By Peter Baker
Shortly after former President Donald Trump publicly disparaged immigrants with fabricated narratives about Haitian migrants consuming pets on national television, threats emerged concerning bombings at schools, City Hall, and other civic structures, instigating evacuations and a surge of anxiety.
Subsequently, officials reported that an individual who labeled himself as a disgruntled ex-Trump supporter arrived at the former president’s golf course in Florida armed with a semiautomatic weapon, presumably aiming to make an attack. His efforts were only interrupted when a vigilant Secret Service agent noticed him and fired first.
Thus unfolds the narrative of 2024. In under a week, the once and potentially future leader was both an apparent motivator and a visible target of the escalating political violence reshaping modern American politics. Bomb threats and assassination attempts have now woven themselves into the national fabric, shocking and horrifying yet not sufficiently to instigate a genuine national reflection.
“One of my greatest concerns at this moment is the normalization of political violence within our political system. It’s on the rise,” stated Rep. Jason Crow, D-Colo., a member of a bipartisan task force probing the July 13 assassination attempt against Trump, in an interview. “This is the second such attack in two months, illustrating how widespread this issue has become.”
President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris both released statements denouncing the latest episode, yet the campaign momentum remained unbroken. Merely four hours post-Trump’s hasty relocation in a motorcade for his safety, his finance team dispatched a fundraising email featuring a clickable donation button. “My resolve has only strengthened after yet another attempt on my life!” Trump declared in the email. Harris continued with her fundraising efforts as well.
Trump, who just the previous week during a debate with Harris assigned blame to Democrats for the shooting at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, which had drawn his attention in July, attributed Sunday’s attempt directly to the president and vice president as well, contending that the apprehended individual acted in reaction to their political criticisms.
“He was influenced by the rhetoric of Biden and Harris, and he took action based on it,” Trump told Fox News on Monday. “Their words are inciting attacks against me, while I am the one poised to rescue the nation, and they are the ones dismantling it — from both the inside and out.”
While lamenting that the Democrats had rendered him a target by labeling him a threat to democracy, he reiterated his claim that “these individuals aim to ruin our country” and referred to them as “the enemy from within.”
Billionaire social media mogul Elon Musk, one of Trump’s most vocal supporters, ignited controversy with a comment stating, “And no one is even attempting to assassinate Biden/Kamala.”
He later removed the post, framing it as a joke, but the White House responded critically. “Violence should only be denounced, never promoted or joked about,” expressed Andrew Bates, a White House spokesperson. “This rhetoric is reckless.”
American history has experienced episodes of political violence. Four sitting presidents have been assassinated, and another endured serious injury from a shooting. A former president was also shot and survived, and numerous others residing in the White House have faced threats. However, two assassination attempts on a former president within a mere two months are notable, particularly during a heated election period where he is a frontrunner for his previous role.
The closest comparison may be when President Gerald Ford was targeted by gunfire twice within a span of just over two weeks in 1975, emerging unscathed both times. More chillingly, attempts on Trump’s life may evoke memories of 1968, when Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy were assassinated two months apart. Those tragic events unfolded during an era of heightened violence on American streets, amidst growing societal fractures, a concern echoed by many leaders today.
At the core of the current surge in political violence is Trump, a figure who seems to incite individuals to issue threats or undertake actions, both in support of him and against him. He has long employed violent rhetoric in his political speech, motivating followers to assault dissenters, threatening looters and unauthorized migrants with gunfire, mocking a nearly fatal attack on the spouse of the Democratic House speaker, and suggesting the execution of a general he deemed disloyal.
While Trump claims that his incendiary address to supporters on Jan. 6, 2021, did not incite the Capitol riots, he ignored entreaties from advisors and even his daughter that day to intervene further. He even implied that the mob was justified in wanting to hang his vice president and has since embraced those attackers as patriots he might pardon if he regains the presidency.
Trump fails to pause and consider the repercussions of his own statements. Just last week, following his unfounded claims about migrants consuming pets during his debate with Harris, bomb threats wreaked havoc in Springfield, Ohio, and he took no steps to dissuade such actions.
When queried by a reporter if he denounced the bomb threats, he hesitated. “I’m not sure what transpired with the bomb threats,” he remarked. “I understand that it’s been overtaken by illegal migrants, and that’s a terrible scenario that occurred.”
At times, Trump’s detractors have employed violent language too, although not with the same frequency or intensity at the highest levels. The former president’s supporters circulated a video montage online featuring various Trump critics expressing desires to physically confront him. Some extreme voices on social media in recent days have downplayed or ridiculed the close call at the Florida golf course. Trump’s supporters frequently decry what they term Trump Derangement Syndrome, the idea that his critics loathe him to the extent of losing their sanity.
Anger has been a defining force in Trump’s political journey — both the animosity he incites among supporters against his adversaries and the fury that he evokes in opponents who come to detest him. Predictions that he might reassess his approach after narrowly avoiding death in Butler were short-lived. By the midpoint of his acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention five days later, he had reverted to his usual self.
But it reflects the extent to which political violence has become ingrained in contemporary American culture — not necessarily accepted, perhaps, but increasingly anticipated — that the latest episode may not yield a greater impact than the first. The shock from the Butler shooting dissipated relatively swiftly as focus shifted to other events. The shock from this latest incident may not endure any longer.
