Trump got shot but Biden will take the political hit

Smeared in blood and with his fist raised defiantly in the air, these powerful images can put Donald Trump back in the White House, writes Samantha Maiden.

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His fist raised defiantly in the air and his face smeared with his own blood, is this is the photograph that will put Donald Trump back in the White House?

In the seconds after the sound of gunfire rang out at a Trump rally in Pennsylvania, the 78-year-old former US President can be seen wearing a red baseball cap, his hand flying towards his neck.

The crowd can be heard screaming in terror.

Trump ducks down and secret service agents fly towards him and cover him and shots continue to ring out.

But it’s what happened next which will be remembered when the history of this moment is written.

A defiant Donald Trump raises his fist in the air as Secret Service agents surround the Republican presidential candidate, Picture: JEFF SWENSEN / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA

“Wait, wait, wait,’’ the Republican nominee tells the security team shielding around him including a female secret service protecting him.

He raises his fist in the air prompting cheers from the crowd. It’s an extraordinary image that will define this campaign forever.

“Fight! Fight! Fight!,’’ he can be heard saying to supporters as blood runs down his face.

Just four months out from the presidential election, this shocking assassination attempt will naturally dominate the campaign.

The comparison of that historic image with the mess of the Democrats campaign and concerns about US President Joe Biden’s health and fitness for office is inevitable.

For the Albanese Government it mean confronting the reality that Trump will likely win the election and what that means for the Ukraine – Trump has said he wants to end the war but hasn’t explained how that will happen – and whatever his approach will be to AUKUS.

Just hours after the incident former president Donald Trump confirmed he was shot in the ear in a post on social media site Truth Social. It followed earlier reports he was hit by glass fragments.

“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,’’ he said.

“Much bleeding took place, so I realised then what was happening.”

He thanked the Secret Service and law enforcement and extended his condolences to the family of the rally attendee who died.

Trump confirmed he was shot in the ear in a post on his social media site Truth Social. Picture: Rebecca DROKE / AFP

“I want to thank the United States Secret Service, and all of Law Enforcement, for their rapid response on the shooting that just took place in Butler, Pennsylvania,” Trump wrote

“Most importantly, I want to extend my condolences to the family of the person at the Rally who was killed, and also to the family of another person that was badly injured. It is incredible that such an act can take place in our country.”

But his supporters were quick to blame US President Joe Biden for the attempt to kill the former President, proving US politics is a more take no prisoners affair than Australia.

They pointed out that only five days earlier, Biden was heard in a campaign meeting saying, “it’s time to put Trump in a bullseye”.

Assassination attempts and plots on the President of the United States have been a disturbing feature of US politics from the 19th century to the 2020s.

On January 30, 1835, Andrew Jackson was the first president to experience an assassination attempt when Richard Lawrence twice tried to shoot him in the East Portico of the Capitol after Jackson left a funeral. Both attempts failed.

Four sitting presidents have been killed: Abraham Lincoln (1865, by John Wilkes Booth), James A. Garfield (1881, by Charles J. Guiteau), William McKinley (1901, by Leon Czolgosz), and John F. Kennedy (1963, by Lee Harvey Oswald).

Three presidents have been injured in attempted assassinations: former president Theodore Roosevelt (1912, by John Schrank), Ronald Reagan (1981, by John Hinckley Jr.) and now Donald Trump (2024).

Former US President John F. Kennedy with First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy in Dallas just before his assassination in 1963.

The shooter was killed by a Secret Service assault team.

About two and a half hours after the shooting, President Biden addressed the nation and called the assassination attempt on his Republican opponent “sick.”

“Look, there’s no place in America for this kind of violence. It’s sick. It’s sick. It’s one of the reasons why we have to unite this country,” Biden said.

“We cannot allow for this to be happening. We cannot be like this. We cannot condone this.”

But there is little doubt it could mark the end of Biden’s political career.

It is the moment that ensures, if it wasn’t already inevitable, that Donald Trump returns to the White House.

Trump got shot. But it’s the US President Joe Biden who took the political hit.