An attempt was made on former president Trump’s life last weekend at a political rally in rural Butler, Penn. It wasn’t long after the bullets started flying that the conspiracy theories began to fly as well. From acquaintances on the left comes a theory that the shooting was a false-flag operation, staged by the Trump campaign to burnish his “victim of the deep state” credentials. From acquaintances on the right, a theory that Joe Biden and the Department of Homeland Security had ordered the “hit.” I am sure there are even more preposterous theories floating around out there, and if not, then I am sure that propagandists worldwide are working overtime to invent them.
It is important to understand that none of it is true. However, what is absolutely true is that mistakes were made. Somewhere in the partnership between the Secret Service and local police, something went horribly wrong. This is even more concerning given that the Secret Service had recently been advised that there was a potential Iranian assassination plot against the former president.
Here is what happened, and we know this because those of us who cannot ever seem to get enough of Trump’s insanity were watching in real time: A mentally ill young man, with free and easy access to a semiautomatic long gun, climbed onto the roof of a building about 150 yards from the stage at the open-air venue and opened fire. He was immediately shot and killed by Trump’s security detail.
The bullet appeared to have grazed Trump’s ear. He dropped to the ground and was immediately buried beneath Secret Service agents attempting to shield him from further harm, and then, when it was safe to move, he was lifted to his feet, hustled to his car, and taken to the closest medical center with a trauma unit. He was posting to his Truth Social platform within an hour.
Clearly, his injuries were not life threatening, but still. I cannot imagine anyone in the crowd of rally attendees, or the Secret Service detail, or the candidate himself, was not completely traumatized by that event. Safe to say that Trump may be hesitant to ever appear at an open-air rally again. We are likely to see Trump campaign stops that have the flavor of days gone by, held in airport hangars with only one side open to the public. Who could blame him?
Welcome to the new America: a breeding ground for vitriol, animosity, and homicidal rage. We have finally become so bifurcated and so angry that we are now willing to kill each other to make it stop.
Apart from Trump’s apparently superficial injury, the shooting left one supporter dead and two other individuals at the hospital in serious condition. These were living, breathing human beings who got up in the morning with a sense of excitement about the day to come, put on their red hats, sweltered in the blazing summer heat, and picnicked or tailgated while waiting for their champion. They would have gladly stewed all day in the seventh ring of Hell for a chance to turn out and support their candidate.
They were real people who experienced real harm, and seriously so. Lunatics with rifles have no regard for the lives of anyone, including their own. Mass shooters do not expect to survive the mass killings they perpetrate, and typically, they do not. Taking a bunch of innocent people along for the ride is of no consequence to someone who is that unhinged.
I am sorry to say it, but Donald Trump, with his overheated narrative of death, destruction, and revenge, has done nothing to stop the fires of division that are tearing this country apart. In fact, he is more responsible than just about anyone I can think of for deliberately fanning the flames.
When a leader lies, cheats, bullies, demeans, and threatens, they give permission to everyone to emulate the same behavior. It is unfair to blame the press for reporting the horrible things Donald Trump says and does every day. That is their job, and it is an opinion writer’s job to have an opinion about it. If Trump really wanted to end the criticisms, he would stop cheating, stealing, lying, threatening, and vilifying. He would stop saying all of the hateful, anti-democratic things that he says all day, every day.
But he does not. He likes it. He thinks it works for him.
And perhaps he will find a way to monetize this latest event, as would be his habit. I am confident that the “bloody ear” tee shirts are being run off at the silk screener’s even as we speak, soon to appear on vendor shelves next to the mug-shot coffee cups.
Trump promises riots in the streets if not reelected, and he intends to jail or execute his detractors and suspend the Constitution if he returns to the Oval Office. Trump is also all in, as are the majority of Republicans serving in federal government, on the NRA’s position that there is nothing wrong with ordinary folks toting firearms designed specifically to murder lots of people at once.
A majority of Americans favor laws prohibiting the sale of semiautomatic weapons. But instead of addressing the desire of ordinary Americans to get such weapons off the streets and out of the hands of crazies and criminals, the Supreme Court brought back the bump stocks that turn any weapon into a mass-murder machine.
In case anyone is wondering, crazies are crazies, no matter what their political party. If Republicans have failed to grasp that yet, perhaps they do now.
Among half the electorate, there is a pervasive hope that one day Donald Trump will disappear, along with his lies, his malfeasance, and his hateful rhetoric. But whether Trump regains the presidency or is consigned, instead, to the Grifter’s Hall of Fame, we have to put a stop to this madness. Thoughts and prayers did not enable Trump to survive last weekend’s attack, nor did divine intervention. Trump survived because the dude missed. Trump randomly turned his head and the dude missed. That is it. How many Republican lawmakers will need to be victimized by homicidal loonies with high-powered rifles before they understand that assault weapons have no place in a civil society?
I hope it will take far less time for that to happen than it is likely to take for all of us to finally stop hating each other.
