Donald Trump Lives

Is Assassination What We Have Become?

Someone has tried to assassinate former President Donald Trump.

Someone got damn close to succeeding, as apparently at least one round grazed Trump’s ear.

Donald Trump lives.

Trump fell to the ground, seemingly injured, after the first pop of loud bangs. Screams could be heard coming from the onlookers as security personnel surrounded the former president and led him away from the lectern. Trump appeared to be yelling toward the crowd and could be seen pumping his fist as he was whisked away.

The Secret Service said in a statement that Trump is “safe” and that the incident is being investigated.

As of the latest update, at least two others were injured. One rally attendee was killed.

According to the Trump campaign, Trump is “fine”.

Donald Trump’s spokesperson Steven Cheung said the former president “is fine.” 

“President Trump thanks law enforcement and first responders for their quick action during this heinous act. He is fine and is being checked out at a local medical facility. More details will follow,” Cheung said in a statement.

Pennsylvania’s Democratic governor Josh Shapiro swiftly condemned the violence.

"Violence targeted at any political party or political leader is absolutely unacceptable," Pennsylvania Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro said in a statement. "It has no place in Pennsylvania or the United States."

Thank heaven for that. At least our politics have not become so deranged as one party is prepared to excuse violence and assassination attempts against the other.

It is possible the shooter was in turn shot by Secret Service. (This has been confirmed.)

As of this writing, that is pretty much the sum total of what is known. The facts will change over the next 24 hours. Such is the nature of breaking news stories.

Yet we already know that this incident is only making Donald Trump that much more electable. A few of the people I follow here on Substack who have not been at all complimentary of The Donald in the past have declared their support for his candidacy.

We also know that this puts Democrats in an uncomfortable position. Someone tried to kill their main political adversary. Predictably (and thankfully), leading Democrats have lost no time in condemning the attack.

Even Eric Swalwell, one of the more obnoxious Democrats leading the “impeach Trump” efforts during Trump’s Presidency, condemned the attack.

However, there will be those among Trump’s supporters who will blame the Democrats, either proposing that the Democrats in fact hired an assassin to take Trump out (highly unlikely) or that their campaign rhetoric radicalized someone and inspired them to try to kill Trump.

There is already a Twitter/X poll calling for Biden’s resignation over the incident.

As of this writing, about 93% of the votes cast in that poll are calling for Biden to resign as a result of this attack.

We do not know if the Democratic Party, or Joe Biden’s re--election campaign, or the Biden family, are behind the attack. Without good evidence, we should not presume that any or all of these players are involved.

We may fairly presume that our politics are very quickly spiraling out of control, reaching levels of political violence we have not seen in decades. This recalls the worst moments of 1968, when Robert F. Kennedy was felled by an assassin’s bullet.

All violence is detestable, but political violence is particularly obnoxious. When violence becomes the modality of debate there can be no true debate, no exchange of ideas, no refinement of policies to produce hopefully good government.

Donald Trump survived this assassination attempt.

Can our politics survive this descent into political madness? Frankly, I am becoming scared of the answer.