The Trump Shooting: One Year Later
By Samuel Ellis
One year ago, 13th July 2024. Trump rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. The 45th President (soon to be 47th) is speaking to a captive audience. He abruptly turns, grabbing his ear. He finds blood and a bullet hole. He ducks and is covered by secret service. Within seconds, the shooter is dead, and Trump rises, screaming ‘Fight, fight, fight!’.
I personally expected a seismic race for the 2024 presidential election. The previous election in 2020, to which this would follow-up, could be lined up beside hell itself and bear a striking resemblance. Worse yet, this would be a rematch between Joe ‘cognitive decline’ Biden and Donald ‘you can’t see my tax returns’ Trump.
The Trump trilogy was unlikely to conclude without a bang. Carnage was an inevitability.
I knew this from the outset. However, I did not expect something as cliché as an assassination attempt.
The assassination attempts (successful or otherwise) on sitting President’s or candidates is a strange phenomenon in the United States. Abraham Lincoln was blasted from behind by John Wilkes Booth’s pistol during a theatre experience in 1865. President John McKinley was killed by a point-blank bullet in 1901. John F. Kennedy was murdered in Dallas, November 1963. President Reagan was shot in 1981 but survived. Trump is then shot in Butler in 2024 and is again threatened by a shooter on his golf course months later.
Political change enacted by a rifle has become a carefully constructed art form. An instrument of societal influence. One year ago it failed… by an inch.
The events of July 13, 2024, were ominous. ‘Trump, who says he was shot in the ear, was rushed off the stage to safety with blood on his face. The gunman and an audience member are dead, while two attendees who were injured are now stable, according to law enforcement’ [1]. That paints a bloody picture.
‘The FBI… identified the shooter as Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, from Bethel Park, Pennsylvania. The agency said that Crooks acted alone’ [1].
Political theatre often involves murder. Presidential campaigns can implode by removing key figures.
This has happened before. John F. Kennedy’s brother, Robert F. Kennedy Sr, who died before he could run for president, while campaigning for the democratic nomination. His vision for the future matched his late brother’s and signalled great hope for change.
He was assassinated by a crazed man in the kitchen of a hotel, his vision for the future shattered, and dooming the 70’s to post-Nixon darkness.
‘His death… froze him in time as a symbol of that era. For many American liberals, especially after that year’s election culminated in the victory of Richard Nixon, he also became a symbol of not just a better past, but also a better future that might have been.’ [2]
He is ‘the lost president’.
The notorious killing of John F. Kennedy in Dallas, November ’63 holds some parallel to the Trump shooting. For one, it was caught on camera. My first thoughts when the headlines flooded into my awareness was that events had circled back around to this kind of thing.
Viewing the footage of the assassination attempt, I thought of the Zapruder film. I mistakenly thought everyone had seen the Zapruder film. When this came up in conversation a couple months ago, a friend didn’t understand what I was referring to.
Friend: “It would be kind of funny if he [Trump] had got his head blown off on camera [chuckles].”
Me: “No! No! Jesus. That’d be bad. Very bad. Like the Zapruder Film. They put that thing in every newspaper. It really hurt the American public. [pause] You know, the Zapruder film…”
Friend: “What’s the Zapruder film?”
Me: “You’ve never seen the Zapruder film!? You’re kidding, right?”
Friend: “No, what is that?”
Me: “[Long pause], [Sigh]”
He’d never seen brutal footage showing the 35th president’s murder on camera. If you’re lucky, it’s the only time you’ve seen somebody’s head explode. Then again, maybe my friend is the lucky one.
One year later it seems the Trump shooting has had little impact. Unfortunately, Political assassination is likely to continue. A recent case several months ago disturbed me (no easy feat). A food employee, Vance Boelter began a seeming Democrat purge during early summer of this year.
‘Boelter was disguised as a police officer, drove a black SUV with emergency lights turned on, and had a license plate that said “police.” He carried a 9mm handgun, wore a black tactical vest and was disguised with a realistic silicone mask’. [3]
This man had targeted politicians and their families, initiating wholesale slaughter motivated by politics.
‘Authorities in Minnesota said Monday that the man arrested in a Saturday attack that killed one state lawmaker and left another wounded had a “hit list” of 45 elected officials — all Democrats.’ [3]
My first thoughts floated to ‘The Terminator’. A cold inhuman machine, locating his victims via the phone book. Using detached lists of names and addresses belonging to people he intends to kill mercilessly to preserve his vision for the future. Not unlike a political assassin.
‘”Political assassinations are rare. They strike at the very core of our democracy,” said acting U.S. Attorney Joe Thompson for the district of Minnesota.’[3] I’m inclined to agree. Democracy is at risk when political vigilantes take aim.
One year later, political assassination survives. And it’s evolving. I’m uncharacteristically unnerved. Aren’t you?
Bibliography
- Shen, Michelle. “July 14, 2024, coverage of the Trump assassination attempt”. CNN. July 15, 2024. https://edition.cnn.com/politics/live-news/trump-rally-shooting-07-14-24/
- Kaiser, David. “Robert D. Kennedy is remembered as a Liberal Icon. Here’s the Truth about his Politics”. TIME Magazine. June 5, 2018. https://time.com/5301543/robert-kennedy-liberal-politics/
- Anderson, Meg. “The suspect in the shooting of 2 Minnesota lawmakers had a ‘hit list’ of 45 officials”. NPR. June 16, 2025. https://www.npr.org/2025/06/16/nx-s1-5433748/minnesota-shooting-suspect-vance-boelter-arrested-melissa-hortman-john-hoffman
