Trump tries to regain spotlight after assassination attempt
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By portraying Trump as a fighter and survivor, his campaign hopes to capture Americans’ fractured attention.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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WASHINGTON – Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is poised to capitalise on the second attempt on his life in recent months
By portraying Trump as a fighter and survivor, his campaign hopes to capture Americans’ fractured attention and lay the blame for yet another assassination attempt on Ms Harris and Democrats.
Trump told Fox News in an interview on Sept 16 that Ms Harris’ “highly inflammatory” rhetoric inspired the gunman, a claim for which he did not provide any evidence.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation has not yet provided details on the would-be shooter’s motive.
The timing of the foiled assassination attempt on Sept 15, while the former president was on the golf course at his West Palm Beach club, came at a key moment of weakness for the Trump campaign.
Allies had been attempting to tamp down post-debate narratives about Ms Harris’ strong showing, controversy over Trump’s unfounded comments about immigrants eating pets
Instead, Trump can campaign this week as a figure unscathed by what he casts as evil forces looking to take him down.
He will continue his campaign schedule this week – just 50 days out from Election Day – as planned, according to two people familiar with his itinerary.
This week’s schedule will put him in close proximity of voters and allies, an arrangement known to boost Trump’s mood.
He launched a cryptocurrency platform on Sept 16 and will hold rallies in Michigan and New York on Sept 17 and 18, give a speech to a pro-Israel group in Washington, and cap off the week with a rally in North Carolina on Sept 21.
Ms Harris is also planning a series of events in swing states this week.
Polls show Trump and Ms Harris virtually tied and within the margin of error in major battleground states.
Despite pundits and polls largely saying Ms Harris won last week’s presidential debate
Ensconced at his private club Mar-a-Lago on Sept 16, Trump met the US Secret Service’s acting director Ronald Rowe in the afternoon. Mr Rowe is the replacement for Ms Kimberly Cheatle, who resigned after the first assassination attempt on Trump in July.
Just two months ago, a bullet grazed Trump’s ear at a rally
However, that was short-lived as his RNC acceptance speech struck similar themes to his rally speeches.
“The damage that he’s done to this country is unthinkable,” Trump said of US President Joe Biden, his then opponent, in the convention address.
Trump is already using the latest attempt on his life as a way to cudgel his current Democratic opponent. “Because of this communist left rhetoric, the bullets are flying, and it will only get worse!” he said in a post on Truth Social.
Ms Harris and Mr Biden have condemned political violence after both attacks.
“There’s no place for political violence,” Mr Biden said on Sept 16. “In America, we resolve our differences at the ballot box, not at the end of a gun.”
He went on to commend the Secret Service, before adding that it was assessing whether adjustments needed to be made to the former president’s security detail.
The President spoke with Trump and “conveyed his relief that he is safe”, White House senior deputy press secretary Emilie Simons wrote on social media platform X on the evening of Sept 16.
She said the two men “shared a cordial conversation and former president Trump expressed his thanks for the call”.
Trump, during an X Spaces event on the night of Sept 16 to discuss his new crypto platform, said Mr Biden “was very nice today”.
“He called up to make sure I was OK, to make sure that we have any suggestions or anything. We do need more people on my detail, because we have 50,000 to 60,000 people showing up to events.”
The second assassination attempt has provided the Trump campaign with an opportunity to fuel fund raising, which slowed as Ms Harris gained in the polls.
The Trump campaign sent out several messages to donors in the immediate aftermath, while supporters expressed a sense of outrage.
“The former president is more determined than ever to win,” said Mr Ed McMullen, who served as Trump’s ambassador to Switzerland. “His supporters are furious and determined to win because the narrative the Democrats – extremists – have used for the past near decade has caused the unhinged left to react with violence.”
Trump, the first former US president convicted of a felony, has drawn criticism for his own language during the campaign, including attacks questioning Ms Harris’ racial identity and on immigrants.
His legal woes include a case involving his efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss, which culminated in supporters rioting at the US Capitol on Jan 6, 2021.
New precautions
On Sept 15, the Trump campaign locked down its campaign headquarters in West Palm Beach.
Top campaign aides Chris LaCivita and Susie Wiles sent staff an e-mail on the night of Sept 15 urging them to remain vigilant as they went about their daily routines.
“As we enter the last 50 days of President Trump’s campaign, we must remember that we will only be able to Save America from those who seek to destroy it by working together as one team,” the e-mail said.
Both Democratic and Republican lawmakers have called for greater protection for the former president, and Mr Biden indicated that Trump may need more security personnel.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer on Sept 16 said Congress is prepared to provide additional resources to the Secret Service.
Mr Rowe, speaking at a briefing on the investigation, said he was “confident that we will get what we need”.
“We cannot have failures. And in order to do that, we’re going to have some hard conversations with Congress,” he added.
Mr Jared Moskowitz, a Democrat from Florida, called for more real-time information from the federal authorities to counter conspiracy theories that divide the country.
“You have people in this country on the left who think the attempted assassination on former president Trump was staged, and you have people on the right who think it was the deep state, and that’s because they’re not getting any information,” he told MSNBC on Sept 16. BLOOMBERG
