Will Trump call for harmony or rub salt in the wounds after the shooting? Early reactions point to the latter

It will be the new fetish for every Donald Trump acolyte. The indelible image of the former US president, blood in his ear and his fist raised as Secret Service agents try to shoo him away from a would-be assassin’s bullets, has already been turned into a $35 T-shirt with a simple legend: “Fight! Fight! Fight!”.

The words came from Trump as he was carried offstage after the shooting that killed one person — in addition to the attacker — at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Saturday. His supporters responded with chants of “USA! APPLICATIONS!” and angrily yelling at the media, pointing fingers at journalists.

In the blink of an eye, the 2024 presidential election, 115 days away, and America’s own future were transformed. A divided nation faces the threat of renewed political violence and hostility toward the press. In a country awash in guns, some feared Saturday would be the first shots fired in a second American civil war.

Trump, the showman Always, who said on social media that he felt the bullet “tear” his skin, has been hailed by his base as a warrior, martyr and messiah. His viral photo is being used to project the 78-year-old as a force in contrast to the 81-year-old Biden, whose lackluster debate performance prompted calls from his own party to drop him from the White House race.

The political benefits were immediate. Billionaires Elon Musk and Bill Ackman backed Trump. Jake Paul, a YouTube personality, tweeted: “If it isn't obvious who God wants to win… when you try to kill God's angels and saviors of the world, you only make them bigger.”

The Trump campaign also took the opportunity to fuel the convicted felon's persecution narrative by sending out a fundraising text message that read, “They're not coming for me, they're coming for you.”

Democratic strategist Brad Bannon told Reuters: “The assassination attempt builds sympathy for Trump. “It also reinforces the idea among voters that there is something fundamentally wrong in this country, an idea that builds support for him.”

The attack is likely to fuel Trump's appearances this week in Milwaukee at the Republican national convention, where he will accept his party's presidential nomination, deepening the sense of resentment his supporters already feel toward the country's political elites.

Trump’s speech on Thursday night could be a pivotal turning point, a prime-time television opportunity to call for unity and healing, or to sow division and rub salt in wounds. Ian Bremmer, a political scientist and president of the Eurasia Group, told CNN he’s not optimistic, noting that Trump’s “initial reaction when he stood up — and it was an incredibly powerful image that we’ll be seeing for months — was fight, fight, fight. That’s his instinct.”

Bremmer added: “Every fiber of this man is that he’s going to fight his enemies, and yes, his enemy is the dead man, the 20-something who tried to kill him. But I think Trump believes his enemy is Joe Biden, his enemy is the members of the press, some of whom call him Hitler, and his enemy is the people on the other side of the political spectrum who want to destroy him.”

The shooter's motivation is still unknown. The suspect, Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, was registered as a Republican, according to election records. He had previously made a $15 donation to a political action committee that raises money for Democratic and left-wing politicians.

Their attack came against the backdrop of the largest and most sustained surge in political violence in the United States since the 1970s. Of the 14 deadly political attacks since Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, the perpetrator or suspect committed the attack during the period. Given their clear partisan leanings, 13 were right-wing. One was left-wing.

Members of Congress have been targeted: U.S. Capitol Police opened 8,008 threat investigations in 2023, an increase of more than 500 from the previous year. A recent PBS NewsHour/NPR/Marist poll found that one in five adults believe Americans may have to resort to violence to get their country back on track.

Political leaders tried to douse the flames this weekend. Biden paused his campaign, saying such violence has no place in the United States, and called his opponent, whom he referred to as “Donald,” by phone, a marked change from the palpable resentment between the men in his first debate speech in Atlanta. Trump used social media to call on Americans to “stay united” and show their “true character.”

And Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson declared himself in favor of the program Today. from the NBC network: “We need to tone down the rhetoric. We need to lower the temperature in this country. We need leaders from all parties, from both sides, to call for that and to make sure that happens so we can move forward.”

But Trump has frequently used violent, demeaning and even apocalyptic language against his supporters, warning of a “bloodbath” if he is not elected and saying that immigrants in the U.S. illegally are “poisoning the blood of our country.” After the shooting, his advisers and allies flipped the script on Biden, suggesting that it was the demonization of the Republican nominee that led to the assassination attempt.

JD Vance, an Ohio senator tipped as a Trump partner at this week’s convention, wrote on X: “Today is not an isolated incident. The central premise of Biden’s campaign is that President Donald Trump is an authoritarian fascist who must be stopped at all costs. “That rhetoric led directly to the attempted assassination of President Trump.”

South Carolina Senator Tim Scott posted a similar message, while Mike Collins, a Republican congressman from Georgia, tweeted: “The Republican District Attorney of Butler County, Pennsylvania should immediately file charges of solicitation to commit murder against Joseph R. Biden.”

Chris LaCivita, Trump campaign co-chair, said they need to be held accountable for this…the best way is through the ballot box.”

LaCivita was apparently referring to recent comments by Biden in the context of him asking his supporters to focus on defeating Trump and not on his own achievements. “It’s enough talking about the debate, it’s time to make Trump a target,” said Biden, who has always condemned any form of political violence.

Some compared the United States to a powder keg. With disinformation and conspiracy theories rife on social media, the atmosphere was far different from past national traumas, such as the attempted assassination of President Ronald Reagan in 1981 and the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on New York and Washington.

Bremmer told CNN: “The response here has to be like 9/11. It has to be something where everybody comes together and says, this is wrong, we are all Americans together. I fear it will look a lot more like January 6th, where there are going to be a lot of people who are going to weaponize what just happened and we are going to continue to tribalize as a country and people are not going to accept that the people on the other side of the aisle… .”

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