Trump and Violence
Trump Assassination Attempt Makes Him The Victim Of Violence He Has Wished Upon Others; Trump’s Extensive History Of Inciting Violence
On July 13, former President Donald Trump became the target of an assassination attempt at a Pennsylvania rally. The video images showed Trump speaking as he turned his head to the right and then him reacting to being shot in the right ear that he grabbed and then ducking down behind the podium.
As secret service agents tackled Trump, they piled atop him to shield him with their bodies as other agents took up positions on stage to search for the threat. Secret Service helped him up to his feet and hurried him to his SUV. Visibly shaken with a wound to his right ear and blood streaming down one side of his face he yelled out “fight, fight” and pumped his fist numerous times in a show of anger and defiance.
Authorities said one attendee was killed and two spectators were critically injured. The Secret Service said it killed the suspected shooter who it said attacked from an elevated position outside the rally venue. The FBI named Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, “as the subject involved in the assassination attempt.” He is a registered Republican. The agency said the investigation remains active and ongoing. There was no immediate information on the shooter’s motivations. The attack was the most serious attempt to assassinate a president or presidential candidate since Ronald Reagan was shot in 1981.
TRUMP’S EXTENSIVE HISTORY OF INCITING VIOLENCE
Trumps extensive history of inciting violence merits review. As recently as March 28, Former President Donald Trump shared a video on social media Friday that included an image of President Joe Biden bound and restrained in the back of a pickup truck. The 20-second video, which Trump indicated was taken in Long Island, New York, shows a truck emblazoned with “Trump 2024” and a large picture depicting Biden tied up and lying on his side.
Trump was in Long Island for the wake of fallen NYPD officer Jonathan Diller.
When reached for comment on the image in the video, Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung said, “That picture was on the back of a pick up truck that was traveling down the highway.” Cheung also accused “Democrats and crazed lunatics” of calling for violence against Trump and his family, arguing that “they are actually weaponizing the justice system against him.”
Cheung pointed to comments by Biden in 2018, before he declared his candidacy, when he said that if he and Trump were in high school he’d “take him behind the gym and beat the hell out of him” if he heard him demeaning women.
Biden campaign spokesman Michael Tyler slammed Trump for posting the video.
“This image from Donald Trump is the type of crap you post when you’re calling for a bloodbath or when you tell the Proud Boys to ‘stand back and stand by,’” Tyler said in a statement. “Trump is regularly inciting political violence and it’s time people take him seriously — just ask the Capitol Police officers who were attacked protecting our democracy on January 6.”
Trump has previously used violent imagery and rhetoric, both in his 2024 presidential campaign and before. On March 16, he vowed that there would be a “bloodbath” if he was not re-elected, while speaking about the economy. Last year, before his numerous indictments, Trump warned about “potential death and destruction” if he were to be charged in the Manhattan district attorney’s hush money case against him.
Trump also shared an article on Truth Social that had an image of him with a baseball bat near Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s head. The post was deleted. Trump also used his Truth Social platform to go after Judge Juan Merchan, who is overseeing the hush money case, as well as the judge’s daughter after being hit with a partial gag order.
On January 23, 2016, Donald Trump said at a rally in Sioux Center that his supporters are so loyal that he would not lose backers even if he were to shoot someone in the middle of downtown Manhattan, New York City and said this:
“I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody, okay, and I wouldn’t lose any voters, okay? … It’s, like, incredible.”
On February 21, 2016, Trump told a crowd of his supporters in Cedar Rapids that he would pay their legal fees if they engaged in violence against protesters and said this: “If you see somebody getting ready to throw a tomato, knock the crap out of them, would you? Seriously, OK? Just knock the hell out of them … I promise you I will pay for the legal fees. I promise, I promise.”
On March 9, 2016, as a protester was being escorted out of a Trump rally in Fayetteville, North Carolina, the protester was sucker-punched by another attendee and Trump said nothing when it was brought to his attention.
At a Las Vegas campaign rally in March, 2016 Trump said security guards were too gentle with a protester and said “He’s walking out with big high-fives, smiling, laughing. … I’d like to punch him in the face, I’ll tell you.”
In yet another campaign rally in March, 2016 in Warren, Michigan, Trump said of a protester “Get him out. …Try not to hurt him. If you do, I’ll defend you in court. Don’t worry about it.”
In July 2017 during a speech to police officials, Trump encourage law enforcement officials to be more violent in handling arrested offenders when he said:
“When you see these thugs being thrown into the back of a paddy wagon, you just seen them thrown in, rough. I said, ‘Please don’t be too nice … When you guys put somebody in the car and you’re protecting their head you know, the way you put their hand over [their head],” Trump continued, mimicking the motion. “Like, don’t hit their head and they’ve just killed somebody, don’t hit their head. … You can take the hand away, OK?’”
During a rally in Montana ahead of the 2018 midterms, Trump praised Republican Greg Gianforte for body slamming a reporter while running for his congressional seat in 2017 and said “any guy who can do a body slam, he is my type!”
COMMENTARY AND ANALYSIS
The assassination attempt was nothing more than a reflection of just how seriously low and divided this country has become. There is no place for violence, political or otherwise, in this country. We are in dangerous times and we must appeal to our better angels. The political rhetoric and acts of violence in this country must stop and it should be condemned in no uncertain terms by all. Although Trump himself expressed condolences to innocent man killed and the two injured he still did not condemn the violence in no uncertain terms as was done by President Biden.
For the last 8 years, there is little doubt that Trump promoted hostility, mistrust and violence towards the press as well as his critics with his words and conduct. Trump promoted violence, hostility and mistrust when he first ran for President and he is doing it again as he runs in 2024 for a second term. Now that Trump is a victim of gun violence himself, the biggest unanswered question is if he will finally tone down his rhetoric of violence or will he play the martyr and escalate things even further and continue with his lying ways.
Excerpted from Pete Dinelli’s Blog of July 15, 2024.