The attempt on Trump’s life makes this the darkest modern presidential campaign

With the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump, a bleak election season only got that much darker. The violence that has been prevalent in the political discourse, almost all of it coming from Trump’s supporters, has erupted into the open. Instead of bringing the country together, it threatens to pull everything apart, as the immediate responses of many Republicans show. And in a perverse way it may even prove to benefit Trump’s campaign.

What motivated the shooter, a 20-year-old who was a registered Republican but also once donated $15 to a progressive cause, may never be known. Attributing logic to the actions of assassins is often foolhardy. The last attempt on a president was in 1981, when John Hinkley Jr. shot Ronald Reagan in an attempt to impress Jodie Foster, with whom Hinkley was obsessed. The reasons for assassins’ actions are often mental health issues and warped political views. It’s always possible that this was just another mass shooter event, at which a former president happened to be present.

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LGBTQ+ Congress members all condemn Trump assassination attempt

One called out Trump’s leading VP pick for his “despicable” response to the shooting.

But for the conspiracy-addled world of MAGA, it doesn’t much matter what the truth is. The assassination attempt only underscores their deepest beliefs. “Joe Biden sent the orders,” tweeted Rep. Mike Collins (R-GA) within minutes of the shooting. (Collins is not only a conspiracy theorist; he’s also a homophobe.)

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Not to be outdone, Elon Musk, who has turned the social media platform X into a right-wing playground, wondered whether the Secret Service’s failure was “deliberate.” As a reminder, Musk was a leading proponent of the idea that former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-CA) husband was involved in a gay tryst when he was brutally attacked by a man who broke into his house.

For the religious right, the assassination attempt is confirmation that its version of Christianity is in a literal life-or-death struggle with the forces of evil.

But now Republicans are using the attack to claim that anyone who believes Trump is a threat to democracy is essentially an accessory to attempted murder.

“This was an assassination attempt aided and abetted by the radical Left and corporate media incessantly calling Trump a threat to democracy, fascists, or worse,” Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) tweeted. Scott is supposedly one of the more level-headed Republicans.

Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH), whose ambition to be named Trump’s running mate is outstripped only by his complete lack of principle, agreed in a similar tweet, calling Biden a would-be murderer. “The central premise of the Biden campaign is that President Donald Trump is an authoritarian fascist who must be stopped at all costs. That rhetoric led directly to President Trump’s attempted assassination,” Vance wrote.

The violence at the Pennsylvania rally was heinous. President Biden was correct when he said, “there is no place in America for this kind of violence.”

But Trump has been the fuel on the fire. He has been using violent language with abandon. “Now, if I don’t get elected, it’s going to be a bloodbath for the whole — that’s going to be the least of it. It’s going to be a bloodbath for the country,” he said last March. Trump attacks his enemies, and then his followers go after the targest with violent threats. He has boosted the Proud Boys, who stand ready to serve as his shock troops.

And fading all too quickly into the background is the January 6, 2021 insurrection, which Trump enflamed with his speech and false claims of widespread election fraud, then did nothing to stop it.

The danger is that Saturday’s attack now not only immunizes Trump from attacks on his behavior but actually sanctifies him. He has long portrayed himself as a martyr (and profited financially from it), but now he has the iconic photo to go with it.

That narrative is already taking hold. “They try to jail him. They try to kill him. It will not work. He is indomitable,” said Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R).

But it’s not just that Trump is strong, compared to the feeble Biden (whose woes were overshadowed by Trump’s admittedly powerful show of defiance after he was grazed). He is strong the way a strongman is strong. That’s been the threat all along. “Indomitable” is both an adjective and a threat. We don’t seek a president who is a warrior. We seek a statesman.

In the aftermath of the attack, Trump’s circle floated the idea that Trump would send a message of unity from the Republican convention as it starts. In a post on Sunday that didn’t sound subdued (or ghost written), Trump wrote, “In this moment, it is more important than ever that we stand United, and show our True Character as Americans, remaining Strong and Determined, and not allowing Evil to Win.”

Could Trump possibly restrain himself and not list all the people he considers evil? That would be eminently presidential — and very much out of character.

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