Some weird shit is going down this election cycle, and weirder shit is likely to happen soon, and the weirdest shit is likely to happen after the election.
One of the weirdest things to happen in a long time is the attempted assassination of Trump. We’ve had two assassination attempts on the Old FART. We haven’t had a candidate for the presidency shot at since George Wallace was crippled in 1972. We haven’t had a president or candidate shot at since Obama in 2011. And, we haven’t had a president or candidate actually shot since Reagan in 1981. Town and Country, interestingly enough, has a complete run down of all 17 assassinations or attempts of a president or candidate. Go have a look. It’s really interesting, and not a long read, either.
And, now we’ve had two attempts on Trump’s life that weren’t really attempts at all. It buggars the question: how could this possibly be? Why is Trump being targeted by such fiercely incompetent assassins? There are three theories:
The Democratic Rhetoric is to Blame!
Is it like Trump says that all of the accusations of being a fascist wanna be dictator bent on creating a single-party pseudo-democratic minority-rule oligarchy so he can loot the country like Putin is looting Russia have riled up the rabble against him?
There are several problems with this theory. First, the most violence the Democrats and the liberal-progressive end of spectrum has advocated has been with votes. We are desperate for a landslide victory over Trump, the Republicans, and MAGA. We need to bury them with votes. It is the only way to get rid of them for another generation or so.
And second, for stochastic terrorism to be effective, it has to direct the violent towards a target. The only people using violent rhetoric are Trump, the Republicans, and MAGA. It’s ironic that Trump has been trying to gin up a civil war and the only thing he gets are two weak game assassination attempts, especially since they’ve already gotten several mass shootings, the floor of Comet Ping Pong Pizza shot in an attempt to locate their non-existent basement, a couple of FBI office attacked, Paul Pelosi brained with a hammer, and Maddog Greene gunning for Nancy Pelosi (allegedly) during the 6 January Insurrection.
None of these folks were attacking people with vote-shooting guns, were they? So, probably not Democratic accusations of trying to steal an election after having successfully stolen one and a failed insurrection caused these two guys to make assassination attempts on Trump.
Trump Is So Unpopular People Are Shooting At Him
It could be that he is being targeted because he is profoundly unpopular. The negative feelings surrounding the Old FART are so deep and abiding that people who act on emotional impulse are responding to our collective apprehensions, disgust, and exhaustion of that same old tired divisive dog-and-pony show that Trump trots out onto every stage he possibly can with violence.
These attempts maybe inspired by all the Trump-centered dysphoria that we’ve been living through since he blundered onto our political center stage. The shooters are just acting on the Zeitgeist of our age.
Trump has simply pushed them over the proverbial edge.
They’re Both Black Flag Operations
Both of these attacks may very well be black flag operations. We’ll never really know about the first shooter because he died in the attempt. Although, it does sound like he was more mass shooter drawn to a very big tempting target than he was politically motivated. Still, he could’ve been paid to do it.
Apparently, the second shooter was a disaffected Trump supporter who was so disappointed in Trump that he wrote a whole 291-page book about it. However, that doesn’t rule out a guy who would be paid to take a shot at Trump. The two can be true simultaneously. In fact, it makes him an even better fall guy.
But the strongest argument for this being an inside job is that the Old FART has NEVER won anything fair and square in his life. N-O-T-H-I-N-G. He’s running complete scared now right now that he’s looking for any way possible to win. There is no hair-brained plan too ludicrous.
He’s looking at some of the worst narcissistic wounds in his whole like happening and those would be on top of the ones that have already pushed him to narcissistic collapse. Seriously. He could do real prison time if he loses. He could lose to a BLACK WOMAN. He could lose ANOTHER ELECTION.
The loss to Biden was such a narcissistic wound that he can’t quite get it up to run against Harris. He’s in such a state of frenetic narcissistic collapse, fearing yet another major failure that he will stop at nothing to win. He’s going to cheat every way he can. Of course he would hire people to hire people to take shots at him. Of course he would.
So, what are your theories? I’d love to hear them in the comments.
The Psy of Life 
The first one, well, we’ll never know for sure, of course. I hesitate to conjecture because another human lost his life there, and a family lost him.
The second one, well, the second one wasn’t one. Yes, a guy probably was by the fence of MaraLago, probably set himself up with some stuff in case he became inspired? to do something, but we don’t really even know if he was there when they saw his weapon through the fence. He was apprehended peacefully, so maybe he’ll spill his guts, or maybe he was paid. Hmm. Maybe he’ll still spill his guts. Still, the pattern the Don has set with paying contractors, well. I just don’t see how this guy gets more than some weapons charges and trespassing. He didn’t do anything-he didn’t even try to do anything. I’m not sticking up for people who do what he did do, but he’s not an assassin, and did not commit attempted assassination. Unless more evidence comes about.
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Howdy Ali!
You make some really valid points, but the press describes him as an assassin, and, maybe, that’s all that’s really needed in our information-disinformation environment. Trump also has called it an assassination attempt and recently said at a rally that he was going to Springfield and maybe he wouldn’t come back clearly implying that he could be assassinated there. The crowd there seemed unsure of how to respond to that although eventually they did cheer.
I think — and I’m embarrassed that I didn’t think of this in time for the post — the real problem is the proliferation of small arms in the country.
Occam’s Razor suggests that it was nothing more than a person with poor impulse and emotional control and limited planning ability, but the rise of the Nazis suggests it could be an attempt at a Reichstag Fire-type event. And, Trump is literally desperate enough and foolish enough to try anything. I could see some jackass selling him on the plot, especially, if the agreement was that no shot would be fired.
Huzzah!
Jack
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Well, Jack, I gotta say, those two sources you mention are absolutely not dependable. My test is to flip the party designation; if this had happened around a Democrat, otherwise the same setup, and the Democrat called it an assassination attempt, how many synonyms for drama queen would we have learned by now? (Not to mention, the press would be bandying their new word, “Lie,” about all over.)
The press called it an apparent attempted assassination, then as evidence has become public have called it an apparent attempted assassination plot. All those words mean things, and those of us who understand our language know that’s as close as US press is coming to calling a Republican a liar and/or a drama queen.
Stuff like that bugs me, though. It’s not correct to call this an assassination attempt. Not in any sense of those words. Kinda tight butted about it, ain’t I? Maybe it comes from reading too much, and working for lawyers.
I, too, don’t like that I didn’t bring the proliferation of weapons in the US into the discussion; it was late and I wanted to go to bed, and we all know that M-A-L scenario wouldn’t have taken place as it did if gun laws were reasonable in the US. So it’s no skin off your nose for not bringing it in, either, because I did, and will tonight, sleep soundly! 😄
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Howdy Ali!
When it was first being reported, it was called an assassination attempt and other variations. That has set the narrative in the popular imagination. It forms an anchoring point. Now, as more has been discovered through investigation, we see it as a plot, but for most people we’ll remember this as the election when there were two attempts on Trump’s life no matter how inaccurate of a description that is.
I don’t think either were serious attempts on his life. I think the first one was a mass shooter with his best target of opportunity on the day he had the least ability to control the impulse. That Trump was there and happened to be hit by shrapnel is just coincidental. I have no idea what the second fellow thought he was doing, but it wasn’t a serious attempt.
More concerning, though, is that the assassination barrier has been breached. For the next few weeks, we have to be wary of others being inspired by these two incidents. There is a high probability that there will be other attempts at taking the lives of other politicians this election cycle.
Huzzah!
Jack
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Copycats are, indeed, a concern, I agree wholeheartedly.
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BLACK FLAG. WTF already. People, use your brains.
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It really seems like they were looking for bounce that Trump got from the first assassination attempt, but they didn’t want to take the risk of actually having a shot fired at him. The whole thing seems like somebody’s super great idea of how to get the sympathy vote for Trump and villainize the Dems. Just another page out of the fascists propaganda playbook.
Jack
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Yeppo, baby.
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On the first one, I tend to favor the “would be mas shooter and big target of opportunity” explanation, possibly combined with daddy issues with his MAGA father. Crooks has all the ear marks, and school was out for the Summer.
As for number two, I remember that Hell hath no wrath like that of a turned off cult member, and converts make the best zealots. Recruiting and paying a guy with his history would be risky. But, the fact that he sat in the shrubberies for 12 hours waiting for a supposedly unscheduled event and then ran at the first shot does begin to look a bit like theater. It was pretty dumb to have the gun barrel sticking out of the bushes before the target even got to that hole. The Secret Service would have been incompetent not to see it. Maybe that was the point, and he was waiting not near the gun for it to be discovered, and the shots from the agents was mission accomplished. But for his car being photographed by a civilian bystander, he might have gotten away clean. Still, that seems out of character. If he was paid, whoever it was has to hope they successfully hid their real identity from him now that he’s been caught.
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Howdy Bob!
There is something really weird about the second “assassination” attempt. It just doesn’t really add up. On the other hand, someone who is a little addled doesn’t always make rational decisions. Still, it could easily be some half baked super evil genius plan to win Trump sympathy or increased stock prices or cryptocurrency sales or some damn thing.
Huzzah!
Jack
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That one really is strange. That guy has such a checkered history. I doubt that any competent lawyer will let him explain himself unless they go for an insanity defense.
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Howdy Bob!
The more we learn about this guy, the squirrelier he sounds. I guess the only real conclusion we can come to is that we shouldn’t make guns so easily available to just anyone who wants one. That maybe the real take away here and, frankly, I’m a little embarrassed I didn’t get it the first time round.
Huzzah!
Jack
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Yep. He was not supposed to be able to get a gun, but he did anyway. It was either through a loop hole in the law, or actual black market.
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You’d think such incidents would be enough to motivate even the most diehard MAGA Republicans to support gun regulations, but I guess the price of freedom is losing a favored presidential candidate now and again.
Jack
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For them, every bad thing done with a gun is just more proof that they need a gun or more guns. In the case of people shooting or trying to shoot at Trump, they might see it a bit differently if he had died. Then, they would see a need to take guns away from POC, even though the shooter was white. Republicans did support some gun regulations when the Black Panthers started showing their guns on the street.
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Another racist joint brought to you by Ronald Reagan.
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Yep.
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Keep in mind that Trump associates with some of the most vile and ruthless people on the planet. Putin for one. Everyone in his orbit. And now Silicon Valley Faux-Tech-bros (men who were basically carpetbaggers arriving after Silicon Valley was created & successful) like P Thiel and Elon Musk. Both very bad people indeed.
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Howdy Willow!
Not only are they vile and ruthless, most of the American ones are complete incompetents to think they are better than they actually are. This latest attempt really does smack of some cockamamie half-baked plan thought up by some smug super genius to outsmart the liberals and the media. I don’t put anything passed the lot.
Huzzah!
Jack
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I opt for what I consider the ‘obvious’ answer. It’s the not-surprising combination of poor mental health, easy access to weapons, and a culture where fame is becoming a common ambition. I think it’s that simple. I wouldn’t be surprised to see a nutcase from MAGA try to even the score. Crazy times.
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Especially with Vance quip about no body is shooting at Harris or Walz, hint, hint, wink, wink, nudge, nudge.
Occam’s Razor and all that, but twice in one campaign? The only president to have two assassination attempts with the hapless Gerald Ford. Proportional bias suggests that there has to be something more than just coincidence and bad luck. Although, I suspect you’re right.
Huzzah!
Jack
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