On Saturday night, a bullet grazed Donald Trump in Pennsylvania, but one rally attendee was killed and two were seriously injured.
They have also damaged the 2024 presidential campaign and damaged the social and cultural fabric of the country, dramatically shattering the illusion of security and safety in American politics that had been built up over decades.
Trump suffered only minor injuries, but his life was in danger: A photo taken by The New York Times' Doug Mills showed a bullet hole cutting through the air near the former president's head.
Not since Ronald Reagan was shot by John Hinckley Jr. in 1981 has there been such a dramatic act of violence against a president, or a presidential candidate.
It harkens back to a dark period in American history more than half a century ago, when two Kennedy brothers — one a president, the other a presidential candidate — were killed by an assassin's bullet and civil rights leaders like Medgar Evers, Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X were killed in political violence.
Like today, the 1960s were plagued by intense political polarization and dysfunction, and firearms and individuals willing to use them had the potential to change the course of history.
It's hard to predict what impact Saturday's events will have on America and its political discourse. Already, there have been bipartisan calls for calmer speech and national unity.
Hours after the incident, President Joe Biden, Trump's rival in November's presidential election, appeared in front of cameras in Delaware to make a statement to reporters.
“There is no place in America for this kind of violence. This is terrible,” he said. “We shouldn't do this. We can't tolerate this.”
The president later spoke by phone with the former president, who is due to cut short a planned beach weekend and return to the White House late Saturday night.
But the violence also quickly seeped into the bitter partisan trench warfare that has characterized U.S. politics in recent decades, with some Republicans pinning the blame for the attack on Democrats, who have used fearsome rhetoric to say the former president poses a threat to American democracy.
“The Biden campaign's central argument is that President Donald Trump is an authoritarian fascist who must be stopped at all costs,” Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance, who is reportedly on the shortlist to be Trump's running mate, wrote on social media. “This statement directly led to the assassination attempt on President Trump.”
Trump campaign manager Chris LaCivita said “left-wing activists, Democratic donors and even Joe Biden” needed to be held accountable for the “nasty rhetoric” that led to Saturday's attack and to vote in November.
Democrats might disagree, but many on the left used similar language to blame the right for rhetoric in the months before the 2011 shooting death of Rep. Gabby Giffords in Arizona.
Image source, Getty Images
The violence in Pennsylvania is sure to cast a long shadow over the Republican National Convention, which begins on Monday, with stepped-up security protocols and protests and counter-protests near the convention venue that could take on a new, ominous air.
Meanwhile, there will be even more attention nationwide when the party's candidate takes to the stage on Thursday night.
A photo of the former president, covered in blood and with his fist raised, is sure to spark a rally in Milwaukee. The Republican Party is already planning to make strength and rugged masculinity a central theme, and Saturday's incident will likely give it new energy.
“These are the warriors America needs!” Eric Trump wrote on social media, along with a photo of his father after the shooting.
The US Secret Service will also come under increased scrutiny for its handling of security at the Trump rally, where individuals with high-powered rifles were able to get within firing range of the presidential candidate.
House Speaker Mike Johnson has promised a thorough House investigation, which will take time.
But for now, one thing is clear: This uncharted election year has taken American politics in a new, deadly direction.
