Assassination attempt fuels Trump’s 2024 campaign

The botched assassination attempt on Donald Trump has boosted his bid for a second term in the White House in November's presidential election. The image of Trump pumping his fist in the air while blood from his wounded ear trickled down his face has become iconic. The saying goes, "A picture is worth 1,000 words." His first words to the faithful attending his rally were, "Fight, fight, fight." These were not the words of a statesman calling for unity but of a campaigning politician demanding fealty.

Victim Trump is largely to blame for rising violence in US politics. He began his first campaign for the presidency in 2016 by calling for an end to Hispanic emigration across the US border with Mexico and stoking racism by calling arrivals "murderers and rapists". He and his core supporters did not take into account the preponderance of Hispanic workers in agriculture across the US.

After his January 2017 inauguration as president Trump signed an executive order banning citizens from seven majority Muslim countries — Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen — from entering the US for 90 days. He permanently excluded Syrian refugees. He halted the refugee settlement programme for 120 days and cut the number of refugees the US accepted from 110,000 to 50,000. In August 2017, Trump dubbed "very fine people" extremist participants in the Charlottesville, Virginia, Unite the Right rally. This brought together neo-Nazis, neo-Confederates, neo-fascists, white supremacists, and Ku Klux Klansmen. The Klan is regarded the first organised terrorist group in US history. Thirty people were wounded during clashes with leftist opponents and one woman was killed when a right-winger rammed his car into a group of protesters.

As Trump campaigned for re-election in 2020, Mike Levine reported on May 30, on an ABC news investigation into 54 cases where Trump was "invoked in direct connection with violent acts, threats of violence or allegations of assault". ABC news did not find even one case where acts of violence were made in the names of ex-presidents Barack Obama or George W Bush.

After he lost the 2020 presidential election to Joe Biden, Trump refused to concede and claimed the election was "stolen" by Biden. His lawyers and supporters tried to intimidate election officials, judges, and state employees across the country and declare him the winner. When this did not work, he called on his backers to gather at the Capitol on January 6th, 2021, with the aim of preventing Congress from confirming Biden as the winner. They rioted, broke into the Capitol building, trashed offices of legislators and chased them from the building. One rioter was killed and 174 policemen were wounded. Several committed suicide due to trauma. 

On June 1st, 2024, Trump supporters called for riots and revolution over his conviction on 34 felony counts in his case involving illegal 2016 hush money payments to a porn star with whom he had an affair a decade earlier. 

During the ongoing campaign Trump has cultivated the support of white supremacists and has won the endorsement of the National Rifle Association which lobbies to protect the right to own weapons of war like the rifle used by Thomas Crooks to shoot him.

Ever since he began his political career, Trump has cultivated grievances of the working and lower middle classes and appealed to resentful high school leavers rather than university graduates. An energetic, thrusting 78, Trump is seen as their candidate by many men rather than the fading, haltering Biden, 81, who claims he is the only person who can defeat Trump. Since his triumphalist survival from an assassin’s bullet, this will be even more difficult for Biden who has warned that a second Trump term would be a threat to US democracy.

Last week Biden tried to use the platform of the 75th anniversary NATO summit to demonstrate to Western leaders, Democrat party leaders, and the press that he has the mental acuity and physical ability needed to assume the heavy demands of the presidency over the next four years. This was the rather boring topic of political discussion until Trump's exciting escape. Trump is now the focus of global attention.

Biden's fate is forgotten. His dismal failure to negotiate his June 27th debate with Trump boosted critics and commentators who argue he is too old for the job. He has refused to resign the Democrat candidacy. He claims that on debate night, he was exhausted after travelling abroad and brought low by a cold. This has not convinced doubters. Leading Democrat party donors, including actor George Clooney. Some are withholding campaign contributions.

In a New York Times opinion article, Clooney urged Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to ask Biden to “voluntarily step aside”. Clooney warned, “We are not going to win in November with this president.”

Biden's age and infirmities were not the only issues with Clooney. Biden's unwavering support for Israel during its war on Gaza played a part. Tension with Clooney rose after Biden criticised the call of the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court for an arrest warrant for prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu over crimes committed during Israel's war on Gaza. Clooney’s wife, international human rights lawyer Amal Clooney, had played a major part in drafting the submission.

Biden's latest test was a dull unscripted press conference a week ago after the NATO summit ended. His previous press conference was eight months earlier. This contrasts sharply with Trump's constant media and online presence through his "Truth Social”, an ironic title of a platform for a man who rarely tells the truth. Biden has let down and continues to let down Democrats. Last week's Washington Post/ABC News/Ipsos poll showed that 60 per cent of US adults and 56 per cent of Democrats want Biden to stand down. The poll revealed that both candidates had the support of 46 per cent of voters while other polls give one or other a slight edge.

Since the attempt on Trump's life could change this picture, the Democrats would be wise to ditch their elderly candidate for a younger, widely known hopeful. Biden should gracefully concede.