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The attempted assassination of Donald Trump is yet another horrifying example of how prevalent political violence has become in the United States.
Leaders across the political spectrum have wasted no time in denouncing the shooting. President Joe Biden said: “There’s no place in America for this kind of violence … this is just unheard of.”
The problem with that statement, Emma Shortis writes, is that incidents of political violence have marked the country’s entire history.
So, the shooting of Trump is not really that surprising. What is concerning, she says, is the way the shooting has immediately been weaponised on social media, with conspiracy theories unfolding in real time.
Shortis says this “means the potential for this kind of violence to escalate is very high”.
In a companion piece, our colleagues in the US have interviewed Arie Perliger, an expert on political assassinations. He agrees with Shortis, saying:
“The first thing that I thought about is that we were basically one inch from a potential civil war.”
For Trump supporters, the assassination attempt fits squarely with the narrative they’ve been disseminating in recent months that there are concerted efforts to prevent Trump from returning to the White House.
He adds: “If both sides are hammering into people again and again that losing an election is the end of the world, then it’s not a surprise that eventually people are willing to take the law into their hands and to engage in violence.”
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Justin Bergman
International Affairs Editor
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