DUP MP Sammy Wilson has said that presidential candidate Donald Trump showed the “spirit of no surrender” when he raised a defiant fist after an assassination attempt.
The former US president Donald Trump was the victim of an attempt on his life while speaking at a rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday.
The East Antrim MP, whose constituency office was recently shot at, said the attack will “only strengthen” Mr Trump’s campaign.
Speaking to the Belfast Telegraph, Mr Wilson said: “When he walked off the stage raising his fist after nearly getting shot it was sort of like him having a Northern Ireland attitude saying ‘No Surrender’!
“It was very traumatic, a bullet missing his head by millimetres, a few inches to the left and he would be dead, but he is still resilient.”
In the run up to the general election, the DUP MP’s constituency office in Carrickfergus was shot at with ball bearings causing damage to windows and doors.
“In Northern Ireland we are well aware of how terrorists use weaponry and arms to do damage,” said Mr Wilson.
“We had 40 years of the IRA targeting politicians, and sometimes even their own members, so I think we know a lot about political terrorism.
“I think this will only strengthen Trump’s resolve to become president again and will engender a lot of sympathy for him.”
Political leaders across Ireland have spoken out against the attempted assassination attempt against Donald Trump, branding the attack “heinous” and a “sickening effort to disrupt democracy”.
The former US President was shot in the ear and was rushed off stage by secret service agents as he pumped his fist in the air.
One attendee was killed and two spectators were critically injured in the attack.
The FBI later identified the gunman as 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, of Bethel Parks, Pennsylvania. After shooting at the stage from the top of an adjacent building, secret service agents shot him dead.
