Bloodied but unbeaten: Trump gets a shot at immortality

This latest assassination attempt should make the US sit up and reassess itself both as a society and as a democracy There will be red faces in the security establishment about how an armed young man reached a rooftop that had a clear line of sight to the podium where Trump was standing in Butler, Pennsylvania on Saturday. So a 20-year-old man—supposedly a “registered Republican”—took these calls seriously and let off a volley of shots at a campaign rally, one of which narrowly missed Trump’s brain—it hit his ear—but others killed a bystander and injured more. The White House and key departments of the federal government have been getting visibly alarmed by the possible return of Trump to the Oval Office, especially after President Joe Biden’s stubborn refusal to step aside in favour of a younger candidate who could offer a more robust challenge. If it emerges that the young man had sympathies towards the Stop Trump project, it will affect many other electoral races besides the one for the White House in November as Pennsylvania is again a crucial ‘swing state’. If the defining image of this election for the Democrat incumbent Biden is of slack-jawed, eye-twitching confusion on a debate podium, the most memorable one of his Republican challenger is far more dramatic: Trump with blood running down his cheek, fist raised defiantly as the American flag soars behind him and Secret Service agents scramble to surround him.