But how could Trump's ear regrow?
Executive summary
The dramatic claim that Donald Trump’s ear “regrew” overnight after the July 13, 2024 assassination attempt is a piece of viral misinformation: multiple fact‑checks establish the screenshot and the purported social‑media self‑report are fabricated, and contemporaneous medical accounts describe a superficial wound that later healed rather than a re‑grown auricle [1] [2] [3]. Independent observers and a plastic‑surgery commentary reported a well‑healed ear without evidence of miraculous tissue regeneration [4] [5].
1. What the claim actually said and how it spread
The viral image showed an alleged social‑media post in which Trump supposedly wrote that the bullet “took my entire ear off” and that “the next day, my ear was growing back,” a quote reshared widely across platforms and flagged by Meta’s misinformation filters; that screenshot circulated as literal reportage rather than satire, generating confusion [1] [2] [3].
2. What independent fact‑checking found
PolitiFact, Snopes and related checks concluded the circulating screenshot was not an authentic post from Trump’s accounts and that investigators found no credible social‑media trace of the quoted message; the campaign instead released a medical letter saying the wound struck the top of his right ear and narrowly missed entering the head [1] [2] [3].
3. How doctors and observers described the injury and recovery
The campaign’s medical note, signed by Rep. Ronny Jackson, described a gunshot wound that “struck the top of his right ear” and came “less than a quarter of an inch from entering his head,” while a plastic‑surgery review and a reporter who inspected the ear later described a small, healed contour change and “no evidence” of wholesale auricular loss requiring reattachment—consistent with healing of a superficial laceration rather than biological regrowth [2] [3] [4] [5].
4. Why images and claims claiming instantaneous regrowth were misleading
Photographs purporting to show an unchanged ear were often misdated or taken before the July 2024 shooting, and fact‑checkers demonstrated that images used to argue there had been “nothing wrong” were from earlier events; concurrently, supporters turned the injury into visual political theatre—bandages at the RNC and mock bandages among delegates—amplifying mixed messaging and making it easier for fabricated posts to take hold [6] [7] [8].
5. On the question “But how could an ear regrow?” — what reporting can and cannot say
The reporting in these sources supplies no credible medical evidence that human auricular tissue spontaneously regenerates in the manner described by the viral screenshot; rather, official and expert commentary documents a limited wound that healed over time and fact‑checkers flag the regrowth anecdote as fabricated. These sources do not, however, provide an exhaustive medical treatise on human regenerative biology, so they do not claim to categorically rule out every hypothetical experimental or rare medical circumstance beyond the documented facts of this case [1] [2] [3] [4].
6. Bottom line
There is no substantiated account that Trump’s ear “regrew” overnight; the narrative rests on a fabricated social‑media image and misused photographs, while medical statements and expert observation describe a relatively small injury that subsequently healed without reported reconstructive surgery [1] [2] [3] [4] [5].