It has happened again. Another calm, sunny weekend. Another lone gunman with a rifle. An apparent attempt to assassinate Donald Trump. And with 50 days until the presidential election, the country has entered uncharted territory.
On Sunday, a Secret Service agent opened fire after spotting a man with a rifle near Trump’s golf club in West Palm Beach, Florida, while the Republican nominee was playing. The suspect fled in an SUV and was later arrested by local police.
In the bushes, the FBI found two backpacks, an AK-47-style gun with a scope and a GoPro camera, suggesting there was a plan to kill Trump on his own golf course and film it for the world to see.
The incident was the latest shocking moment in a campaign year marked by unprecedented turmoil, violence and civil unrest. It came nine weeks after an assassination attempt on Trump at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, that left a supporter dead with a bullet grazed his ear. The former president’s bloody, defiant response to his supporters’ urging to “fight!” led headlines to ask: “Did Donald Trump win the election?”
But a week later, Joe Biden dropped out of the race and was quickly replaced by Kamala Harris. The assassination attempt disappeared from the frenetic news cycle and was only mentioned briefly during Tuesday’s debate. “We’re seven weeks away and it’s as if nothing happened. It’s been pushed further down the memory hole than George Orwell ever imagined,” former Trump aide Sebastian Gorka complained at a recent Moms for Liberty conference.
Certainly, what happened in Pennsylvania that day should be remembered not for partisan reasons or as evidence that Trump is divinely protected, but for the fact it has brought to light once again: that a country with a long history of political violence is preparing for what has been called a “powder keg election.”
Danger and instability have become features, not flaws, of American political life. White supremacist demonstrations in Charlottesville, Virginia, led to the death of a civil rights activist. A mob of angry Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband, Paul, was attacked with a hammer in his home. Countless threats of violence against lawmakers and judges.
The new documentary “The Last Republican” features some ominous voicemails left for Rep. Adam Kinzinger, a Trump critic who served on the House January 6th Committee. One reads: “You little shits. Liz Cheney’s wife? Two little shits sucking little shits. We’re getting you. We’re coming to your house, son. Hahahaha!”
As the election approaches, tensions are only rising. In Springfield, Ohio, false accusations that Haitian immigrants were eating neighborhood cats and dogs led to bomb threats and school closures. Just like at the Trump rally nine weeks ago, innocent people are becoming collateral damage in reckless propaganda.
The normalization of violence crosses partisan lines. In 2017, a man with anti-Republican views opened fire during practice for a congressional baseball game, wounding five people, including House Majority Whip Steve Scalise. A University of Chicago poll conducted in late June found that more American adults support violence against Trump (10%) than violence in support of Trump (6.9%).
But only one of the two major parties is actively adding fuel to the fire. Trump has encouraged tough action against protesters at rallies. He mocked Pelosi’s hammer attack. He has called for the shooting of shoplifters and the execution of disloyal generals for treason. He has warned of “bloodbaths” if he is not elected, and claimed that illegal aliens in the US are “staining our blood.”
This is enough to make any concerned citizen feel anxious about the upcoming election and what will happen next in a country with more guns than people. Convicted and with more cases looming, Trump is fighting tooth and nail to stay out of prison. He has refused to concede his 2020 defeat, refused to promise to accept the results in 2024, and has promised to impose “lengthy prison sentences” on anyone who engages in “immoral acts.”
With Republicans focused on “election integrity” efforts, poll workers could face intolerable levels of violence and intimidation. With polling suggesting the election will be dangerously close, there is ample room to sow doubt, likely fueled by Elon Musk’s social media platform X.
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As the Axios website recently noted, “Extreme polarization, election denial, political violence, historic prosecutions and rampant disinformation have created a perfect storm for years, ensuring chaos will descend on us in November.”
A Reuters/Ipsos poll in May found that more than two in three Americans were concerned about extremist violence after the election, and former White House official Patrick Gaspard told reporters at Bloomberg in Chicago last month that the U.S. could see “multiple Jan. 6-like incidents” at state capitols if Harris wins the Electoral College by a narrow margin.
Biden and Harris rightly condemned both assassination attempts and said they were glad that Trump was safe. Even Trump’s harshest critics should not condone such actions. But it is also an inescapable fact that Trump has, like a one-man Chernobyl, poisoned the political atmosphere and created a structure that tolerates violence.
His response to Sunday’s close call? Emails and text messages declaring, “I will never stop fighting for you. I will never surrender!” and pleading for funds from his supporters.
