With a bloodied face, Donald Trump, 78, leaves the stage with his fist in the air. On Saturday, July 13, the former American president was shot in the ear. He was the victim of an assassination attempt during a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, during which the shooter and a passerby were killed, and two spectators were seriously injured.
The images, which have been seen around the world, are reminiscent of other similar attempts, already against political leaders, in the United States and across the world, with often resounding political consequences.
Robert Fico, the Slovak Prime Minister
On May 15, Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico, 59, was shot four times at close range after a remote government meeting in the center of the country, an attack that resulted in two lengthy surgeries. Following the attack, the alleged gunman, identified by Slovak media as poet Juraj Cintula, 71, was charged with terrorist attack and remanded in custody.
Robert Fico was released from hospital two weeks after the attack, on May 31, and made his first public appearance at a ceremony near Bratislava on July 5. Due to his injuries, he walks with a crutch and has also visibly lost weight. The Slovak prime minister leads a three-party coalition consisting of his centrist Smer-SD party, the centrist Hlas party and the far-right SNS party. The government has drawn heavy criticism after passing laws seen as jeopardizing press freedom and judicial independence, as well as ending military aid to Ukraine.
In Japan, Shinzo Abe assassinated during a rally
It was July 8, 2022: Former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe died after being shot during an election rally in Nara, in the west of the country. Aged 67, the former chief executive was on stage as part of a campaign rally for the senatorial elections, when his assailant attacked him.
Tetsuya Yamagami, 41, told police he targeted the former Japanese leader because he held a grudge against a religious organization that allegedly extorted money from his mother, the “Moon” sectwith whom he accused Shinzo Abe of having ties. This murder had sparked strong emotion in Japan and abroad. Shinzo Abe was indeed the Prime Minister to have remained in power the longest in Japan – in office in 2006 for a year, then again from 2012 to 2020.
Jair Bolsonaro stabbed in Brazil during campaign
Former Brazilian far-right head of state Jair Bolsonaro was stabbed while he was still a candidate in the presidential election on September 6, 2018, by a former left-wing activist. The latter told the police that he had acted “on the orders of God”. Aged 63 at the time of the events, Jair Bolsonaro was in the city of Juiz de Fora (Minas Gerais), when he was the victim of a knife attack during a crowd bath. Hit in the abdomen, he suffered internal bleeding.
In statements to TV Globo, the attacker’s lawyer, Pedro Augusto Lima Possa, said that the attacker had assured him that he had acted “for religious reasons, political reasons and also because of the prejudices that Bolsonaro shows every time he talks about race, religion and women.” A great admirer of the military dictatorship (1964-1985) and accustomed to racist, misogynistic and homophobic excesses, Jair Bolsonaro went on to win the election. At the time, the attack had particularly galvanized his supporters.
The United States has a long history of violence against leaders
The assassination attempt against Donald Trump on Saturday is part of a history of political violence in the United States. The last assassination attempt targeted former president Ronald Reagan. On March 30, 1981, the Republican was seriously injured by an unbalanced man, John Hinckley Jr., as he was leaving the Hilton Hotel in Washington. He spent twelve days in hospital.
Some twenty years earlier, Democrat John F. Kennedy was assassinated on November 22, 1963, in Dallas. That day, around 12:30 p.m., as the presidential limousine cut through the crowd, shots rang out: John Fitzgerald Kennedy collapsed, his wife Jackie at his side. The 35th American president was pronounced dead at 1 p.m. from the hospital. The JFK Assassination Commission concluded in 1964 that Lee Harvey Oswald, a former Marine commando who had lived in the Soviet Union, had acted alone. JFK’s brother, Robert Kennedy, “Bobby”, a senator from New York and campaigning that year for the presidency of the United States, was also shot dead in a Los Angeles hotel in 1968.
Four American Presidents Assassinated
In all, four presidents have been assassinated while in office. Beginning with Abraham Lincoln in 1865, killed in his dressing room at Ford’s Theatre in Washington by an actor, John Wilkes Booth. The second lesser-known victim was James Garfield, the 20th president of the United States, who died following an attack in 1881 in the Washington train station.
William McKinley, the 25th President of the United States, also died after being wounded on September 6, 1901 by an anarchist, while receiving dignitaries at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo. Other assassination attempts were made against American presidents such as Andrew Jackson, Theodore and Franklin Roosevelt, Gerald Ford and Ronald Reagan – but without success.
The attempted assassination of Donald Trump is a sign of the constant political tensions that are running through an American society on edge. During the last presidential election, some election officials had already said they had noticed an increase in threats and intimidation against candidates.