One Inch Away 

On the Attempted Assassination of Trump and Our Political Moment

Americans should all pray prayers of gratitude today that God, in his Providence, ordained that the bullet intended for Donald Trump’s head missed its mark by an inch. Our nation was one inch away from cataclysm. But, with one disaster averted, now is no time for complacency or naive bromides.   

Our nation is a tinderbox. That it did not explode over the weekend is, in part, a testament to the right’s reticence to engage in direct action and political violence. There will be no summer of “fiery but mostly peaceful protests” to eulogize the man, Corey Comperatore, who died in the way in which he lived – by all accounts, a beloved patriot, husband, father, civil servant and Christian. That is because the American right does not tend to engage in escalating provocations like the left (which is not at all to say that the right is incapable of political violence). If the American right behaved like a mirror image of the American left – rioting, looting, burning down cities at the slightest development – we’d have had civil war decades ago. The repeated pattern over the 20th and 21st centuries demonstrates that the right tends to forebear in the face of leftist provocations until the things reach a breaking point, upon which the right reacts with swift and brutal efficiency. 

There are deeply-ingrained reasons for the right’s forbearance. The right is generally composed of people who know how much they have to lose, who – being realists rather than utopians – are deeply grateful for whatever imperfect measure of justice and stability we are blessed to have in our days. Thus, while the left uses provocation, direct action and political violence as routine tools for rapid social change (supposedly to make our society more just), the right resorts to political violence only in very exceptional cases, when absolutely necessary: when a contest is deemed to be a matter of life and death. 

Cassandras (much like bear market speculators) are mocked and marginalized until one day, suddenly, they aren’t. Tucker Carlson and Charles Haywood are cranks until one day, suddenly, they aren’t. Never mind that Thomas Matthew Crook’s actions were eminently foreseeable: if you incessantly screech for 10 years straight that Trump is literally Hitler, is it surprising if one of the millions of psychologically disturbed youth of the nation imagines himself to be a new (thankfully, much less competent) Bonhoeffer? Rhetoric has consequences, as left talking heads constantly remind us. 

To be sure, many unanswered questions remain. What precisely motivated Trump’s would-be assassin? How was it possible for him to evade detection while climbing onto a nearby rooftop with a rifle? Why did the Secret Service take so long to respond, given reports that the crowd and a local law enforcement official spotted the shooter some time before he fired? Why did the Biden regime fail to honor repeated requests over the last several months to give the Trump campaign better security resources?

Yet, enough is known to make some basic sense of our political moment.

A successful assassination of Donald Trump – following the long years of CIA and FBI treachery, media lies, 2020 election manipulation, and abusive prosecution – would have unleashed hell. It could have been the straw that broke the back of the right’s long-standing forbearance, unleashing escalating forces far beyond anyone’s ability to cabin or control. That’s what makes this assassination attempt different from prior shootings. We’re a different country. 

The right is incredibly moralized. A pro-Trump meme originated in 2016 that went to the effect of “They aren’t coming for me. They are coming for you, and I am just in the way.” That Trump is still standing and pumping his fist is a powerful psychological symbol, inspiring waves of new endorsements from the likes of Elon Musk and Bill Ackman, amidst other reports that even places like San Francisco were awash with MAGA hats following the unsuccessful shooting. Courage truly is contagious. 

For all his foibles, Trump’s instinctive response to being shot – instincts that are not at all coachable – made explicit something that the right has seen in him at his best: Trump is a great man. History has come roaring back. 

Holding off his security detail, pumping his fist and shouting to the crowd shows a spiritedness that we’ve not seen in the White House in a long time. And in the aftermath of the shooting – when he could have theoretically sparked nationwide protests at the drop of his red MAGA hat – Trump released conciliatory statements calling for unity and God’s blessings on America. 

Reportedly, he has rewritten his speech slated for Thursday at the Republican National Convention (RNC). In an interview with the Washington Examiner he again acknowledged that “God alone” had spared his life and said that the experience on Saturday had led him to promote a message of national unity at the RNC rather than attack his opponent. “It’s a chance to bring the country together. I was given that chance.”

In this reaction, we see very clearly that Trump is far closer to the way of the American greats–a Teddy Roosevelt or Ronald Reagan–than the shrieking leftist media, or the President who calls himself a return to normalcy. 

Here’s what he said about the now deservedly iconic picture: 

“The energy coming from the people there in that moment, they just stood there; it’s hard to describe what that felt like, but I knew the world was looking. I knew that history would judge this, and I knew I had to let them know we are OK.” 

Love him or hate him, any historically conscious observer must admit both the gravity of that moment and the uniqueness of the man in it. “I said, I’ve got to walk out, I have to walk out. I did not want to be carried out,” he told the Examiner, adding that he even wanted to keep speaking. 

After last Saturday, no one can claim that Trump is just in it for himself. Men don’t take bullets for their own vanity, but great men do for their country. While Trump is associated with and guilty of many personal vices, he now stands for many public virtues: resolve, patriotism, and courage. Character does, indeed, count. 

And over the past 48 hours, Trump has exhibited a remarkable sense of prudence. These are all the public virtues of a statesman. Whatever happens between now and November, nothing should diminish the moment when this became clear–for the first time for many Americans. 

Reactions from the left are evidently contrastive here and instructive. For years they’ve laid claim to the moral high ground. No more. 

When Ronald Reagan was nearly fatally wounded from an assassination attempt the media itself became an engine of unity. It was a source of bipartisanship. That was then. This is now. At a concert Sunday evening, Jack Black mockingly told the next assassin, whoever he might be, to not miss. David Frum took to the Atlantic to, in so many words, blame Trump for, well, everything, including his own would-be assassin. The talking heads at CNN could barely bring themselves to say the word, “assassination.” The View blamed “white supremacy” for whatever Frum forgot to pile on Trump.  

Of course, the left’s media and entertainment has been like this since Trump descended the golden escalator. Remember when it was considered highbrow humor for Kathy Griffin to hold a bloody, severed head of Trump? But it is truly bizarre–revealingly so–for the usual suspects to double down not two days after a former and likely future president came within an inch of his life, and the country within an inch of serious upheaval. Their moralizing is irresponsible and selfish. It’s, apparently, good enough for them to simply know who to blame according to their perverse worldview. For all their talk of democratic and constitutional norms, they exhibit a shocking disregard for common decency, not to mention patriotism. But, again, “Hitler” deserves no decency. Maybe we should be more worried about youngsters reading the Atlantic.   

Expect the left to become only more desperate after this past weekend. Trump has been impeached, indicted, and convicted to almost no effect. Which is to say, with each vector of escalation applied, his popularity has only increased. He has now survived an assassination attempt. He appears, at this moment, both literally and metaphorically bulletproof. That is a scary thing to his most ardent opponents. Pray against escalation, political and otherwise. Trump himself is clearly calling for de-escalation, peace, and unity. But prepare for a volatile–we pray, non-violent–four months.  

On Saturday, we were one inch away. Today, we are one inch away. The best thing we can hope for is that the right wins this fall, and has the political will to rule well and by strength for the good of our nation and within the bounds of legality and justice. 

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