t happen because it happened. It happened because, I believe, God wanted him to live.”

As a result, she said, when Trump says things that “are perfunctory — every president says ‘God bless America’ — well, it’s more profound with him now, and it’s more personal.”

She also credited the attack with helping change public perceptions of Trump during the campaign.

“For the American public to see a person who was such a fighter as he was that day, I think, as awful and tragic as it might have been, it turned out to be something that showed people his character. And that’s helpful,” she said.

“You know, I have an obligation to do a good job, I feel, because I was really saved,” Trump told Fox News Friday. “I owe a lot. And I think — I hope — the reason I was saved was to save our country.”

Roger Stone, a longtime friend and informal adviser, noted that Trump has had other brushes with death, including a last-minute decision not to board a helicopter to Atlantic City that crashed in 1989 and another near-assassination two months after Butler when U.S. Secret Service agents spotted a man pointing a rifle through the fence near where Trump was golfing.

Stone said he’s found the president “to be more serene and more determined after the attempt on his life” in Butler.

“He told me directly that he believed he was spared by God for the purpose of restoring the nation to greatness, and that he believes deeply that he is protected now by the Lord,” he said.

Ralph Reed, chairman of the Faith and Freedom Coalition, agreed.

“I think for people who know the president, it is commonly believed that it changed him. I mean, how could it not? Imagine if you were who he was and if you don’t turn your head at that instant,” he said. “He knew he was lucky to be alive.”

Given how close Trump came to a very different outcome, Reed said, “it’s hard not to feel on some level that the hand of providence protected him for some greater purpose. And there are people that I’ve talked to who said they were confident that he would win for that reason. That there must have been a reason.”

___

Associated Press writer Nicole Winfield in Rome contributed to this report.

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College football scores, live updates: Week 2 schedule features Texas, Illinois, Iowa State in action early

Published

1 hour ago

September 6, 2025

Cameron Salerno

Week 2 of the 2025 college football season begins Saturday with a handful of intriguing matchups in the early window, and the main event — which happens to be the only ranked-on-ranked game of the entire weekend — coming later in the day.

After losing its season-opener to Ohio State on the road, Arch Manning and No. 7 Texas will look to bounce back in a showdown against San Jose State. In the same window, College Football Playoff hopeful No. 11 Illinois travels to Durham, North Carolina, to face Duke. And if you like rivalry games, this window has that, too, as No. 16 Iowa State hosts Iowa with the Cy-Hawk Trophy on the line.

During the afternoon window, No. 6 Oregon faces Oklahoma State on CBS at 3:30 p.m. ET. No. 8 Clemson is coming off a loss to LSU and will look to record its first win of the season against Troy.

The top game on this weekend’s slate is a matchup between No. 15 Michigan and No. 18 Oklahoma in the evening window. The Sooners are coming off a blowout win over Illinois State, while Michigan quarterback Bryce Underwood led his team to a victory over New Mexico.

CBS Sports will be here every step of the way to update you with the latest scores, highlights and storylines throughout the evening. All times Eastern

College football scores, schedule: Week 2

No. 11 Illinois at Duke — ESPN — GameTracker
Iowa at No. 16 Iowa State — Fox — GameTracker
San Jose State at No. 7 Texas — ABC — GameTracker
Oklahoma State at No. 6 Oregon — 3:30 p.m. on CBS — Expert picks, preview
Grambling at No. 1 Ohio State — 3:30 p.m. on Big Ten Network
No. 20 Ole Miss at Kentucky — 3:30 p.m. on ABC — Expert picks, preview
South Florida at Florida — 4:15 p.m. on SEC Network
Bethune-Cookman at No. 5 Miami — 7 p.m. on ESPN+
No. 12 Arizona State at Mississippi State — 7:30 p.m. on ESPN2
Louisiana Tech at No. 3 LSU — 7:30 p.m. on ESPN+
No. 15 Michigan at No. 18 Oklahoma — 7:30 p.m. on ABC — Expert picks, preview
Check out the entire Week 2 scoreboard

Check these out …

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What The Critics Are Saying — TIFF

Published

3 hours ago

September 6, 2025

Glenn Garner

Sydney Sweeney‘s latest performance in the David Michôd-helmed boxing biopic Christy has premiered at the 50th Toronto International Film Festival to mixed reviews.

The 2x Emmy nominee stars as boxer Christy Martin, who never imagined life beyond her small-town roots in West Virginia—until she discovered a knack for knocking people out. Fueled by grit, raw determination, and an unshakable desire to win, she charges into the world of boxing under the guidance of her trainer and manager-turned-husband, Jim (Ben Foster). But while Christy flaunts a fiery persona in the ring, her toughest battles unfold outside it, as she confronts family, identity, and a relationship that just might become life-or-death.

While some critics have praised Sweeney for disappearing into the role of the professional boxer, others say that’s all the movie has going for it.

Deadline’s Pete Hammond said Christy is an “overlong (at 135 minutes), somewhat repetitive and finally, in the third act, excruciating-to-watch movie,” although he admitted, “Sweeney delivers, and then some, putting her all into this sometimes extremely dark tale, and really does show she has the acting chops to pull it off, as if we didn’t already know.”

“If only the movie didn’t feel like we have seen this before because Martin’s personal story … is worthy of it being told to as many people as possible,” adds Hammond. “Let’s hope Christy, despite its flaws, gets an audience for that reason alone.”

‘Christy’

Black Bear

In IndieWire‘s review, Kate Erbland wrote that Sweeney “disappears into the role, not just changing her hair color, eye color, accent, and way of moving, but her general air, her overall mien, the space she takes up in a room.”

The New York Post‘s Johnny Oleksinski called Sweeney “a knockout” in her performance, adding that the film is “a major step to showing there’s much more to her than rom and com.”

Meanwhile, Nick Schager wrote for The Daily Beast that Sweeney “gives a believable performance that almost transcends her role’s derivativeness. This manipulative hybrid of Rocky, Million Dollar Baby, and Monster, however, is so rote that even an A.I. wouldn’t dare try to pass it off as original.”

TheWrap‘s Chase Hutchinson wrote, “It succeeds about half the time, making for a split decision where Sweeney and Christy both emerge as champions while the film itself can’t quite go the distance.”

For The Guardian, Benjamin Lee concluded, “Christy Martin’s life was filled with devastating blows but in her biopic, we barely feel the impact.”

Producers are Kerry Kohansky-Roberts, Teddy Schwarzman, Brent Stiefel, Justin Lothrop, Michôd and Sweeney, and the movie premieres Nov. 7 in theaters via Black Bear.

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Don’t expect AI Siri to debut at Sept. 9 Apple event

Published

4 hours ago

September 6, 2025

Christian de Looper

Google I/O 2025. Samsung Galaxy Unpacked. Made By Google. All these big launch events had one thing in common — new artificial intelligence tools were the headline act.

Now, Apple has announced its next big event will take place on Tuesday, Sept. 9. Will we finally see the newer, smarter, AI-er Siri? Unfortunately, probably not. We, along with the rest of the tech world, would be shocked if it did.

It’s no secret — Apple Intelligence isn’t quite what we expected it to be, and the pressure is on Apple to add new AI-focused features to its products. That’s not to say that there aren’t some Apple Intelligence features that come in handy, but the long-awaited AI version of Siri has yet to make it to the public.

Apple’s next big event is set to be huge, and we’ll get a number of awesome new Apple devices that iPhone fans will love. So, why isn’t the AI-powered Siri ready for its primetime moment?

That’s the billion-dollar question.

Hardware versus software

Apple’s release cadence usually takes the following form: in June, Apple holds its Worldwide Developers Conference, which is its major software event for the year, and where it shows off the big new software features that will ship to customers in September. This year, Apple revealed iOS 26, and we’re eagerly awaiting the iOS 26 release date. On Sept. 9, Apple is set to debut devices, with the new iPhone being the headliner.

However, recent hardware launches from Google and Samsung have focused heavily on new AI tools.

Credit: Apple

Apple has a rocky history with AI features, especially after the company failed to ship many of the promised Apple Intelligence features that it announced at WWDC 2024. Since then, reports in the New York Times and Bloomberg have revealed that Apple is struggling to rebuild Siri with generative AI capabilities, and that the company has fallen far behind rivals like Google and OpenAI in the AI arms race.

In the meantime, Apple has turned to OpenAI and ChatGPT to power some Siri features. A recent report from Bloomberg suggests that Apple is also in talks with Anthropic and Google to help power new Apple Intelligence and Siri features. But according to all reports, AI Siri still isn’t done cooking.

Mashable Light Speed

Regardless, most of these reports point toward Apple making early business decisions, not readying a new Siri for the iPhone 17 launch. In fact, Apple forecasters don’t expect to see the revamped Siri until at least 2026 – potentially around the time of WWDC 2026.

Apple Intelligence rumors

We do expect Apple to show off plenty of new AI toys at the Apple Event 2025, and there are plenty of Apple Intelligence rumors going around.

Technically, it’s still possible that Apple will surprise everyone and announce the new, revamped Siri. But in all likelihood, we expect to hear about iterative improvements to existing Apple Intelligence features.

a screenshot of a menu in iOS 26 offering ChatGPT access

Credit: Apple

Notably, Apple confirmed to 9to5Mac that it plans on supporting Siri using OpenAI’s new GPT-5 large language model. This builds on existing features, though. You can already sign into your OpenAI account on your iPhone and have Siri direct certain questions to ChatGPT as needed.

Other Apple Intelligence announcements should include improved real-time language translation on AirPods and iPhones, new photo editing tools, and more advanced Genmoji options. Some of these features were already teased during WWDC 2025 and should arrive with iOS 26.

What’s coming in iOS 26?

Rumors aside, there are plenty of AI-based features that we know for a fact are coming in iOS 26, which we do expect to be released alongside the iPhone 17. We know this because Apple has announced them already. The beta version of iOS 26 has been available since June, after Apple announced all of the new operating systems at WWDC 2025.

So what new AI features are there? For starters, there’s a new feature in Visual Intelligence that allows users to ask questions about screenshots in addition to what your camera sees.

A screenshot of Apple iOS 26 analyszing an image of a ring on the palm of a hand, using a new Visual Intelligence search service

Credit: Christian de Looper

There are also new live translation features built into Messages, FaceTime, and the Phone app, which use AI to provide real-time translations in communication. And there are some features that work a little more in the background, like AI-powered reminder suggestions, order tracking within Apple Wallet that uses information from emails in your inbox, and more.

Yes, Apple will probably focus heavily on other changes to iOS, like the new Liquid Glass design language, rather than on AI-based features, but that doesn’t mean that AI won’t be a big part of the new release.

The future of Apple Intelligence

It’s very clear that Apple is indeed still working on building the all-new generative AI Siri. We’ve seen plenty of reports highlighting executive team changes at the company meant to speed up AI development. But these kinds of developments take time, and most experts think the company will finally ship major new AI features in 2026.

Disclosure: Ziff Davis, Mashable’s parent company, in April filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights in training and operating its AI systems.

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