Former president Donald Trump His allies are fanning the political flames after a Secret Service detail foiled what the FBI described as the second assassination attempt on him in less than 10 weeks.
In a message posted on multiple social media platforms on Monday, Trump accused his opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris, and President Joe Biden of “taking politics in our country to a whole new level of hate.” He said their rhetoric was responsible for the threats and violence against him, although they regularly condemn political violence and did so on Sunday.
Trump’s most powerful ally, billionaire Elon Musk, wondered in a tweet why “no one even tries to assassinate Biden and Harris” – a post Musk later said was a joke and deleted.
But it became clear Monday afternoon that Trump and his brain trust have no intention of returning to heated rhetoric with Election Day less than two months away. By turning so quickly to Biden and Harris, Trump skipped past appeals for sympathy and even calls for calm or unity.
The Republican presidential candidate was playing golf on a West Palm Beach course Sunday afternoon when a Secret Service agent saw the muzzle of a gun sticking out of bushes a few hundred yards away, Palm Beach County Sheriff Rick Bradshaw said at a news conference later that day. .
The Hidden Service shot at the suspectran away and was caught by the police in a short time. A source familiar with the matter said Trump was forced to shelter at a golf club for more than an hour before being taken to the Palm Beach resort of Mar-a-Lago.
Trump received phone calls from friends in Mar-a-Lago, R-La., who included House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-Lago, expressing their relief, while Acting Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe listened in as he called Johnson to brief him on the incident and Actions made golf-related jokes, according to people familiar with . The scare is unlikely to interfere with his schedule or campaign plans, according to a Trump adviser who spoke to him after Sunday’s incident.
“There won’t be any very noticeable changes or anything too big,” the consultant said. “He’s not upset or shaken by it, and he’s relatively relaxed considering what he’s been through.”
But as Trump narrowly avoided a brush with death at a July rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, as close as a sniper’s bullet tore through his ear, he decided once again on his answer: try to capture political will. capitalizing on or downplaying threats to his life to prevent future violence. It took him less than 24 hours to pick the former, although there are signs of a split in the ranks over his approach.
Some Trump allies believe the campaign missed an opportunity for unity after the first assassination attempt. Instead, Trump ramped up his anti-Harris rhetoric over the summer, coinciding with his loss in the polls.
“Even the independents were saying: ‘This can’t stand, you can’t assassinate a political candidate,'” said a former adviser to Trump. “And then suddenly it’s back to the clown show.”
While top campaign advisers stressed the safety of him and his aides in a message sent to staff Sunday evening, his fundraising team pressed donors to give money immediately after the event. On Monday, he repeated a claim he made on an ABC News debate last week that Biden and Harris were responsible for the targeting.
“Their rhetoric makes me want to shoot them,” he said in an interview with Fox News Digital, “when I’m the one who’s going to save the country, and they’re the ones who are destroying the country — from the inside out.”
On Sunday, Harris took a very different tack.
“While gathering the facts, I will be clear: I condemn political violence. We must all do our part to prevent this incident from causing more violence,” he said in a statement. “I am grateful to former President Trump that he is alive.”
Trump did not reprimand Musk for considering killing a sitting president and vice president.
Shortly after he survived being shot in July, Trump’s aides told the media that he was interested in uniting the country and would try to do so in a speech at the Republican National Convention. But he quickly turned from this position and started running in another direction. Even the reverse was evident in the four corners of that address, delivered in Milwaukee on July 18.
“Discord and division in our society must be overcome,” he said. But he later accused the Democratic Party of “weaponizing the justice system” because he was convicted of felonies in New York and charged in federal court with crimes related to efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
“We should not criminalize dissent or demonize political dissent,” he said. “In this spirit, the Democratic Party must immediately stop arming the justice system and labeling its political opponent as an enemy of democracy.”
He has been there ever since they regularly threatened with arrest his political opponents.
Trump aides say he will be his own spokesman on the foiled assassination attempt.
“We’re following his lead,” said one of the aides. “We will not go beyond his truth.”
So far, that truth has been an attack on his political rival, Harris, and his boss, Biden, despite their rejection of violence as a political tool.
For nearly a decade in national politics, Trump has glorified violence — at least when it’s not directed at him.
In 2020, during the protests after the killing of George Floyd by the Minneapolis police, Trump said in a social network post, “When the robbery starts, the shooting starts.” a high general will be executed; The former Speaker of the House of Representatives revealed that he is the husband of Nancy Pelosi attacked with a hammer in a terrible attack; and He praised the January 6 rioters beating cops, storming the Capitol and trying to forcefully stop the 2020 vote count.
It was not immediately clear whether the second attempt on Trump’s life would affect the outcome of the election campaign. At the time of the shooting in Pennsylvania, he was facing a different candidate – Biden.
Eight days after the first attempt, polls show Harris has replaced Biden as the Democratic standard-bearer Democrats are in a stronger position to win in November. But most surveys reveal an extremely close race with the two candidates within the margin of error in key swing situations.