n July 13, former president of the United States Donald Trump was shot in the right ear. His assailant, 20-year old Thomas Matthew Crooks, turned out to be a registered Republican. The shooting took place during a campaign rally where Trump was supposed to address his supports. Two of them were seriously injured, too. The shooter was killed on the spot. The assassination attempt is still being investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and other agencies. Shielded by the security team, Trump raised a clenched fist and defiantly shouted, “USA, USA.” In a social media post a few hours later, he said, “I knew immediately that something was wrong in that I heard a whizzing sound, shots and immediately felt the bullet ripping through the skin… Much bleeding took place, so I realised then what was happening.” In a rare show of respect, President Joe Biden condemned the shooting and called his rival.

Assassinations have left indelible marks on the country’s history. From the establishment of the republic in 1776 to the present day, such events have sparked significant societal changes and exposing deep-rooted tensions within the American society. One of the earliest political assassinations in US history occurred in 1804 when Alexander Hamilton, one of the founding fathers and a former secretary of the Treasury, was killed in a duel with the then vice president, Aaron Burr. The duel highlighted the intense political rivalries of the time and underscored the risks inherent in the young nation state’s political landscape. In another shooting incident in 1865, the then president Abraham Lincoln was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth, a confederate sympathiser. Lincoln’s assassination came at a critical juncture in the US history. The great Civil War had just ended.

Political violence and assassinations continued in the 20th Century. President William McKinley was killed by anarchist Leon Czolgosz in 1901. A few decades later, President John F Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas, by Lee Harvey Oswald in 1963. Kennedy’s death had lasting implications for public safety, civil rights movement and domestic and foreign policy. Five years later, Martin Luther King Jr, the famous civil rights leader, was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee. King’s death sparked widespread riots and protests across the United States, furthering exposing racial and socioeconomic schism within the American society and capitalist economic order established globally in the wake of the World War II. The Kennedy family faced another tragedy when Senator Robert F Kennedy, a brother of the JF Kennedy, was assassinated while campaigning for presidency in Los Angeles, California. His death deepened the sense of turmoil and uncertainty in a decade marked by social upheaval and political unrest.

As US president, Ronald Reagan, was lucky to survive an assassination attempt by John Hinckley Jr, raising serious concerns about the security of government officials. Politics remained volatile and divisive in the US from the 1960s to the 1980s. There were more than 2,500 politically motivated bombings in the US in 1971 and 1972. Much of this violence occurred in reaction to the US bombing of civilians in Vietnam. In recent years, too, assassination attempts have been made on several public figures. In October 2022, David De Pape, a far-right Canadian conspiracy theorist, attacked Paul Pelosi, the husband of Nancy Pelosi, the 52nd speaker of the United States House of Representatives.

With a ‘nicely’ bandaged right ear, Trump conveniently secured the presidential nomination during the recently convened Republication National Convention. He and his pick for vice president, JD Vance, are leaving no stone unturned to malign the Democrats for their alleged failures.

Expectedly, many Trump supporters have blamed the Democrats for the assassination attempt on their leader. Trump’s nominee for vice president, Senator Vance, castigated his political rivals in the following words, “[t]oday is not just some isolated incident. The central premise of the Biden campaign is that President Donald Trump is an authoritarian fascist who must be stopped at all costs. That rhetoric led directly to President Trump’s attempted assassination.” Trump himself has accused the FBI of an assassination plot during the agency’s raid on his Mar-a-Lago residence in August 2022.

The latest assassination attempt has arguably provided a new lease of life to the Trump team which was battling various litigations initiated by their rivals from the Biden-led Democratic Party. With a ‘nicely’ bandaged right ear, Trump conveniently secured the presidential nomination during the recently convened Republication National Convention. He and his pick for vice president, Senator JD Vance, are leaving no stone unturned to malign the Democrats for their alleged failure to safeguard American interests.

The Trump team is fanning anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim and anti-minoritysentiments to win over the undecided white voters, particularly in the swing states and highlighting Biden’s weaknesses in ensuring the safety of white Americans. The Trump-led Republicans have maintained a partisan stance on the US-NATO relations and US-Mexico ties.

On the global stage, Trump views the Russia-Ukraine war from a mercantilist perspective. If he gets into the presidency once more, Trump may withdraw financial support to the war-stricken Ukraine and possibly negotiate an exit strategy with Kremlin. Trump 2.0 is likely to be tough on China in terms of imposing high tariffs on Chinese products, which the latter is likely to reciprocate.

The assassination attempt has important implications for the Biden-led Democrats. First, the Biden team may have been pleased to see the media attention being diverted away from the president who had a poor show in his first debate with Trump. The American and perhaps the world media is overwhelmingly focused on Trump. Second, the Biden team has an opportunity to expose the poisonous consequences of Trump-ism for the American society by referring to the political ideology of Matthew Crooks. If Trump is elected again, they might argue, the US society will witness more racial segregation, bigotry and socioeconomic disparities.

Given his flawed policy on Israel-Gaza war and his political stubbornness, it will be a herculean task for President Biden to outclass a defiant Trump. No wonder some prominent Democrats are calling for replacing him with an energetic, dedicated and pro-peace politician for the November presidential election.

The writer has a PhD in political science from Heidelberg University and a post-doc from UC Berkeley. He is a DAAD, FDDI and Fulbright fellow and an associate professor. He can be reached at ejaz.bhatty@gmail.com