This is a picture that will be seen around the world. This image will be remembered by future generations of America. In this picture, Donald Trump is standing in his place despite his face being covered in blood. He is surrounded by US Secret Service officers and repeatedly utters the word 'fight' as the officers take him into protective custody.
This picture reminded me of perhaps the most famous picture from World War II when the US Marine Corps raised the American flag on the Pacific island of Iwo Jima. Last night, Donald Trump was like a flag that security took away almost by force.
The former president was unharmed, but if the bullet had been an inch or two more to the right, things would have been very different. It is really disappointing to hear about another incident of political violence. An event that itself dates back to the beginning of the Republic.
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To this list of names like John Wilkes Booth, Charles J. Goiteau, Lee Harvey Oswald, and John Hinckley Jr., we can now add Thomas Matthew Crooks, who attempted to assassinate a current or former US president. The latest person.
It is too early to know anything about the motive of Thomas Matthew Cruce. He was a registered Republican but also donated to progressive causes.
Booth assassinated Lincoln out of anger over politics and the abolition of slavery. Oswald shot JF Kennedy in the Dulles in a way that surprised people, leading to many conspiracy theories about what actually happened. Hinckley tried to kill Reagan because he wanted to impress Jodie Foster, whom he loved.
What all these assassination attempts, whether successful or unsuccessful, have in common is that powerful weapons are readily available, with which one can target one's chosen 'target'. Ironically, the MAGA (Make America Great Again) crowd in Pennsylvania is strongly supporting the right to bear arms and consider it as fundamental a right as the right to breathe.
The last Trump rally I attended was in Pennsylvania at the end of the 2020 campaign. The rally was taking place near the airport in Scranton. Security at these rallies is much tighter than what you would normally see in the UK.
The entire area is cordoned off and there is airport-style security with metal detectors and wands before you approach the stage. The US Secret Service has considerable authority to lock down any nearby buildings that may pose a threat. It seems yesterday's attacker managed to climb onto the roof of a nearby factory. Serious security questions remain to be answered in this regard.
The outcome of this incident is alarming. It's good that Joe Biden immediately condemned the assassination attempt on his opponent. He spoke positively, but Biden's assertion that such political violence is 'unheard of' is not entirely accurate.
Let us be generous and attribute it to the shock of the moment, when Trump kept repeating the word 'fight'. When they were taken away for security reasons. Does America really need more fighting right now? We have already seen political violence during the January 6 riots after the presidential election.
In politics, like any other competition, the word 'battle' is used as a metaphor. I'm sure England manager Gareth Southgate and footballer Harry Kane will be urging the England team to fight back when they take to the field in Berlin this evening, but the word fight as a command. can also be seen on As we saw on January 6, with groups like the Oath Keepers and the Proud Boys, there are few people in America who don't need much encouragement in this direction.
Ironically, according to the evidence provided during the January 6 investigation, Trump clashed with the Secret Service over who was allowed to enter the Alps, an area south of the White House, where Trump had urged his supporters to enter the US Congress building and fight the 'full fight' for the country.
