Trump Shot? Why Am I Not Surprised?
Anyone who feigns shock at what happened on July 13, 2024, is lying. There was nothing shocking about it. Tragic, yes, for the people killed and injured, and for our country. But shocking? Not hardly.
Trump has made stochastic violence a thing. The man has been stoking violence since the day he came down The Escalator. He said he’d pay the legal bills of people who do violence in his name. He said he could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and not lose any supporters. He let the January 6 rioters riot. He calls those rioters “hostages.” He said those rioters with weapons weren’t there for him, as if that made it OK for them to be there for anyone.
Violent rhetoric begets violent action. Yes, I am blaming the victim, not just because this victim is the greatest threat to our country’s survival since the Civil War, but because he is also an advocate of violence¹. Given Trump’s announced plans to destroy our democracy, and, most notably, the senate’s refusal to disqualify him by peaceful means after January 6, it seems inevitable that some hothead would, as Brutus said of Caesar, think him as a serpent’s egg and try to kill him in the shell.
The shooter who tried to rid us of this awful man was aiming at an announced tyrant. The shooter was meeting violence with violence. While the Proud Boys were standing by and standing back, the shooter was taking action. But assassination is the A-bomb of domestic politics…