Trump shooting will test US like never before
The horrific gun attack on Donald Trump is a moment that will go down in history and reshape the US election, Tom Minear writes.
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It is a moment that will go down in history. The kind of moment that you will remember where you were when it happened.
Secret Service agents surround Donald Trump and try to rush him off the stage at a campaign rally as gunshots ring out.
But the 78-year-old tells them to wait. He stands up, blood running from his ear. He turns to the cameras broadcasting the rally, pumps his fist and yells at his supporters: “Fight, fight!”
The photos of this split second are instantly iconic. The former president, having just escaped an assassination attempt, is somehow immediately defiant rather than terrified.
Another few centimetres and you would be reading his obituary. Instead, as his son Donald Jr said amid the pandemonium that followed: “He’ll never stop fighting to save America.”
It goes without saying that this moment will fundamentally reshape this year’s US election. Perhaps it is the moment that guarantees Trump’s victory. But if the events of the past year have taught us anything, it is that nothing is certain in this campaign except chaos.
The Republican has been charged with four sets of crimes and convicted in the first trial of a president in history. Nevertheless, he has already held a clear lead over US President Joe Biden, who has been desperately fighting off an internal push for him to drop out of the race.
The pair deeply dislike each other and most Americans don’t like them both. The country is angry, frustrated, divided – and that was before a gunman opened fire on Trump.
The week ahead was supposed to be Trump’s coronation as the Republican nominee at his party’s convention in Milwaukee. That will still go ahead – although all sorts of questions will be asked of the Secret Service and America’s law enforcement agencies.
They acted incredibly quickly and bravely to protect the former president on the stage in Pennsylvania. But how did they fail to stop the shooter?
Maybe, just maybe, this is the moment America thinks twice about its gun laws. Then again, given the swift outpouring of rage from Republicans who claimed Democrats stoked the violence, it seems more likely the country will again focus on the motive rather than method.
For all the bipartisan condemnations of the attack, the fear will be of violent reprisals. All that can be said for sure is that the days and months ahead will test the US like never before.
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