A second Trump assassination attempt feels almost normal. That is not OK

Washington: The latest apparent attempted assassination of Donald Trump is another chilling reminder of an election campaign marred by unprecedented disruption – and violence.

Nine weeks after the Republican candidate was almost killed when a gunman opened fire at a rally in Pennsylvania, the FBI is investigating what is believed to be another attempt on Trump’s life.

It is the second assassination attempt on Donald Trump in just over two months. Credit: Aresna Villanueva

The 78-year-old former president was on his golf course in Florida’s West Palm Beach when Secret Service personnel spotted a gun rifle poking out of the bushes a few hundred metres away.

Trump was unharmed, and the suspect, who has been identified as 58-year-old Ryan Wesley Routh, fled the scene but was eventually arrested.

In the aftermath of the incident, Vice President Kamala Harris declared that “violence has no place in America”. Her running mate, Tim Walz, insisted “it’s not who we are as a nation”.

Isn’t it?

America is an incredible country and a place I now consider my home. But throughout my term as a correspondent here, I’ve seen so many shocking forms of violence that another attempted assassination almost begins to feel normal – and that’s not OK.

Sometimes – albeit all too often – it takes the form of a mass shooting, like the carnage that occurred at a Georgia high school two weeks ago when a teenage gunman opened fire and killed two students and two teachers.

Sometimes it takes the form of political violence, like the time a far-right conspiracy theorist broke into the home of the then House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, and bludgeoned her husband with a hammer, hoping to take Pelosi hostage if she had been there at the time.

And sometimes it’s too close to home, like one unforgettable night in June 2022 when I walked out of my Washington apartment to see sections of my usually safe street smeared with blood and cordoned off with police tape.

Tragically, a teenage boy had been killed, and three other people had been injured, including a police officer, hit by the stray bullets of a 15-year-old with a firearm.

The cordoned off area after the 15-year-old was shot in Washington, DC.Credit: Farrah Tomazin

Fortunately, the incident in West Palm Beach did not end in death or injury, and not long after it occurred, Trump put out a fundraising email telling supporters: “My resolve is only stronger after another attempt on my life!

“I will never slow down. I will never give up. I WILL NEVER SURRENDER!”

But the fact a gunman was able to get a semi-automatic rifle within such close range of the former president once again raises questions about his security detail and underscores the challenge authorities face responding to threats in such a volatile political environment.

The incident took place on Sunday afternoon after Trump had returned to Florida from a West Coast campaign blitz that included a Friday night rally in Las Vegas and a fundraiser in Utah.

The Republican candidate was at his Trump International Golf Club at the time, about eight kilometres from his Mar-a-Lago residence, golfing with real estate investor and Republican mega-donor Steve Witkoff, between the fifth and sixth holes of the 18-hole course.

Secret Service agents spotted the suspect pointing a rifle through a fence and opened fire. Authorities later found an AK-style rifle with a scope in the bushes where he was hiding, along with two backpacks and a GoPro portable camera, suggesting the gunman wanted to film himself.

It’s troubling to think the latest assassination attempt comes only two months after a 20-year-old gunman tried to kill Trump during a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.

In that case, the shooter, Thomas Matthew Crooks, opened fire from a rooftop about 120 metres from where Trump was speaking to the crowd, killing a spectator, injuring two others and grazing the former president in the right ear.

And think about everything that has happened in the nine weeks since: Trump emerged from the Republican National Convention emboldened by his near-death experience. A few days later, President Joe Biden succumbed to pressure and withdrew his bid for re-election.

Donald Trump is surrounded by US Secret Service agents after the assassination attempt in July. Credit: AP

Harris was then nominated as the Democratic candidate, thwarting what once seemed like Trump’s inevitable march to the White House.

And now, days after an extraordinary presidential debate, another shocking case of violence has marred a campaign like no other.

With less than eight weeks until election day, who knows what is yet to come?

But as a Secret Service spokesman noted during a press conference on Sunday afternoon: “We live in dangerous times.” That much is clear.

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