The shooting was definitely real. The furthest down this conspiracy rabbit hole that I'm willing to go is entertaining the idea that the bloodied ear could have possibly resulted from colliding with SS hip mounted service weapon when he was "tackled" for cover.

That said, no one needs to tell the conspiracy prone MAGA base any of this. He's spent at least the last decade and a half curating and exploiting the most conspiracy prone (nicest language I can use) people in this country into his following. He deserves worse than this bed he made.