hBlood draws red lines on his cheek. His cap has fallen off, his hair is disheveled, and his look betrays fear and confusion. Security guards surround him. ‘Go,’ they say, ‘go!’ But there is one thing Donald Trump never forgets: his audience. Even now. Amid the chaos, the former president stops. He addresses his thousands of listeners in Pennsylvania. There goes that clenched fist in the air. ‘Fight!’ Trump shouts. ‘Fight, fight, fight!’
The image is instantly iconic. And the image is complete. From that moment on, July 13, 2024 represents more than just the first shooting of an American president in nearly half a century. This is a political milestone.
“He just won the election,” Republican Congressman Derrick Van Orden responded Saturday night. “Fight, fight, fight,” shouts his colleague Tim Burchett. “That will be the new slogan.”
And he’s waiting. Just minutes after the bullet whistles past Trump’s head and through his ear, killing a supporter behind him and seriously wounding two others, Joe Biden steps into view. “The central message of the Biden campaign is that Donald Trump is an authoritarian fascist who must be stopped at all costs,” said Senator JD Vance, who is running for vice president. “This rhetoric led directly to the failed assassination of President Trump.”
Everything turned upside down
With one hundred and fifteen days to go until the US election, the attempted assassination of Donald Trump is throwing the country into turmoil. The narrative is forming, but the facts are lacking. Nothing is yet known about the motives of suspect Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, who was killed by Secret Service agents. Crooks was registered as a Republican but donated dollars to a progressive organisation. This year he was allowed to vote for the first time.
There is little evidence of restraint on the part of the right. The attack fits like a Lego block into the Republican campaign. They have spent months portraying their candidate, the first convicted ex-president, with three criminal proceedings underway and increasingly authoritarian plans, as a victim of political persecution. This time Trump was on the verge of becoming a martyr.
According to Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, Democrats are “responsible for every drop of blood shed.” Her colleague Mike Kelly, present at Saturday’s campaign rally: “We will not tolerate this attack from the left.” Or take the statement from Trump’s own son, Donald Jr.: “If the Democrats had their way, my father would be dead.”
Boomerang
Disarray within the Democrats has dominated the news in recent weeks. Joe Biden’s candidacy has been faltering in the polls for months. The left believes that the most important path to victory is to convince voters of the real danger that Donald Trump represents for American democracy. That path now risks being blocked.
Their own arguments turn against the Democrats. They are the ones who have been campaigning against political violence for years. They relentlessly rehash the assault on the Capitol on January 6, 2021 (right-wing protesters chanted “Hang Mike Pence!”) and warn daily about Trump’s “retaliation” rhetoric. And isn’t he the one who dehumanized his political opponents by calling them “vermin” and predicted a “massacre”?
But now the left is on the defensive. Democrats feel compelled to issue press releases condemning political violence. Statements from the past are now coming back like boomerangs.
“We’re done talking about debate,” Biden told donors last week. “Time to target Donald Trump.” Exhibit A, says Rep. Mike Collins. “Joe Biden gave the order,” the Republican writes in X. “Biden should be charged with inciting liquidation.”
Republican Convention
The four-day Republican convention, which begins Monday in Milwaukee, will be held under tight security. Trump will be formally nominated there as the candidate. Typically, such a convention is the last chance for party members to air their grievances about the political direction. And here they are. One-fifth of Republican voters voted for someone else during the primaries. But there will be no noticeable split in Milwaukee.
The landing of Trump’s private plane, dubbed Trump Force One, was broadcast live from the cockpit on Sunday afternoon by his son Eric. The former president will be welcomed as a martyr on Monday.
The photo of Trump – blood and fist – is indelibly etched into the American collective consciousness in one day. The first T-shirts with the print ‘Fight! Fight! Fight!’ are released. The manufacturer says that the proceeds will go “100 percent” to Trump’s campaign.
“The raised fist will become the iconic symbol of the convention,” predicts Republican campaign strategist Mike Murphy. On the tarmac in Milwaukee, Trump raised it again from the steps of the plane.
That’s the reality of a political attack in America in 2024. Trump is far from the first president to be shot at, but this has never happened before in the age of online media. No one understands this better than Donald Trump. Even when the bullets are flying.
