Donald Trump: America's political violence

A US presidential campaign “already seething with contempt and chaos” took an “even darker direction” with the “most serious assassination attempt against a president or presidential candidate since Ronald Reagan in 1981”, says The Economist. 

While the “shocking” attempt on Donald Trump’s life thankfully failed, it highlights the rising political violence in America. The last few years have seen the attempted murder of Republican congressional leader Steve Scalise, the invasion of the home of then-House speaker Nancy Pelosi – and the “violent sack” of the US Capitol. It also provides yet another “twist and turn” in a contest that has already been “thrown off its rails”. 

The conventional wisdom is that the attack might move the contest “decisively” in Trump’s favour, says Gideon Rachman in the Financial Times. But the view that the “election is over” is a little too “fatalistic”. While many politicians might expect to gain a “significant sympathy vote”, Trump is a “highly polarising” figure. 

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Millions of “never Trump” voters are unlikely to become “Yes Trumpers”, however appalled they are by the “vile attempted murder”. The sight of Trump surrogates, including his newly anointed running mate J. D. Vance, “already blaming the Democrats for the attempt on his life” could even end up whipping up passions that “might scare off some floating voters”.

Donald Trump and his brand

The assassination attempt and Joe Biden’s “erratic” debate performance a few weeks ago have both provided “unsettling reminders of how important it is to have a qualified successor in the wings”, says James Orr in The Telegraph. That’s why many Republicans were quietly hoping that Trump would pick a prospective vice-president who could either appeal to moderates, or someone from the establishment. 

Their hopes have now been firmly dashed. In choosing Vance, Trump has doubled down on his “nation-first brand of conservatism”, focused on protectionism, immigration controls and isolationism.

Is Trump winning voters over? 

Vance may not seem to be a natural Trump supporter, since he has a “résumé that trended towards the traditional centres of power in Republican politics”, and even “once blasted Trump as comparable to heroin”, says Gabriel Rubin on Breakingviews. 

However, recently he has become a “fully fledged Trump acolyte”, presenting the former president as “the change needed to reorient a sclerotic political system” that has “sold out” the interests of workers in favour of multinational corporations and “lax immigration policies”. Such an agenda plays on “a grim trend towards calcifying social immobility among working-age men”. 

Vance’s presence may win over voters in swing states, but it is “raising concerns across Europe that an already sceptical Trump might be persuaded to abandon Ukraine in its war against Russia’s invasion”, says The Wall Street Journal. Vance has called for US foreign policy to “pivot” from Europe to East Asia and he has also been a “leading voice among ultra-conservative Republicans opposed to sending funding to Ukraine”.

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