The circumstances of the attack on Trump at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, remain unclear – he said he was unharmed except for a bullet that penetrated the top of his right ear – but the shooting at a former president and potential future president has reinforced the feeling for many Americans that this year’s presidential election is heading for an ugly conclusion.
Shortly after the violent conclusion of the 2020 election, which left several people dead in connection with the attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021, the country is reeling from a series of shocks to the system: the fall of the Speaker of the House; former President Trump, who was criminally charged four times but ultimately recaptured the White House with his party’s blessing; and the presidential debate just two weeks ago, which revealed a significant decline in Commander-in-Chief Joe Biden’s ability to express thoughts and recall words.
Now America is facing the realization that political violence occurred at the very moment the nation was about to decide its next president.
While the motive of the attacker on President Trump is unclear (authorities have said he is already dead), the immediate question is whether political leaders themselves have stoked political polarization, igniting this and other attacks, and whether they will take steps to calm things down. The nation’s civil debate, now casually referred to as the political battle, has driven the country to new levels of partisan distrust, with nearly two-thirds of each party viewing members of the other party as immoral, dishonest and bigoted, according to a Pew Research Center survey.
“I’ve never been more anxious in my life,” said Chuck Blakely, a 60-year-old marble and tile installer from Butler, Pennsylvania, who walked with his son to a police-blocked area near the Trump rally site on Saturday evening after hearing about the shooting.
Seth Blakely, 25, was at a friend’s house during the rally when he heard Trump speak over a microphone. “I don’t understand how this has happened,” said Blakely, who works as a mechanic and, like his father, describes himself as an independent. “It’s bad news for everybody. It’s only going to get worse.”
Trump himself has frequently used hyperbolic, sometimes violent, rhetoric to stoke anger at Biden and galvanize the loyalty of his supporters. He has warned of “possible death and destruction” if found guilty and has suggested he would be justified in prosecuting his political opponents if he were returned to power. He has long called his supporters “patriots,” as if his opponents were not. Americans have become accustomed to his hyperbolic statements, such as when he claims that “pink-haired communists” are taking over our schools and that his tougher border policies are necessary “to keep foreign, Christian-hating communists, Marxists and socialists out of America.”
Trump, who has been accused of acting to try to retain power after the 2020 election, refused to say explicitly during last month’s presidential debate that he would accept the results of the upcoming election.
Some Republicans say the problem lies with Democrats’ rhetoric. Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio, a leading contender to be Trump’s vice presidential nominee, blamed President Biden for Saturday’s shooting. “The central premise of the Biden campaign is that President Donald Trump is an authoritarian fascist who must be stopped at all costs,” the senator wrote on the social media platform X. “That rhetoric led directly to the assassination attempt on President Trump.”
The dangers of our division are clear. Americans don’t have to go back to 1968, when then-presidential candidates Robert F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. were assassinated, to find examples of political violence.
In late 2018, just before that year’s midterm elections, a Florida man mailed pipe bombs to prominent critics of then-President Trump, including former President Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and Sen. Kamala Harris. Two years later, six men were arrested for plotting to kidnap Michigan’s Democratic governor, Gretchen Whitmer, and try her for treason before that year’s presidential election.
Capitol Police have tracked an uptick in threats against lawmakers, including in 2017 when a gunman with a history of criticizing then-President Trump and Republican policies opened fire on Republican lawmakers during a baseball practice, killing four and critically wounding Republican Rep. Steve Scalise of Louisiana.
Following the 2022 attack on former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband, Capitol Police stepped up security for congressional leaders, citing a “divisive political climate.”
Judges and prosecutors have also been targeted: According to the U.S. Marshals Service, threats against federal judges have doubled since 2021 to 457 in the fiscal year ending in September 2023. In 2022, a California man was arrested outside Judge Brett Kavanaugh’s home with a suitcase and backpack containing a handgun, ammunition, a crowbar and duct tape, according to court records.
Many polls have found that Americans are disheartened by recent political developments. Two-thirds of people say they are politically fatigued, and nearly nine in 10 say Republicans and Democrats are more interested in fighting each other than solving problems, according to a Pew Research Center survey. The possibility of political violence is sure to make Americans feel even more depressed.
“I think a lot of people just want to go back to the way things were,” said Bill Bailey, 62, a Trump supporter from Grand Haven, Michigan, who was selling merchandise near Trump’s rally Saturday, referring to a time of low inflation and gasoline prices. “People want some normalcy back in their lives. The last eight years have been crazy.”
Blakely, the tile worker, said what gives him hope during these difficult times is that he believes Americans are the most resilient people on earth. “Tomorrow is another day,” Blakely said, “and come Monday, I’ll still be laying tile.”
C. Ryan Barber contributed to this article.
