An Assassination Attempt on Donald Trump

Nine shots fired, one bullet grazed Trump's right ear at event in Pennsylvania.

Joseph Stalin infamously remarked, "Death solves all problems, no man, no problem."

Since 2016, an array of opponents have tried to get rid of Trump through every conceivable means except killing him. Today at a rally in Pennsylvania, a gunman tried to follow Stalin’s cold logic.

Apparently 9 shots were fired from either the left or the right side, as Trump was looking to his right—presenting his head in profile to the audience directly before him—when a bullet grazed his right ear. It seems likely that at least someone in crowd in the line of fire must have been struck by at least one of the bullets. Indeed, preliminary reports are indicating that one person in the crowd was killed, and the shooter has also purportedly been killed.

Like the recent politically motivated trial in New York, it seems likely that this assassination attempt will galvanize support for Trump. Even people who don’t like him will probably be moved by this gesture of defiance, which certainly required a great deal of mental composure, given that Trump probably had no way of knowing if the shooter had been neutralized at the moment the photograph was taken. Note that the Secret Service agent to his left seems far more anxious than Trump.

The incident reminds me of the attempted assassination of Teddy Roosevelt in 1912. After being struck by a would-be assassin’s bullet, Roosevelt ascertained that it was not a mortal wound, and delivered his speech as planned. As he famously remarked to the crowd with the opening statement: "Friends, I shall ask you to be as quiet as possible. I don't know whether you fully understand that I have just been shot—but it takes more than that to kill a Bull Moose.”

It will be fascinating to find out the identity of the assassin and with whom he has been communicating. As this aggregation of reports assembled by ZeroHedge points out, notable figures have recently used intemperate language indicating that they would not be displeased if Trump were to be assassinated.