Former U.S. President Donald Trump is safe after an assassination attempt at his West Palm Beach golf club in Florida on Sunday. The second such attempt renews questions about the polarized and at times extreme rhetoric that has marked this election season.
Secret Service agents reportedly noticed the suspect who was hiding in bushes two holes ahead of where Trump was playing and fired several shots at him. He was later arrested after fleeing in a vehicle, leaving behind an AK-47-style assault rifle and two backpacks.
“I would like to thank everyone for your concern and well wishes - It was certainly an interesting day!” Trump later wrote on social media.
It was the second attempt on the former President’s life after a gunman fired at him and wounded his ear during a campaign rally, which also left one person dead, and two others wounded.
Already at that time, several commentators have pointed to the extreme language that has marked this election season as a key factor in triggering isolated individuals to take attempts on Trump’s life. The former President himself said during the recent debate with Harris that he blames the left’s rhetoric about him for the assassination attempt two months ago.
Commentators in mainstream media, Democratic politicians and Vice President and Democratic Presidential candidate Kamala Harris repeatedly referred to Trump as “a threat to democracy”.
It is the same kind of statement that the suspect also posted on his social media accounts, according to Reuters, which reports that the suspect may have been motivated by his fear that Trump would not support Ukraine against Russia.
Following the second attempt yesterday, Harris wrote on X: “Violence has no place in America.” And President Biden reportedly directed his staff to ensure the Secret Service has all the resources it needs to ensure Trump’s safety.
In comments that remain relevant, Dr. Michael Brown, author and host of the nationally syndicated The Line of Fire radio show, called for reflection after the first assassination attempt in an op-ed titled “Please, please, please, we must all tone things down”.
“Are we contributing to this atmosphere of hatred and violence? What kind of emotions do we stir up with the words we speak and the memes we post? What are we fomenting? To what end?”
Calling on Christians to be different, he wrote, “But all of us are responsible for the words we speak, for the posts we share, for the memes we create, for the environments we shape. And all of us would do well to look in the mirror and ask ourselves some honest questions: Am I fostering godly conviction or breeding vile hatred? Am I helping to produce courage and fortitude or do my words lead to hostility and disdain?
“Let us then be disseminators of light not darkness, agents of God rather than servants of Satan, calling for courage and conviction around righteous causes but with civility toward our political and ideological adversaries. Otherwise, all of us lose.”
