Hard Truths About the Attempted Assassination of Donald Trump

It is Almost Certainly a Prelude of Violence to Come

If we genuinely want to end the culture of political violence in America, we must begin by acknowledging that the target of Saturday’s attack in Pennsylvania is also one of the most dangerous advocates for such violence this country has ever seen.

In other words—and this is not a partisan statement it is an objective fact--Trump was not only the target of the shooting but he bears a substantial portion of the blame for it. Further, as if to demonstrate and amplify this, his first words following the shooting—"fight,fight,fight”—made it clear that not only is he neither innocent victim nor hero as some are already attempting to depict him but that he himself is a menace, as likely to foment violence in our future as he has been in our past.

Some immediately said this event would be a game changer in US politics. But what makes the event most shocking is that it changes nothing either in terms of the broader sweep of our history or with regard to the politics and perils of this moment.

Events like this shooting are commonplace in our history.  Not only have we witnessed four presidents assassinated and attempts on three other sitting or former presidents (including Trump), but we have also seen in our own times an almost endless list of political attacks: Martin Luther King, Robert F. Kennedy, Harvey Milk, Steve Scalise, the Oklahoma City bombing, multiple shootings and planned attacks by demented loners espousing or embracing the MAGA movement. The list is far too long. It is a scar in our history that does not heal and that the world sees as part of our national identity, one among the many pernicious manifestations of the national gun pathology that also marks us as an outlier among the countries of the civilized world.

But, even as we are tempted to simply write off the attack on Trump as the latest in a long tradition of such crimes, we will not be able to effectively address the roots of the problem of which Saturday’s attack is just a symptom if we do not accept a few additional hard truths.

The Darkest Sort of Irony

It is the darkest sort of irony that the intended target of the assassination attempt that was reportedly the work of a twenty-year old Pennsylvania man named Thomas Matthew Crooks is himself the instigator of the largest act of political violence in our modern history—the attempted coup on January 6, 2021. When Trump and his supporters abhor what happened to him, it is vital to call out their hypocrisy. After all, some among the crowd Trump roused that January day three and a half years ago went to Capitol Hill with murderous intent, their targets including Trump’s own Vice President Mike Pence and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi.  What is more, speaking of that hypocrisy, Trump himself mocked the victim of an even more recent act of bloody political violence, Paul Pelosi, husband of the former speaker.

Further, of course, we must not forget nor allow Trump and MAGAworld to downplay the fact that he and his allies are the primary champions of America’s out-of-control gun culture—the culture that led to laws that allowed a guy like crooks to publicly buy and carry a loaded semiautomatic rifle without any background checks. As gun control advocate Shannon Watts rightly pointed out after the shooting, “The 20 year old gunman in Pennsylvania wasn’t old enough to rent a car, but he was old enough to buy a semi-automatic rifle.

And of course, we all remember how many times in the past Trump and the others in the NRA corrupted Republican Party have dismissed calls for gun control measures the vast majority of Americans seek even as the terrible toll of violence against schools, against children, against police, against innocents throughout our society has continued to build year after year.

Using Government as a Tool of Political Violence

In addition, we also know that Trump and those closest to him have sought to use government as a violent tool against their political opponents and even peaceful protestors. Their plans for the future include deeply worrisome portents that more such government-sponsored political violence looms in our future.

Enumerating such indisputable and ugly facts might seem untoward in the immediate wake of a shooting that not only resulted in an inconsequential injury to the former president but in two deaths and the serious wounding of two others. But it resulted so quickly in implicit calls for further political violence or statements that could certainly be seen to be fomenting such violence that it would be irresponsible not to admit what perils the event might trigger, what existing tensions and tendencies it might amplify.

Not only was their the instantly reproduced image of Trump, fist raised, calling on his followers to fight. Nor was there just the chilling instant response of the crowd to the shooting, a chant of “USA, USA, USA” that implied that support for their slightly stricken leader a patriotic duty (despite his active support for America’s enemies, his stated desire to suspend the Constitution and his status as leader of a coup attempt against his own government.) There were also a torrent of statements from the leading voice of MAGA world that were inflammatory and chilling in their intent.

There was the president’s son, Donald Trump Jr., saying “He will never stop fighting to save America, no matter what the radical left throws at him” and thereby irresponsibly assigning blame for the shooting to political opponents.

There were commentators amplifying this reckless claim, like someone named Scott Jennings on CNN.

There were the words of Senator J.D. Vance, a man who aspires to be Trump’s vice president, saying “Today is not just some isolated incident. The central premise of the Biden campaign is that President Donald Trump is an authoritarian fascist who must be stopped at all costs. That rhetoric led directly to President Trump’s attempted assassination.” Another Trump acolyte, Senator Tim Scott also said the attempt was “aided and abetted by the radical Left and corporate media.” GOP Rep. Mike Collins of Georgia said “Joe Biden sent the orders. The Republican District Attorney in Butler County, Pa, should immediately file charges against Joe Biden for inciting an assassination.”

Violence and Fascism Go Hand in Hand

Never mind that Trump actually is an authoritarian fascist who must be stopped at all costs. Profound dangers lurk in the response of these Republicans. Not only can we expect more violence from a party that now hails as “heroes” those responsible for an assault on the Capitol that resulted in seven dead, scores of injuries and other forms of trauma and assaults against 140 police officers, but it is already clear from what we have heard that the GOP will try to intimidate the media and political opponents from describing Trump and those around him as they are. They will, as Vance did, say that calling a fascist a fascist is what incites political violence, thus clearing further the path for the ascent of Trump and other fascists. And just wait until next week when the GOP convention canonizes Trump, presents him as a hero who has risked death for them, and offers up imagery that would make Leni Riefenstahl wince with its heavy-handedness. You may view it—or if you can’t stomach watching it, you may hear about it--as merely political excess.

But it will be much more than that. It will be an event that uses fascist memes and techniques to promote a fascist candidate at the head of a fascist movement and, as if that were not repugnant and threatening enough, it will promote further the us versus them divided America mentality that has had some suggest this country were already in the throes of a low-grade civil conflict.

And so, while we condemn the shooting in Butler County and wish for the speedy recovery of all of its victims, we should also recognize the perils it may unleash and the actors, including notably Trump himself, who are responsible for them.