Shortly after shots rang out at his Pennsylvania rally, former President Donald Trump’s supporters adorned their social media profiles with pictures of the bloodied presumptive Republican presidential nominee defiantly pumping his fist in the air with an American flag in the background.
This iconic image will appear on the front page of newspapers across the globe and is the latest dramatic event making Trump’s committed supporters more determined than ever to send him back to the White House.
Trump was already set to descend on the Republican National Convention as the party’s presidential standard-bearer for the third straight election. Now he will be received as a conquering hero, the survivor of an assassination attempt captured on camera.
It is the latest twist in a presidential race that has already seen its share of unprecedented turns, from Trump’s felony convictions in the New York hush money case following four indictments in multiple jurisdictions to the post-debate mutiny inside the Democratic Party against President Joe Biden.
The gunfire at Trump’s Pennsylvania rally will also touch off another wave of discussion about political violence in the United States, including the shooting of then-House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA) during a practice session for the Congressional Baseball Game in 2017, the attack on New York GOP gubernatorial candidate Lee Zeldin by a knife-wielding man in 2022, and the riot at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. A rallygoer was killed at the Trump event on Saturday night. “US Secret Service neutralized the shooter, who is now deceased,” was how the agency charged with protecting Trump and Biden summarized the suspect’s fate.
But to have a bullet whiz past the head of a former and perhaps future president, grazing his ear, on the eve of the national nominating convention that will kick off the general election in earnest is a momentous event in the turbulent campaign.
Biden issued a statement condemning the shooting. “I’m grateful to hear that he’s safe and doing well,” he said. “I’m praying for him and his family and for all those who were at the rally, as we await further information.” The president then decamped to a police station in Rehoboth, Delaware, where he was spending the weekend, to deliver live remarks.
“There’s no place in America for this kind of violence,” Biden said. “It’s sick. It’s sick. It’s one of the reasons why we need to unite this country. … We cannot be like this. We cannot condone this.” He left Delaware to return to the White House hours later.
The Biden campaign is pausing its ads “as quickly as possible” after the shooting.
Trump had the presence of mind to stand and face the crowd in the aftermath of the shooting, pumping his fist in the air and mouthing the word “Fight” several times. The audio captured him telling the Secret Service agents trying to evacuate him from the scene to wait as he projected this image to the world.
When then-President Ronald Reagan was shot by John Hinckley Jr. in 1981, he insisted on walking into the hospital on his own power. He collapsed when he got inside. Theodore Roosevelt completed a speech after he endured a failed assassination attempt, then himself a former president campaigning to return to office. “I don’t know whether you fully understand that I have just been shot — but it takes more than that to kill a Bull Moose,” Roosevelt told the crowd.
Trump was not nearly as seriously injured, though a photographer captured how close a bullet came to his head. He nevertheless demonstrated sharp gut-level political and stagecraft instincts under fire, in what supporters and some foes will surely see as a display of physical courage. It comes at a time when Biden’s own vigor and decisiveness is being questioned.
“We all know President Trump is stronger than his enemies,” Gov. Doug Burgum (R-ND) wrote on X. “Today he showed it.” He later reposted this with the memorable photograph of Trump.
Burgum wasn’t the only Republican on Trump’s vice presidential short list to weigh in. Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) excoriated a Democratic lawmaker who proposed removing Trump’s Secret Service protection if sentenced to prison. “Kick his ass out of Congress,” Vance posted on X. “Absolute scumbag.”
Vance also echoed what will be a common refrain in the coming days, raising the question of whether framing Trump as a uniquely malevolent threat to democracy is itself an incitement to violence. Trump supporters believe his opponents will stop at nothing to prevent his return to power.
“The central premise of the Biden campaign is that President Donald Trump is an authoritarian fascist who must be stopped at all costs,” Vance wrote. “That rhetoric led directly to President Trump’s attempted assassination.”
Democrats and prominent media figures sharply criticized Republican political rhetoric after the 2011 shooting of then-Rep. Gabby Giffords.
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) said on social media that God protected Trump. Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) urged prayers for the former president.
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Trump and his campaign thanked the Secret Service and first responders. “President Trump looks forward to joining you all in Milwaukee as we proceed with our convention to nominate him to serve as the 47th President of the United States,” read a joint statement from the campaign and the Republican National Committee.
That convention will be more electric and ecstatic to receive him in the wake of Saturday’s shocking and horrifying events.
