This past weekend, the world’s news headlines undoubtedly pointed to one thing – former U.S. President Donald Trump was assassinated while speaking at a Pennsylvania rally, because he had his head turned away from his body, and the bullet only grazed his right ear, causing only minor injuries and not killing him. The incident was broadcast on television, and in less than 30 minutes, the news spread around the globe and was brought to the world’s attention. Major current and former U.S. government leaders expressed their condolences to Trump and condemned the murder. President Joe Biden, in addition to condemning political violence, called for unity. World leaders also expressed their condolences, with Australian Prime Minister Albanese speaking out immediately after the assassination, saying that political violence is not tolerated in a democratic society. The attempted assassination undoubtedly shook the world.
The Minute That Changed American Politics
On the evening of July 13, Donald Trump began his campaign in Pennsylvania. At 6:10 p.m. local time, gunshots rang out and a 20-year-old gunman, Thomas Matthew Crooks, attempted a stabbing attack. Trump covered his right ear and lowered himself for cover. After 1 minute and 20 seconds, Trump walked out, covered by agents and bleeding from his right ear. As agents took control of the situation and began to move Trump from the stage to a safe place, Trump deliberately stopped, waved his fist at the crowd, and shouted in what appeared to be a battle-ready gesture, “Fight! Fight! Fight!Fight!” The crowd roared and responded with the chants of “USA! USA!USA!” The incident left two people dead, including the gunman, and two others injured.
The one-minute video, along with a photo published by Associated Press reporter Evan Vucci of Trump’s bloodied face and raised right arm after being wounded, quickly went viral and has become an “iconic image” of the election. Evan Vucci photographed Trump’s right ear bleeding on his face, but Trump didn’t feel the slightest sense of being knocked down, and this picture is believed to have made a lot of Americans believe that they should put their vote in his hand in November, so that not only can he become the President of the United States again, but also ask him to bring the United States to a new level. He will not only be the President of the United States again, but he will also be asked to make the United States “great” again.
The Shooting Changed the Election
In national polls before the shooting, Trump’s approval rating was between 45 and 49 percent, about 1 to 2 points ahead of Biden. 1981 Gallup poll after then-President Reagan was shot: his approval rating rose from about 60 percent to about 68 percent. When a prominent political figure survives a shooting, it’s likely to generate a wave of sympathy and support. But with polling day still four months away, the question of whether the sympathy effect of the shootings can be sustained is one of the variables. Trump’s support may be up for a while, but whether it lasts through November depends on the Democratic campaign, or on more challenging events around the world. But if nothing else, Trump’s surging approval ratings could send him back to the White House without a doubt.
As U.S. authorities continued to investigate the shooting of former President Donald Trump, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) said it had classified the case as an act of terrorism and attempted assassination on U.S. soil, and said the gunman, Crooks, who had been killed, was a lone wolf and was not a matter of public safety, although his motives for the crime remain unclear. During this presidential election cycle, Trump has toned down his election rhetoric and style, as was clear during the recent televised debates of the presidential candidates. He has also distanced himself from his election platform and from the literature that some Republicans have planned for him. Even so, Trump’s opposition to gun bans and other mainstream Republican values will not change, even if the next bullet in the road is waiting for him. In the Republican National Convention currently underway, Trump and Vance have been formally nominated by the Republican Party as candidates for president and vice president of the United States.
The Democratic Party is clearly subdued
In a nationally televised address the day after the shooting, President Biden reiterated that there is “no room for political violence” in the U.S., called on all parties to resolve their differences through the ballot box, and urged caution about the details of the shooting investigation. For their part, the top Democrats made no mention of partisan politics in their statement, limiting their comments to expressions of outrage at the shooting, relief that Trump survived, and general concern about political violence in the United States. The attempted assassination will be a plus for Trump’s campaign, and as such casts an even bigger shadow over the prospects for the Democratic Party race for presidency.
Since the first round of presidential candidate debates on June 27, more and more Democratic lawmakers, sponsors and supporters have openly called on Biden to drop out of the race because of his poor performance in spelling, slurring and confusing logic. These days, Biden has tried to dispel doubts by holding press conferences, giving interviews, and making aggressive appearances at NATO summits, but he made more mistakes, referring to Ukrainian President Zelensky as Vladimir Putin and shouting down U.S. Vice President Harris as Trump. In a recent interview with NBC, Biden responded to the question of whether or not he would withdraw from the race by saying that he would run “1,000 percent” and that he would continue to run “unless I get hit by a train,” while emphasizing that he would have no problem with his age or mental condition. Biden said he would debate Trump again in September and that he would behave differently then.
It’s not clear how this next debate will play out, except that the weekend’s gunfire is certainly urging the Democrats to continue to adjust their candidacy strategy. The core of the Democratic Party needs to react aggressively and defensively to the reversal of public opinion and the flow of sympathy toward Trump, not openly rejoicing in his assassination, but also continuing to criticize Trump’s negative and conservative advocacy of “making America great again. This balance is a great test of the wisdom of the current White House leadership. Currently, Biden’s team has postponed its campaign and pulled back its TV and signage campaign attacking Trump, giving Biden breathing room amidst the wave of withdrawals. Meanwhile, the Trump shooting has calmed some of the heat on Biden. After all, this is a time when it would be unwise to change leaders at a time when we need a leader who will call on USA to unite rather than remain divided. Furthermore, who will be willing to step forward at this moment to challenge the powerful Trump in a very short period of time?
A single bullet decides the direction of the country?
President Biden said in his subsequent television address that the elections in the United States cannot be decided by one man’s bullet, but by the votes in the hands of the people. This is absolutely true. The spirit of democracy is to let the will of the majority of the people determine the direction of the country. But the reality of history is that a single bullet can literally change history.
The first U.S. president to be assassinated was President Abraham Lincoln, who was re-elected in 1865, and who had intended to lead Americans into reconciliation after the Civil War, but was unable to do so. The 35th President of the United States, John Kennedy, died in 1963 in Dallas, Texas, the last U.S. President to be assassinated, and was succeeded by Johnson. President Reagan was also assassinated, but he did not die, but his administration was strengthened. Since then, there has been no threat to the safety of the US presidents. It can be said that a single bullet can change a person’s fate, but it is rarely a major turning point in USA politics.
Among the Chinese, this is not necessarily the case. In Taiwan’s presidential election, Chen Shui-bian of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) was the underdog in his bid for reelection, but because he was shot at the day before the election, he got a higher-than-expected percentage of the vote, and he was reelected. This result had been challenged by rivals Lien Chan and James Soong, who have said that Chen Shui-bian’s campaign was a stunt of his own. However, the shooting of Donald Trump, who was ahead of his rival Joe Biden, was so dangerous that Trump could have been killed at any time, and no one questioned it as a political act.
Crazy World
Campaigning is supposed to be about putting your best foot forward and convincing voters that you’re better than your opponent, but it can easily become a target for attacking your opponent, which in turn divides the country. Radicals who cannot accept a democratic system will often choose to use their own power to change the outcome, which is in fact a manifestation of undemocratic behavior. After the assassination of Donald Trump, both Republicans and Democrats called on Americans to unite, a slap in the face to the politics of attacking one’s opponents. But with four months to go, it’s too soon to tell if that will change.
With the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee this week, Trump’s supporters are more energized than ever that he has taken a bullet for the American people, and on July 15, a federal judge in Florida threw out a criminal case accusing Trump of “mishandling classified documents,” claiming that federal law didn’t authorize Special Counsel Smith to prosecute, which is a big victory for Trump, who is seeking to win. This is a big win for Trump, who is looking for a win, but not so optimistic for Democrats. Since Pennsylvania is a key swing state in the U.S. election, many believe that this incident will be beneficial to Trump’s electoral fortunes, allowing him to attract more support and sympathy votes from middle-of-the-road voters as a “survivor”. However, some analysts say that neither Trump nor Biden have seen much change in their polls over the past few months, and despite Biden’s poor performance in his first televised debate, there has not been a significant drop in the polls. The election is bound to have a lot of uncertainties before it is finalized, and the outcome is hard to predict.
The attempted assassination of Donald Trump has sent chills down the spine of Western democracies, reminding us all of how dangerous and manic political polarization can be – it relentlessly pushes people into entrenched camps and magnifies divisions between people who are supposed to share a common identity. In the current political climate, this incident not only represents a dramatic escalation of the U.S. election, but also serves as a wake-up call to democracies around the world that “divisiveness” inevitably leads to violence. The U.S. is currently facing the largest and longest-running political violence since the 1970s. Since Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, there have been 14 fatal political attacks in which the perpetrators or suspects had a clear partisan affiliation, 13 of which were committed by right-wing attackers and one by a left-wing. As for political assassinations, although the last attempt to assassinate the President of the United States took place more than 40 years ago, the political history of the United States is replete with assassination attempts, some of which were successful, and all of which were carried out with firearms.
It’s hard to predict whether Trump will encounter new dangers on the road to candidacy in the future. The chaos surrounding the candidates may leave the American public with a sense of unbridgeable partisan gaps and a sense of doubt and uncertainty about the country’s future. The assassination attempt confirms to voters that there is something fundamentally wrong with the United States, once the world’s beacon of democracy, and that this idea may become a seed that will play an undeniable role in the run-up to the all-important vote.