The attempt on Trump’s life is shocking, but not surprising

IT WAS THE most serious assassination attempt against an American president or candidate in more than 40 years. A 20-year-old gunman, identified by the FBI as Thomas Matthew Crooks, fired several shots during a rally for Donald Trump on July 13th—injuring the former president and killing a spectator. Mr Trump said a bullet had “pierced the upper part of my right ear”.

President Joe Biden described the attack as “sick”, saying that there is “no place in America for this kind of violence”. But surveys show that a small but significant number of Americans are becoming more accepting of political violence. In a recent survey of more than 2,000 Americans by Robert Pape of the University of Chicago, 10% of respondents said that the use of force would be justified to prevent Mr Trump from becoming president again. Perhaps surprisingly, a smaller proportion, just shy of 7%, said such violence would be justified to restore him to the presidency.

The latest survey took place less than a month before the assassination attempt on Mr Trump. It also found that 31% of the Americans who think that violence would be justified to stop his election say that they own a gun, and almost 6% have military experience. The proportions are larger for the smaller group of people who would justify force to reinstate him as president: 43% and 8%, respectively.

Another survey found that public support for the use of force to coerce lawmakers in Congress nearly doubled to 17% between January 2023, when Republicans took control of the House of Representatives, and June of that year; the rise was sharpest among respondents who identified as Democrats. The attempt to kill Mr Trump is not the only recent attack on prominent politicians in America. Steve Scalise, the Republican majority leader in the House of Representatives, was nearly killed in a shooting in 2017. In 2022 a man broke into the home of Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat who was then the speaker of the House, and assaulted her husband. The latest attack is a grim reminder that America’s democracy is increasingly beset by division and rancour.■