After his Secret Service detail foiled what the FBI said is an apparent second attempt on his life in less than ten weeks, former president Donald Trump and his allies are stoking political tensions.
In a Monday tweet shared across numerous social media channels, Trump accused President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris of bringing “politics in our Country to a whole new level of Hatred.” Even though they consistently condemned political violence and did so again on Sunday, he claimed that their speech is to blame for threats and acts of violence directed against him.
Elon Musk, the billionaire and most powerful backer of President Trump questioned in a tweet why “no one is even trying to assassinate” Biden and Harris. Musk later clarified that the remark was a joke and removed it.
But with fewer than two months until Election Day, it was evident by Monday midday that Trump and his inner circle have no plans to temper their fiery words. Trump ignored pleas for sympathy and even a clumsy request for composure or unity by turning to Biden and Harris so quickly.
Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, the former president’s running mate, also criticized Democrats on Monday night for what he described as “inflammatory” language.
At a Georgia Faith and Freedom Coalition gathering in Atlanta, Vance declared, “While there hasn’t been a murder attempt on Kamala Harris in recent months, there have been two attempts on Donald Trump’s life.”
That, in my opinion, is very compelling proof that the left ought to stop talking like this and to moderate down. It will damage our country and cause harm to somebody, he continued.
At a news conference later that day, Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw stated that the Republican presidential nominee was playing golf at his West Palm Beach club on Sunday afternoon when a Secret Service member saw the gun’s barrel sticking out of the bushes a few hundred yards from him.
A suspect was shot by the Secret Service, but he managed to get away and was soon captured by the police. According to a person familiar with the situation, Trump was forced to take refuge at the golf club for more than an hour before being taken to his Palm Beach resort, Mar-a-Lago.
People familiar with Trump’s activities said that while at Mar-a-Lago, where House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., was among the guests, he answered phone calls from friends offering their condolences, listened in when acting Secret Service director Ronald Rowe called Johnson to provide a briefing on the incident, and cracked jokes about golf. According to a Trump advisor who has spoken with him since Sunday’s incident, the scare is unlikely to cause any disruptions to his schedule or campaign preparations.
The advisor predicted that there wouldn’t be many obvious adjustments or anything particularly significant. “After all that, he seems fairly at ease and is neither rattled nor flustered by this.”
However, as Trump escaped a near-death experience that was comparable to the sniper’s bullet that wounded his ear during a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, in July, he was faced with a decision regarding his own response once more: attempt to capitalize politically on the threats against his life, or downplay them in order to deter further acts of violence. He made his decision to go with the former in less than a day, but there are indications of disagreement regarding his strategy among his colleagues.
A few supporters of Trump think that the campaign wasted a chance to bring people together after the initial assassination attempt. Rather, Trump intensified his attacks on Harris at the same time that his poll numbers began to decline.
One former Trump adviser claimed, “It was so unacceptable that even independents said, “You can’t assassinate a political candidate.” “And then suddenly it’s back to the show featuring clowns.”
In a statement emailed to workers on Sunday night, the campaign’s top advisers emphasized his security as well as the protection of his aides, while his fundraising team urged supporters to contribute funds right away following the incident. He restated his claim from last week’s ABC News debate—that Biden and Harris are to blame for his targeting—on Monday.
Harris had a very different strategy on Sunday.
“I want to be clear as we gather information: I oppose political violence. In a statement, she said, “We all need to play a part in making sure that this incident doesn’t spark additional violence. “The fact that former President Trump is safe makes me happy.”
Musk made comments regarding the assassination of the president and vice president in office, but Trump did not criticize him.
Trump’s representatives briefly informed the media following his July shooting survival that the president was interested in bringing the nation together and would make an effort to do so during his speech at the Republican National Convention. But he changed course instantly and started running in the opposite way. Even in the four corners of the Milwaukee address, given on July 18, there was a reversal.
In the first few minutes, he declared, “Our society needs to be healed of the division and discord.” Later on, however, he argued that the Democratic Party was “weaponizing the justice system” since he had been found guilty of felonies in New York and was facing charges in federal court for his attempts to rig the 2020 election.
“Political debate and dissent should not be criminalized or demonized,” he stated. “In that regard, the Democratic Party ought to cease using the legal system as a weapon and cease characterizing their political rival as an adversary of democracy right away.”
He has since vowed to put his political rivals in jail on many occasions.
According to Trump’s allies, he will speak for himself regarding the failed assassination attempt.
“We follow his lead,” one assistant claimed. “We’re not going to ignore his reality.”
Though they both reject the use of violence in politics, that truth has so far been used as an attack on his political opponent, Senator Harris, and her boss, Joe Biden.
Trump has celebrated violence for almost ten years in the national political arena, at least when it is directed away from him.
“When the looting begins, the shooting begins,” Trump stated on social media in the wake of Minneapolis police killing George Floyd in 2020. He has called for the death penalty for the country’s top general, mocked the brutal attack on former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband with a hammer, and applauded the rioters on January 6 who beat police officers, broke into the Capitol, and attempted to halt the 2020 electoral vote count through force.
It’s unclear right now whether Trump’s alleged second attempt at suicide will affect how the campaign turns out. At the time of the Pennsylvania shooting, Biden was the opponent he was up against.
Eight days after the initial effort, Harris took Biden’s place as the Democratic standard-bearer, and polls indicate that Democrats have a better chance of winning in November. However, the majority of polls show that this is a very close race, with both candidates in crucial swing states falling within the margin of error.