Trump called the Secret Service agent who protected him at the rally “very brave”

Former President Donald Trump has come to the defense of the Secret Service agent who protected him during a recent assassination attempt. At a rally in St. Cloud, Minnesota, on Saturday, the president called her “brave,” amid criticism that she was too short to effectively protect him.

“There was a woman to my right protecting me. A beautiful person. She was protecting me with everything she could,” Trump told the crowd. “There was a woman to my right protecting me. A beautiful person. She was protecting me with everything she could.”

The former president also addressed criticism the agent had received on social media, including comments from tech mogul Elon Musk, who suggested the agent appeared too short to effectively protect the former president.

“She was criticized for the fake news because she wasn’t tall enough. She was criticized and she was very brave,” Trump said. “She was protecting me with everything. She wanted to take a bullet,” Trump said of Musk’s comments.

A video taken during the rally shows the female agent and other male Secret Service agents tightly gathered around Trump. The woman was also photographed after the assassination attempt helping Trump into a nearby car.

The shooter, identified as Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, was shot dead by Secret Service officers after firing several shots, one of which grazed the former president’s ear, while another killed a Trump rally attendee in Butler, Pennsylvania, identified as Corey Comperatore, 50.

With information from the New York Post