Understanding the assassination attempt on Trump

It was inevitable that the failed assassination attempt aimed at former American President Donald Trump would result in a great deal of introspection. At the time of the attack, on July 13, Trump was a couple of days from being nominated as the candidate of the Republican Party for the presidential poll of November 2024. Political violence is not rare in the United States. Abraham Lincoln in 1865 was the first American president to be killed while in office. Less than 40 years later, two more would be slain. Theodore Roosevelt, who became president after an assassination, was himself shot while campaigning to be restored to the office. That was in 1912. A gunman apparently aiming for President-elect Franklin D Roosevelt wounded and killed the mayor of Chicago in 1933. Gunmen attempted to kill Harry S Truman during his presidency and, a few years later, President John F Kennedy was killed in Dallas as he was travelling with his wife in an open-roof limousine. The shot was fired from a building along the route. A Commission was appointed to determine the reasons behind the Kennedy killing. After long deliberations, it determined that the assassin operated alone and was not a part of conspiracy.

Several questions were asked, and some were answered, as the circumstances surrounding the Trump attack were analysed by experts. The Washington Post, in its issue of July 15, published the reflections of seven of its columnists who looked at different aspects of the Trump incident. One commentator, Max Boot, recalled that after learning of Abraham Lincoln’s murder, future British prime minister Benjamin Disraeli remarked: “Assassination has never changed the history of the world.”

Those who commented on the incident and its likely consequences for the Americans covered a lot of ground. Was Thomas Mathew Crooks, the 20-year old youngster who managed to fire at the former president from the top of a building that was close to the site of a Trump rally, a troubled youth? The initial investigation did not reveal any known mental problem. He was a good student with an interest in Mathematics and seemed well-adjusted. Was the community in which he lived torn apart by the fissions that had developed in the American society? Again, that did not seem to be the case. Was there some foreign involvement in the incident? There were rumours that the Government of Iran had been plotting for a while to assassinate the American president. This was the case in particular after the American killed Iranian General Qasem Soleimani, the head of the Powerful Revolutionary Guard, but the agencies investigating the attack on Trump quickly concluded that Tehran was not involved. “As we have said many times, we have been tracking Iranian threats against former Trump officials for years, dating back to the last administration,” Adreienne Wilson, a spokeswoman for the National Security Council said in a statement. “These threats arise from Iran’s desire to seek revenge for the killing of Qasem Soleimani. We consider this a national and homeland security matter of the highest priority. However, she did not suggest any connection between the repeated threats from Iran and the attack on Trump. “The investigation of attempted assassination of former President Trump is active and ongoing,” she said. “At the time, law enforcement has reported and that their investigation has not identified ties between the shooter and any accomplice or co-conspirator, foreign or domestic.” Alejandro N Mayorkas, the secretary of homeland security, during a briefing given by him at the White House, hinted at a threat emanating from overseas. “The threat landscape is very dynamic, both domestically with the rise of domestic violent extremism,” he said, “and of course, we have seen the foreign threat environment increase as well.”

Iran, now under a new president who has promised to improve relations with the Western world, disputed reports of its involvement in plans to assassinate America’s top leadership. “These accusations are unsubstantiated and malicious,” Iran’s mission to the United Nations said in a statement. Tehran does not have a diplomatic presence in Washington. “From the perspective of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Trump is a criminal who must be prosecuted and punished in a court of law for ordering the assassination of General Soleimani. Iran has chosen the legal path to bring him to justice.”

Was the firing aimed at Trump a serious failure on the part of the Secret Service that was alerted to the fact that a person on the top of a roof adjacent to the site of the Trump gathering was acting strangely. It did not react; its agent killed the young man immediately after he had fired five bullets aimed at the former president.

That the American society was deeply pessimistic about its own future was shown by polls. According to Gallop, on the eve of the Covid pandemic in 2020, about 45 per cent of the Americans were satisfied with the way things were going. This was the highest percentage in 15 years. Now it is only 21 per cent. That gap alone explains why at the time of the attempt on his life, Trump seemed to be on his way to victory in November. The assassination attempt was helping the former president in another way. “Bullet’s graze is seen as a sign of God’s protection,” headlined a story by The New York Times on the front page of its issue on November 17. “I don’t see this as luck,” said the Reverend Nathaniel Thomas, a delegate to the Republican National Convention from the Washington area. “I see this as God’s protection.”

“Religious devotees of Trump don’t view him as an example of a morally flawed Old Testament hero, like Cyrus or David who were ordained by the heavens to lead profound missions of good versus evil. There were many who truly believe that that was indeed the case with Donald Trump. Something’s got to be at play,” said Michael Thompson, the Republican Chairman in Lee County, in the state of Florida while looking toward the sky as if to invoke the Heavens. “I don’t think the average person could withstand a tenth of what he has gone through. So yeah, I think he’s probably chosen at the right time in our country’s history.” The failed assassination attempt had strengthened Trump’s electoral support among the evangelicals in the American society.