Trump’s Assassination Attempt: Cementing His Return to the White House 

Ringing around Trump’s recent Michigan rally, gunshots, blared across the crowd and assuredly aimed for the former President. It was expected that chanting and fanaticism would circulate like a trance. Instead, a plague of fear and franticism festered, resulting from the failed assassination attempt for the Republican presidential nominee, in which he felt the “bullet ripping through his skin”. 

Trump has always been a potent figure, possessing polarising perspectives on immigration, gun laws, abortion to government expenditure, and gender equality to international security. Resultantly, he has become the centre of the recent political storms surrounding political tribalism, as right and left appear more distant in Western compromise democracies than ever before. Trump is this phenomenon’s epitome - with his slander distancing himself not only from political rivals but also his ideological Republican allies. Regardless of your standing on Trump, his vulnerability as a poignant political figure is vigorous. 

Poignancy, and the brutality it can breed, does not serve to hinder US Presidents, however. Although on a personal level, the attempt on Trump’s life cannot be highly regarded, this will inevitably cement his electability in the eyes of the American electorate. The last presidential assassination attempt occurred 43 years ago, with Reagan surviving an encounter with an erotomanic gunman in 1981. Reagan’s response was humorous - joking to his wife, Nancy, “I forgot to duck”, and to his surgeons before his subsequent surgery “Please tell me you’re all Republicans”. At 70 years old, the 40th President of the United States’ response presented an overwhelming capacity for resilience and hardiness, with these traits resonating with voters for the ‘84 election, in which Reagan won out in every state except Montana. 

Comparison can be drawn with Trump’s reaction. Hoisting his fist in the air in a gladiatorial fashion, Trump appeared strong and undeterred by the attack, even insisting he must put his shoes on before being hustled to safety. The image of a nominee who holds his presentation higher than his immediate safety is once aligning with grit and readiness to reassume the highest office in the USA. There is no doubt this will reaffirm the MAGA caucuses ethereal belief in ‘The Don’, alongside presenting a tough-likeability for swing voters, compounding issues facing incumbent President Biden’s deficit in the polls for the upcoming Presidential election. 

In American politics, events do not define Presidential popularity - a president or nominee’s response does. John F. Kennedy’s meticulous and delicate prevention of WW3 through his handling of the Cuban Missile Crisis boosted his approval rating by as much as 15 points, with George W. Bush’s immediate patriotic, yet collected, response to 9/11 skyrocketing his approval rating to 90% (the highest in US Presidential history). Depicting before us, these examples present the American psyche: for it is not how you are knocked down that matters to the American people, but how triumphantly you get back on your feet and press onwards, with platform and policy. 

Academics have dubbed these phenomena the ‘Rally ‘round the flag’ effect, as Americans stand alongside their present or future Commander-in-chief in times of great hardship and struggle. Trump’s reaction was an intentional invocation of rallying support behind his cause following the Michigan attack, further cementing his road back to Washington D.C. 

Cianan Sheekey

Managing Editor

14th July 2024