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July 14, 2024 - 9:00am
In a nation once capable of rallying around its leaders in times of crisis, Saturday’s assassination attempt on Donald Trump has instead laid bare the depths of America’s political divide. The incident, which left the former president with a bullet-grazed ear, has become the latest flashpoint in the country’s ongoing culture war — a far cry from the days when such grave events inspired bipartisan solidarity.
Trump, displaying his characteristic improvisatory bravado, pumped his fist as he was escorted from the stage during a campaign rally just north of the key Rust Belt city of Pittsburgh. He later took to Truth Social to describe the ordeal in vivid detail: “I was shot with a bullet that pierced the upper part of my right ear. I knew immediately that something was wrong in that I heard a whizzing sound, shots, and immediately felt the bullet ripping through the skin. Much bleeding took place, so I realized then what was happening. GOD BLESS AMERICA!”
The attempted assassination has predictably ignited a firestorm of polarised reactions online. Many liberals rushed to label it a hoax or an overblown event, while other Right-wing voices claimed the now-dead shooter was a patsy, referencing Tucker Carlson’s earlier predictions of political assassinations. The former Fox News host had claimed in September 2023 that the United States was “speeding towards” Trump’s assassination; perhaps to hammer home the point, he shared a photo of a defiant Trump immediately after the event.
X and Tesla kingpin Elon Musk seized the moment to express support for Trump — something he refrained from doing in 2020. “I fully endorse President Trump and hope for his rapid recovery,” Musk tweeted, garnering millions of views within hours. He then doubled down by speculating that the Secret Service was guilty of “extreme incompetence or it was deliberate”.
On the other side, in a rare moment of bipartisanship, President Joe Biden promised to suspend all Trump campaign ads for the time being. Biden’s campaign released a statement saying: “There’s no place for this kind of violence in America. We must unite as one nation to condemn it.” The President also announced plans to call Trump personally to check on his wellbeing.
The stark contrast between today’s polarised responses and the national consensus following the attempted assassination of President Ronald Reagan in 1981 highlights the deep divisions in contemporary America. Yet, in different ways, Biden and Trump demonstrated throwback resolve in their responses, showcasing a necessary degree of resilience among the nation’s leadership in the midst of such up-to-the-minute, instant-reaction turmoil.
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SubscribeTo answer the question posed by the headline: Trump wins.
Bold prediction. The Dems will no longer even attempt to dump Biden. They’ll let him go down with the sinking ship. All talk of getting a new candidate will disappear into the mist.
Yep, I think so too. No point in sinking another candidate now.
My thoughts exactly. Why would you put up a potential 2028 candidate that you think could in then?
It would be essentially sending your best player out to commit suicide.
I agree, too.
The photo of Trump with the flag raising his fist, surrounded by the agents, wins him the election.
Totally!
Shades of Iwo Jima.
Agents of the security service which he spent deriding!
Yes that was my thought too. Who would want to get into a race that is going to be a landslide defeat? Let the old man take the fall.
No it won’t.
We will find out very soon. No one will be jumping for joy to replace Biden and possibly ruin their chances for 2028.
My guess is that if before Trump was going for an easy win, now he is going to sweep the board FDR style.
You mean REAGAN style, with the goal of cleaning up the disaster from FDR et al.
I may be mistaken, but I think fdr had the handsomest victory of all (up until now, that is), but I am ready to be corrected.
Roosevelt (1936) had the most lopsided electoral vote but lost two states. Reagan (1984) only lost one state as did Nixon in 1972.
Thanks.
delete
WTF is this? Unherd’s first article on the attempted assassination – a smarmy equivocation talking about the dangers of polarization from the left and the right. Trump’s bleeding ear? The bullet was inches from killing him.
Look, there is plenty of awful stuff said on the right, much of it from Trump himself. But it is dwarfed by the bile and filth that comes from the left. The entire Dem campaign is based on hating Trump, that he’s the next Hit!er and a threat to democracy. This unhinged rhetoric is fully endorsed and amplified by the regime media, academia and cultural leaders. But if goes beyond Trump. Everyone who supports him is some knuckle dragging moron, hateful rac!st.
Less than two weeks ago, BBC presenter David Aaronovitch said this on Twitter; “If I was Biden I’d hurry up and have Trump murdered on the basis that he is a threat to America’s security.”
He hasn’t been fired. He hasn’t been suspended. Bear in mind, this is the same BBC that fired Dan Wooten for saying he wouldn’t shag some leftist journalist.
I hope this assassination attempt sparks some soul searching on both sides of the aisle. But let’s not pretend there is an equal footing here. The left owns the institutions and the most consequential hate is coming from the institutions.
I’m no Trump supporter but there’s one particular photo from the incident (we all know which one) that immediately made me think “Raising the Flag at Iwo Jima”. Surely he can’t lose now?
Make a note of the names of people claiming the attempted assassination was a put up job to generate more support. They are the ones who have put the go-faster stripes on the conspiracy wagon.
Love him or hate him, you have to admit, it’s a hell of a photo.
Evan Vucci
That was my first thought, too. Also reminded me of the picture of the flag in the rubble after 9/11.
The left have been fantasising and stoking this assassination attempt for almost a decade now.
They can’t contain their disappointment that it only grazed his ear. The tone of their commentary is clear enough.
Will Republican and Conservative lawyers have the guts to indict high profile celebrities and politicians who have either blatantly or tacitly called for Trump’s assassination?
Starting with Joy Reid and Rachel Maddie.
Could they please start with Alex Soros?
Trump has called for the death of Mike Pence and others – where was the indignation then?
Joe agrees with you and echoes your sentiments with:
“God save the Queen, man”
“All men and women created by — you know, you know, the thing.”
‘Since the founding of our ideals we don’t know fully what American soil is,’
My dear uncle, a WWII hero, was eaten up by those greedy gluttons in Papua New Guinea.
I was the first black woman to serve as VP under a black President.
And my dearest son, Beau, died in Iraq.
And I got a football scholarship in 1960’s to the Naval Academy.
I marched in Selma, AL
And now I present to you the President of Ukraine, Mr. Putin.
And I met with Golda Meir in 1979.
And just recently I met with Helmut Kohl and Francois Mitterrand to discuss the war in Ukraine.
Or it is just a desperate attempt to bolster Trump’s support.
That is so not true, and this was not a political act. The shooter actually killed a man in the audience. It was unimportant to him who he shot, he was just another disenfranchised, geeky white male wanting to blame others for his failures. He could just as easily shot up a school or a shooting mall. There was no motive.
This may or may not be true, but Trump was the intended victim.
“It was unimportant to him who he shot”
There is word for sentences like this..scum.
I can’t help feeling that if it was an insider Democratic job, they’d chose a different target.
“… [Trump] displaying his characteristic improvisatory bravado …”
What a disgusting line. The man had just been shot and survived an assassination attempt seconds earlier. No time for improvisition/. This is appalling journalism.
Note to editors.
.
Please re-read texts carefully at least once before publishing. Anyone can write something stupid, and your job is to keep the authors from looking too stupid.
But now you have given us the opportunity to call the author a complete asshole. I don’t think he’s a complete asshole, but this phrase of his gives me the opportunity to enjoy the moment and call him a complete asshole.
Understand, the problem is that such a situation does not make me a better person and does not make the author smarter person.
“…Opportunity to enjoy” calling the author an asshole? Really? “Please re-read comments carefully, at least once, before hitting send”.
Maybe you should look into getting a hobby, other than slagging strangers.
Your use of language certainly doesn’t make you appear at all smart. Attacking the other person rather than what they say reveals more about you than you might imagine.
“ improvisatory bravado ” is precisely correct, it’s more commonly called bravery under pressure. See Washington, George.
Here I’m not sure, that you are right. Read this:
.
Trump’s team is no doubt already devising campaign marketing materials to showcase his admirable resilience — perhaps a bandaged ear will become his new signature look, replacing the distinctive coiffure.
.
Of course, they will do this, but it’s not a right time to say this if you do not suffer from TDS.
It was my first thought – and clearly Trump’s first thought too; his one-pointed weaponisation of the moment was clear for all to see. If that’s a disgusting thought, that’s how the man has set us all up.
Insane comment. After just being shot and piled on my he concocts a plan? No. He reacted and showed his strong defiant character. Fight!
Yes, Trump must have known for years that this was coming. Brave man – for all his many faults.
“Brave” why brave? By that definition, one could say Biden is also brave because, apart from Reagan, all assassinations and attempts are from the right.
Apart from the assault on Rand Paul. Or Justice Kavanaugh. Or Steve Scalise
I’ve just made the same point-his reaction is extraordinary an dspeaks volumes for his courage.
Here we go! A martyr in the making. What did he do that was courageous?
Not everyone struck a conciliatory tone, however. J.D. Vance, a former Trump rival turned possible VP candidate, blamed the incident on Biden’s rhetoric: “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.”
.
Well, actually he’s absolutely right. 8 years of hysterical rhetoric have consequences
This writer cannot even bear to speculate that the attempted murder will carry Donald Trump to the White House – if another hit does not succeed.
Fack Unherd effing censors.
Let me put this another, more gentle way than my original comment censored by Unherd. The tone of this essay is completely inappropriate for the magnitude of the event.
I completely agree. This is an enormous moment and I think only liberals with blinders on are trying to downplay the significance of this.
The event revealed Trumps heroic character and also revealed the depraved characters of those responding with dismissiveness
I’m surprised you’ve left out all the people on the left that actually lamented that the shooter missed. Or the fact that 6 House Dems put forth a bill just earlier this year to strip Trump of his secret service protection. One of those reps, Bennie Thompson, had an aide tweet out their disappointment that the shooter missed. I don’t understand how you can not point out the very lopsided nature of the political violence and violent rhetoric. Biden tweeted out very recently that we need to “move on from the debate and put a bullseye on Trump”. That tweet is now deleted, If the roles were reversed, would we ever hear the end of it? News headlines are going with the angle of, “yes assassination attempts are bad, but does Trump have any responsibility for this happening?” Please at least attempt to be honest about what is going on here. The gaslighting from the mainstream media is bad enough
Yea, it’s sickening that this author laments the very conditions that yields a paycheck for him.
“The gaslighting from the mainstream media is bad enough”
Unfortunately, UnHerd, or increasingly, Herd, is just another example of an outlet that thinks the status-quo is synonymous with ‘centrism’.
If this outlet existed in the Soviet Union, it would be saturated with Soviet talking points in its attempts to appeal to the ‘centre’.
As for the mainstream media, these are organs of propaganda, currently controlled by the ‘left’.
In other words, they are leftists organs of propaganda. Expecting them to act differently will drive you mad.
Is Trump not the person who campaigned tirelessly and spent money advocating te execution of five innocent children? Perhaps it is just ‘karma’.
Sources, son.
I didn’t know Biden tweeted.
“ it’s clear that the days of coming together in the face of violence are long gone” from the leftists. Conservatives have been much more tolerant and respectful. F the both-sides isms.
‘Trump, displaying his characteristic improvisatory bravado, …..’
Advice to Presidential candidates…..
What do I do if I get shot? – My advice is to just improvise something.
Is the author for real?
I agree that the rhetoric on both sides has been harsh but the rhetoric on the left has just been beyond the pail.
What did they expect when they have spent all this time calling Trump a new Hitler or saying that gays and journalists would disappear if he was elected?
What did they think would happen when they stood up and screeched that this was potentially the last election we would have?
I get it, they are trying to pump people up to support a candidate they know is really weak and who is on the wrong side politically of too many issues to win, but they should have known and maybe some of them did know that this would be the result.
From Biden to Pelosi to Rachel Maddow and Joe Scarborough to Maureen Dowd, the left has been engaging in histrionics for 8 yrs. They have been driving fear and anger, building rage, to get attention, clicks, views, and donations.
But, if Trump was not already going to win, I think it is pretty safe to say he will now. That photo of him standing and fist pumping in front of an American flag with a bloody ear is gonna be the defining photo of this election.
But, if I am being totally honest, part of me wonders if this was not allowed to happen or even set up by powerful interests, the same ones that pushed the lawfare that has failed to stop him. How is it that that roof was not secured? It was the perfect perch. And, the shooter is dead so he cannot tell his story. Hate that that is even in the back of my head but it is.
It’s beyond the pale not beyond the pail. And here we go with consiracy theories. So predictable.
I used to feel a tad guilty about supporting Trump. Well that’s over.
Top comment. I felt the same thing. And I bet millions of other closet supporters did as well.
Same here! I live in one of the most liberal communities in the southwest, and most of my friends are Bernie supporters. I can’t tell anyone i support Trump and might even (gulp) vote for him….. until now. Trump’s incredible bravery and resilience is an inspiration!
Oh pleeze! What did he do that was brave?
I’ve gone from not voting for him in 2016 to grudgingly supporting him in 2020 to now hoping for an utter shellacking of the Democrats this year.
Just goes to show it’s the best thing that could have happened to him, unfortunately.
I found this bit to be telling.
“blamed the incident on Biden’s rhetoric: “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.”
Without any evidence it would be foolish to claim a direct link here but the point is valid. Disagreement over political philosophies has always lead to argument – sometimes very heated – but that has escalated in recent years. Opposing political views are not just wrong or misguided, they are evidence of moral failing on those that hold them. They must be stopped.
The legal witch hunts launched against Canada’s trucker protesters (“people who hold dangerous and unacceptable views”) and the Jan 6 rioters (“the day we almost lost America”) are typical of governments that make no secret of their disdain and disregard for people and views they don’t like. It’s no surprise that the citizenry would keep their own list of political untermenschen.
As to the main question: Yes – I think Trump is almost a lock in November.
This is the day Trump wins the election. His martyr status now assured.
Unfortunately, you’re probably right. However, I don’t think the shooting was a political act. I think the shooter was yet another disenfranchised, geeky, white male blaming others for his woes. It could just as easily have been a school or a shopping mall if it hadn’t been Trump and those in the crowd. Trump was just a high-profile trophy that could bring more infamy to yet another loner.
“Not everyone struck a conciliatory tone, however. J.D. Vance, a former Trump rival turned possible VP candidate, blamed the incident on Biden’s rhetoric: …”
Indeed, he did. Here was Biden on July 8 as reported by CNN: “We’re done talking about the debate. It’s time to put Trump in the bull’s-eye… We can’t go another day, another day, without explaining what he’s doing, and we have to go after him.”
https://edition.cnn.com/2024/07/08/politics/democrats-donors-biden-election
This is just one of the few of the last week’s installments in assassination porn or assassination-adjacent whining.
Please stop excusing it, Oliver. You spent the Trump presidency complaining about Bad Orange Man. Maybe you should redirect your energies to British politics.
Sir, thank you for this, but your description of President Trump’s reaction as “characteristic improvisatory bravado” misses the mark. What we saw last night was courage and providential leadership. This is a providential Nation, and We the People have faith in it. Cynicism like that quoted phrase is shallow, jaded, and small. You are certainly a fine writer on the whole, and I look forward to continuing my paying support of UnHerd. Thank you.
I can’t understand any American whose response to this event is not distress and sadness, nor the rush among commentors to make it the subject of more partisan bickering and finger-pointing.
Can we not all just take a minute to reflect that this nation — our nation — remains a place where political assassination and violence are real possibilities in large part because both parties, in policy and rhetoric, actively foment polarization? A minute?
Thank you. My first reaction yesterday when I heard about it was “ Oh Lord, not this!” And praying for cooler heads and hearts on both sides.
I think though that at this moment in our history, the lion’s share of unhinged rhetoric AND behavior (2020 summer riots) is coming from one side, and that side is not represented by MSNBC, CNN, the DNC, etc. Or by BLM and Antifa.
My bad, I meant to say that the unhinged rhetoric IS primarily coming from the side that has MSNBC, the DNC, etc. on their side. Typing too fast.
Some examples, please.
Trump, displaying his characteristic improvisatory bravado, pumped his fist as he was escorted from the stage
Not sure “bravado” is the adjective I’d choose.A bullets just missed his brain by inches -I’d call that unadulterated bravery.
What’s brave about it?
You have whined this retort several times now. Tell us why you think it wasn’t brave.
Hear! Hear!
Of course the Democrats had to pull all their campaign advertising. It mostly consists of portraying Trump as a tyrant in waiting, a Hitleresque figure who is an existential threat to democracy.
Ending the life of tyrant with violence is a reasonable political act. The Democrats know that Trump is no such thing. And so they find their entire campaign strategy shot to bits. They have no fallback position to organise around. The election is over. Trump is the next president.
Not if I have anything to do with it.
You don’t.
Please go away
Bateman soft soaps much of the Left’s increasingly incendiary rhetoric. How about The New Republic’s cover this week of Trump as Hitler? How about Biden telling donors in a phone call that they need to “put a bullseye on Trump?” How about the unhinged predictions about death camps, death squads, and gays being disappeared if he’s elected?
At some point, Oliver Bateman and others on the Left need to look in the mirror, and engage in some serious reality testing.
I’m not sure how to explain one aspect of my reaction to the Trump assassination attempt. The best I can say is Trump has some sort of special life force.
In the 2020 campaign he caught covid, the original alpha strain that was the most virulent. He was quite ill according to reports and spent several days in hospital. Then within a couple of weeks he reappeared looking somewhat haggard but otherwise fine, and he went back to campaigning. He was an overweight guy well into his seventies–at high risk from covid–but he shrugged it off. Meanwhile, Biden hid in his basement.
Now Trump avoided being killed or seriously injured by the narrowest margin. Another commenter said the bullet missed Trump by an inch. I suspect it was less than that. He couldn’t have come closer to death, but it didn’t happen. And his spontaneous reaction was a defiant wave.
Love him or hate him but this man embodies the life force, energy, drive. Those are the fundamental characteristics of America, not the modern Democrat phenomenon of relentless complaint, victimhood and self-pity.
“resident Joe Biden promised to suspend all Trump campaign ads for the time being”. Why would Joe Biden be running Trump campaign ads?
Wishful thinking by Joe’s handlers?
Mr Trump was very, very lucky. A graze from a high velocity bullet is usually very serious. The damage is not confined to the physical passage of the bullet, a shock wave propagates into adjacent tissues.
He’s even more lucky that he turned his head towards the shooter. If one of those rounds had hit in the temple we’d be having a much different conversation, and the Republicans would be without a presumptive nominee.
The Dems, some of whom are truly sick human beings, have been calling Donald Trump ‘Hitler’ for years and a pimple-faced piece of filth took their words seriously. I have no words to express my loathing and disgust for these people. May God show His justice in this world, as it is done in Heaven ……