Cartilage was not necessarily damaged. I have had squamous cells removed from my upper ear area.

[dameatball]

The incision bleeds like hell but heals up pretty quickly. If the victim happens to be on some type of blood thinner the bleeding would be even more profuse initially. I actually have a flattened area above my right ear where the skin and meager tissue was cut out but the cartilage was not removed. They just tightened everything up around the cartilage and sewed it up.

In the video. Trump did make a swat at his ear prior to being tackled. I don't think that was staged as his reaction times are not that good to have been scripted. Hell, the dumbass would probably have grabbed the wrong ear if it was staged.