What the Attempted Assassination of Donald Trump Means

“You too?” Photo courtesy of National Archives, unrestricted use.

The assassination attempt of former president Donald Trump captured the world’s attention this weekend. Not since the attempted assassination of President Ronald Reagan in 1981 has such an event happened on American soil. In a murky blend of goodwill and image maintenance, the target’s allies and rivals were quick to wish him well. President Biden condemned the attack and urged us to join him. “There’s no place in America for this kind of violence,” Biden told the press. 

Nonviolent rhetoric is only important when someone important gets hurt. Otherwise it’s the stuff of hippies and liberals. Biden’s statement, echoed by Secretary of State Antony Blinken, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Vice President Kamala Harris, is ill-advised as it is revealing. When a politician says such violence doesn’t belong in America, it’s easy to finish their sentence. Rather, it belongs in places like Gaza, Baghdad, Aleppo—anywhere but here.

“[Violence] like this is just unheard of, is just not appropriate,” said President Biden. “Everybody must condemn it. Everybody.” The president was unclear about whether the many Palestinians his munitions have bombed count, too.

State of the nation

Assassination, whether attempted or successful, is a marker of what a country most hates about itself. When John Wilkes Booth assassinated President Lincoln in 1865, he did it in the name of a defeated Confederate South. Although Lee Harvey Oswald never got to say why he shot JFK, it did follow Oswald’s defection to Russia and the Cuban Missile Crisis. Only John Hinckley Jr.’s attempted assassination of Ronald Reagan seems to have been personally motivated. 

What does Donald Trump’s attempted assassination say about America right now? It says we’re a febrile nation sick with disease, and while you might agree, your diagnosis may differ. I believe our imperialism functions like a virus. It infects, mutates, goes dormant, reactivates. Pretending America is not a host for acts of extreme violence flies in the face of our history. It’s doubtful the United States would exist without it. As the body is a place of proliferation, America has always been a place for violence. 

That’s why Biden’s call for order isn’t just hypocrisy, it’s dangerous, for what is order in a country perpetually at war? The illusion of America as the home of justice and prosperity is not innocent. Such hot air can balloon patriotism into a jingoist, global superiority complex. It blows the same safety bubble nineteen terrorists tried to burst on September 11, 2001. 

Here is where that leaves us, as reported by CNN’s Stephen Collinson: “Saturday’s shocking developments added another volatile political element to a wild and unpredictable election year that has recently seen Biden – the oldest president in history – fighting to save his nomination after a disastrous debate performance and the conviction of Trump, 78, by a New York jury and his vows to wage a second term of ‘retribution’ if he’s reelected.”

Apathy in bloom

The caustic response to Saturday’s events indicates a population grown sick of its bullshit. Whether the shooter despised Trump or loved Biden so much, he wanted to ensure his presidency, we’ll reap the consequences. Assassination is, pardon the understatement, a risky move. Successful ones can spur revolution. This failed assassination stinks of accelerationism. 

While the motive behind Donald Trump’s attempted assassination remains under debate, some are calling Saturday’s shooting staged. After being grazed on his right ear, the former president emerged slightly bloodied and suspiciously photogenic. Most believe the assassination attempt was a genuine threat to Trump’s life. When shots rang out across the Pennsylvania fairgrounds, Secret Service members dove for President Trump and killed the suspect. If Saturday’s spectacle is a hoax, then two innocent people died in the process. 

According to the BBC, one eyewitness claims to have seen the shooter set up. 

“I’m thinking to myself, ‘Why is Trump still speaking? Why have they not pulled him off the stage?’ I’m standing there pointing at him for two, three minutes, Secret Service is looking at us from the top of the barn, I’m pointing at that roof, just standing there like this, and next thing you know, five shots ring out.”

This weekend’s assassination attempt on former president and current candidate Donald Trump is, inarguably, history in the making. He’s shaping up to be our era’s Reagan, despicable as he is assailable, sticky with celebrity charm. Maybe Trump’s would-be murder was political, maybe it wasn’t. The truth lies dead with the recently identified 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks of Bethel, Pennsylvania. Surprisingly, Reagan’s close call was not political, and John Hinckley Jr. wasn’t responsible this time.

It remains unclear whether Saturdays’s events impressed actress Jodie Foster; the two-time Academy Award winner could not be reached for comment.