The ear is centimeters away from the brain. That is the very distance between our world and one of pandemonium. Had former President Trump not moved his head at the exact moment he did, America may be a very different place.

The nation, steeped in years of intense polarization, may have reached a fever pitch. Right-wingers would have reacted in ways we cannot predict. If January 6th was the result of a lost election, imagine the result of Trump’s assassination.

The afternoon of July 13 was the most significant date in America since 9/11. An armed gunman fired multiple rounds from a nearby rooftop, narrowly grazing the former president’s head and killing a spectator.

The gunman’s motive is still unclear. He is purported to have been a reclusive youth with an interest in history and politics. The gunman himself is unimportant, not worth remembering. If his aim was to snuff out the populist fervor of Trump’s campaign, he missed in more ways than one. 

When in Rome, Do as the Romans Do

Political violence is not new in America. Statistically, being president is the most deadly job in America, not to mention the hardest. Out of the 46 American presidents, four have been killed in office and two have been wounded; that means 8% of presidents have been assassinated. Additionally, about 37% of presidents have had attempts on their lives.

For perspective, it is believed around 20% of Roman emperors were assassinated. It would seem the civility of modern politics has not come as far as we think. This tradition of violence began while Rome was still a republic, when populist demagogues began challenging the power of the traditional elites of the patrician senatorial class.

When Roman elites began losing their grip on power, they responded by assassinating their political rivals, sparking decades of civil wars which led to the four-hundred-year-old republic’s collapse into empire. 

The United States is obviously not Rome, it has had only one Civil War and that was over 160 years ago. But it mirrors Rome’s shifting pendulum; the rise of populists like Trump against the traditional elites of Washington D.C.’s monopoly on power.

Civil war is extremely unlikely, although it is discussed often; so much so that it inspired a blockbuster film as well as worrying the Canadian government government regarding its potential.

Years of Artillery Lead to One Bullet

Trump’s notorious character has been assassinated for the better part of a decade, treated to an unrelenting bombardment in the media for eight years. He has been labeled everything from conman to criminal to Hitler. Of late, the accusation has been that he is a “threat to democracy.”

The former president has been subjected to unending lawfare: the weaponization of the justice system. He has been involved in litigation from classified documents, real-estate fraud, an unprecedented two impeachments, and conviction on 34 counts of felony falsification of business records. Few in American history have been so litigiously targeted. As Joe Biden himself said before the attempt on the former President’s life “It’s time to put Trump in a bullseye.”

One wonders why Trump, a political outsider, was targeted to the degree he was, when the likes of H.W. and W Bush, Bill and Hilary Clinton, Joe Biden and Nancy Pelosi have never received even a fraction of Trump’s derision. All of those names either were once, or remain power players in American politics; and it is rather unlikely they would be any less guilty under the same probing. 

It does not seem far-fetched to imagine that the many years of demonizing Trump led those who are mentally ill to develop violent fixations on the 45th President of the United States. Who is to say why the boy from Pennsylvania who was obsessed with history shot at Trump, what is certain however is that he will forever be a part of it.

A Blood Red Tide 

Trump appeared publicly for the first time since the shooting at the 2024 Republican National Convention. He entered the arena to thunderous applause, with a bandaged ear and a look of reserved emotion on his face. There, he was made the official Republican nominee and named Junior Senator J.D. Vance as his would-be Vice President.

He leads in the polls, most notably in the six battleground states. The widespread renown of his assassination attempt may drive otherwise apathetic voters to the ballot box. Only time will tell how the images of a bloodied Trump will affect the election. 

Acknowledgment: The opinions expressed in this article are those of the individual author.