Trump gave a shout-out to the female Secret Service agent who “bravely” shielded him during the assassination attempt, saying she “wanted to take a bullet.” This was in response to critics who suggested she was too small to protect the 6-foot-3 former president effectively.

Trump praised the female agent at a rally in St. Cloud, Minnesota, on Saturday, commending her actions during the July 13th incident.

“Great bravery was displayed by everyone involved. “There wasn’t one who was slow,” Trump told the crowd. There was a woman to my right who was shielding me. She’s a lovely person. “She was protecting me with everything she had.”

The former president said: “The media criticized her because she wasn’t tall enough. She was condemned, but she was so brave.

“She was there for me through everything. “She wanted to take a bullet,” he added as the crowd cheered.

The female agent received harsh online commentary from many on social media, including tech mogul Elon Musk, who noted that she seemed too short to effectively shield the former president.

“Having a short person as body cover for a tall man is like wearing an undersized Speedo at the beach – it doesn’t cover the subject,” Musk wrote.

He added, “It could be a man or a woman, to be clear. The important thing is that it’s large enough to do the job.”

Video footage from the rally shows the female agent and other male Secret Service agents huddled around Trump.

She was also seen after the shooting helping people into a nearby car after the gunman, Thomas Matthew Crooks, opened fire on the crowd at the rally.

Crooks, 20, opened fire with an AR-style semi-automatic rifle, hitting the former president in the ear and killing a rally attendee before he was shot dead by a Secret Service sniper.

The authorities haven’t yet said what motivated the attack, which has caused a lot of anger on both sides of the political spectrum at the Secret Service for not protecting the former president better.