Donald Trump and the Growing Darkness Threatening American Politics

In America, we settle our differences through the ballot box, not through bullets. The power to change America must always rest in the hands of the people, not in the hands of a would-be assassin.

That was the statement made by US President Joe Biden in an address to the nation in the Oval Office the day after the attempted assassination of his rival in the November presidential election.

US President Joe Biden is calling on America to lower the temperature in American politics.

The shockwaves from the attempted assassination of Donald Trump at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania on July 13 are still being felt in the United States and around the world. The FBI said it has seen an increase in violent rhetoric following the assassination attempt.

And, contrary to Biden's insistence that there is no place in America for this kind of violence, Katie Stallard, a nonresident global fellow at the Wilson Center in Washington DC, believes that: “The attack on Donald Trump was shocking, but it was not unprecedented by American standards, and it was not entirely unpredictable.”

The attempted assassination of Trump is part of a worrying trend in the United States, where extremists are embarking on violent plots to silence their perceived opponents.

Researchers Pete Simi, a professor at Chapman University, and Seamus Hughes, of the University of Nebraska, studied threats made against political candidates between 2013 and 2023. They found that over the past 10 years, more than 500 people have been arrested for threatening public officials. And the trend is increasing.

In the past three years alone, America has witnessed a surge in violence tied to an increasingly dark political landscape that has seen combative and toxic rhetoric infect its body politic.

The January 2021 Capitol riots were preceded by a speech by then-President Donald Trump in which he told a gathered crowd that the November 2020 presidential election had been stolen. After the speech, thousands of the president's supporters marched on the Capitol building.

The ensuing chaos led to a violent riot and the deaths of five people, including a police officer.

In October 2022, Paul Pelosi, the husband of then-Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, was attacked in his home and bludgeoned with a hammer by far-right conspiracy theorist David DePape. DePape's plan was to track down Pelosi herself, take her hostage, and break her kneecaps. Donald Trump would later mock Mrs. Pelosi at a Republican campaign event.

Donald Trump mocks Paul Pelosi after House Speaker's husband is assaulted.

In September 2023, Trump angered Americans with a social media post criticizing former Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Mark Milley. On Truth Social, the former president, angered by revelations that Milley had a phone call with Chinese officials after the January 6, 2021 riots, wrote, “This is an act so heinous that in the past the punishment would have been DEATH!”

Guns and Angry People

A poll conducted by University of Chicago professor Robert A. Pape sheds new light on the troubling views of some Americans about the utility of political violence. The survey of more than 2,000 people found that 10 percent of respondents believe that the use of force is justified to prevent Donald Trump from becoming president. That’s equivalent to 26 million adults if the results are applied to the population as a whole.

Amidst this mix of increasingly dangerous political rhetoric and violence is a gun epidemic in the United States. According to the FBI, the gun used by the serial killer at Trump's campaign rally, Thomas Matthew Crooks, was an AR-style rifle purchased by his father.

Pape’s survey also found that 7% of respondents supported using force to restore Donald Trump to the presidency. Of that group, which amounts to 18 million adults, about 45% own guns, 40% believe those involved in the Capitol attack were patriots, while 10% were either members of militia groups or knew someone who was.

White nationalist protest at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, 2017.

The reaction of some of his most prominent supporters in Congress to the attempted assassination of Trump has bordered on the reckless. Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance, a potential vice presidential candidate, has said Joe Biden was responsible for the attack. He has argued that the president’s campaign rhetoric led directly to what happened in Pennsylvania.

Other Republican lawmakers have gone further in their wild and dangerous rhetoric. Georgia Rep. Mike Collins posted on X that Joe Biden had sent the orders and called on the Republican district attorney in Butler County, where the assassination attempt took place, to immediately file charges against Joseph R. Biden for incitement to assassinate.

Concerns are growing as the Republican and Democratic party conventions approach. Jacob Ware, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, said these large gatherings bring together the largest number of party members and leaders of the entire election cycle and could therefore attract individuals or groups with a desire for revenge.

Read more: Trump tones down rhetoric as he prepares for 'coronation' at Republican National Convention

In the United States and beyond, many hope that the attempted assassination of Trump will prompt sober introspection and reasoned political debate. But others rightly fear that the event could serve as a catalyst for deeper polarization and further violence.

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