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      Pennsylvania town reckons with Trump rally shooting: ‘The rhetoric has to stop’

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      Amid tight security and blocked-off roads, the small town of Butler, Pennsylvania, was attempting to come to terms with becoming the site of a major attempted US political assassination on Sunday.Many went to church to make sense of events. At one, Father Kevin Fazio called on the congregation packed into pews to “pray for our nation”, but most of his flock seemed subdued by the violence that had come to town.Less than a quarter of a mile away, the Butler Farm Show fairgrounds remains a crime scene, the gantries that hang massive stars and stripes and concert-sized speakers over Donald Trump’s rallies still erect, and the roof of AGR Industries, from where a gunman took aim at the former president, was clearly visible.Many inhabitants of Butler said they were deeply shaken. A farming town 20 miles north of Pittsburgh is typical of rural Trump country. Farms are being sold off for new housing developments, but the roads into town are still dotted with farm stands and signs urging Christian values: “In a world where you can be anything – be kind,” read one.But Butler is now a marker of America’s periodic turns to political violence.Trump’s rallies have long been carnivals, part politics and an expression of shared rightwing values and entertainment. That changed on Saturday evening, when shots rang out. The former US president reached to his ear, ducked behind the podium and was engulfed by a scrum of Secret Service agents, only to emerge seconds later, bloodied, with his fist in the air and mouthing: “Fight! Fight!”View image in fullscreenOutside a Sunoco gas station near the fairgrounds, an older man come for coffee and a breakfast sandwich and said he believed his son-in-law Greg Smith – the man who described seeing the shooter doing a bear-crawl along the rooftop, rifle in hand, to the BBC – had saved Trump’s life.“He was yelling at the shooter, causing him to fire sooner and miss his mark while the police were doing nothing,” he said, recounting his experience as a deer hunter, where presence of mind was required to aim and fire accurately.Another man at the store, who had been at the rally, said it was not the shooting itself that caused panic in the crowds, as many believed the gunshots were merely fire-crackers going off. But panic began to take hold when a section of the crowd, unaware of the shooting, pushed back on those at the front trying to flee.“People were falling on top of each other,” he said. “The elders who fell couldn’t get up, the kids were screaming. My family is all shook up.”Another man, Randy, said but it was a blessing that a summer heatwave had many kept people away from the fair and there hadn’t been a stampede. But the political temperature in the country, he said, had made it almost inevitable that “you’re going to get a crazy doing something crazy”.“The rhetoric in this country is sad, it’s terrible. It has to stop,” he said.The Pennsylvania governor, Josh Shapiro, a Democrat, travelled to Butler to express condolences for the family of Corey Comperatore, former fire-chief a nearby township, who was killed in the shooting as he tried to protect his daughters from the gunfire.Shapiro called on Americans to “be firm” and to “advocate for” their beliefs but peacefully. “Every day when I’m out in Pennsylvania, I see the best of Pennsylvanians,” he said. “Those who love their neighbors even if they have differences.”Richard Goldinger, district attorney of Butler county, told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that “it’s embarrassing that this would happen here. This hasn’t happened in more than 40 years – to have an attempt on a president’s life.”View image in fullscreenOthers pointed to the security failings ahead of Trump’s appearance on stage. Evan, a young man who said he was not a Trump supporter, said security at the fairgrounds had been talked about in the town for days before the event – particularly the vulnerability of the surrounding buildings.“The Secret Service dropped the ball big time,” he said.Bobbie Barbary, passing though from South Bend, Indiana, had another perspective: “America has a disease – resentment, hatred and racism,” he said.Butler may mark an end to the freewheeling Trump roadshow and his campaign rallies will need to be reined in for his safety and that of others. But that’s not how it looked 12 hours earlier, when the Butler Eagle newspaper predicted Trump’s campaign stop was “an opportunity to put a small town on the map in a contentious presidential election”.By coming to Butler, the paper said, the rally – two days before the Republican convention kicks off in Milwaukee – would be a return to a different, older style of campaigning of going to where the voters are, in this case a farm show, that focused on increasing support among undecided people that Trump needs to carry the state in November.But for some in the wake of the shooting, Saturday’s events were now a sign that some aspects of modern American political life were better kept at a distance. The suspected shooter, from an affluent neighborhood just 30 miles (48km) away, had brought not only a rifle to kill Trump but explosives too were found in his car and his home.Yet an exact motive remains a mystery. Crooks was both a registered Republican and a very minor donor to a progressive cause. His social media footprint was negligible and betrayed little of his beliefs.“It’s America,” said a checkout worker at the town farmers’ market. “All kinds of crazy people out there.” More

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      The attempted assassination of Donald Trump – Politics Weekly America

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      On Saturday night in London, word came through that Donald Trump had been injured during one of his rallies in Pennsylvania. A shooter, who killed another person and seriously injured others, was killed by Secret Service agents.
      As the US comes to grips with what just happened, Jonathan Freedland presents as special edition of Politics Weekly America. He hears from former Bill Clinton advisor, Sidney Blumenthal on what this tragedy means for Donald Trump with less than five months until the election

      How to listen to podcasts: everything you need to know More

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      Will Trump call for healing – or rub salt in wounds – in wake of rally shooting?

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      It will be the new must-have for every Donald Trump acolyte. The indelible image of the former US president, ear bloodied and fist raised as Secret Service agents try to rush him away from a would-be assassin’s bullets, has already been turned into a $35 T-shirt with a simple legend: “Fight! Fight! Fight!”The words are taken from Trump’s entreaty as he was bundled off stage in the aftermath of the shooting which left one man dead at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Saturday. His supporters responded with chants of “USA! USA!” and by angrily turning on the media, pointing fingers of blame at journalists.In an instant the 2024 presidential election, just 115 days away, and the future of America itself had been transformed. A polarised nation faces the threat of deepening political violence and hostility towards the press. In a country awash with guns, some feared that Saturday could mark the first shots in a second US civil war.Trump, ever the showman, who said on social media he felt the bullet “ripping through” his skin, was hailed by his base as a fighter, martyr and messiah. The viral photograph of his defiance is being used to project the 78-year-old as a tower of strength in contrast to Biden, 81, whose weak debate performance led to calls from his own party to exit the race for the White House.The political benefits were immediate. Billionaires Elon Musk and Bill Ackman threw their weight behind Trump. Jake Paul, a YouTube personality, tweeted: “If it isn’t apparent enough who God wants to win. When you try and kill God’s angels and saviors of the world it just makes them bigger.”Trump’s campaign also seized on the opportunity to fuel the convicted criminal’s narrative of persecution, sending out a fundraising text message that said: “They’re not after me, they’re after you.”Brad Bannon, a Democratic strategist, told the Reuters news agency: “The attempted assassination creates sympathy for Trump. It also confirms the idea to voters that something is fundamentally wrong in this nation, which is an idea that drives support for him.”The attack is likely to boost Trump’s appearances in Milwaukee this week at the Republican national convention as he accepts his party’s presidential nomination, fortifying the sense of grievance his supporters already feel toward the nation’s political elites.View image in fullscreenTrump’s speech on Thursday night could be a critical turning point, a prime time television opportunity to call for unity and healing – or to sow division and rub salt in wounds. Ian Bremmer, a political scientist and president of the Eurasia Group, told CNN he is not optimistic, noting that Trump’s “initial reaction when he stood back up – and it was incredible powerful imagery that we’re going to see for months now – was fight, fight, fight. That’s his instinct.”Bremmer added: “Every sinew of this man is he is going to fight against his enemies and yes, his enemy is the dead man, the 20-year-old that tried to assassinate him. But I think that Trump believes that his enemy is Joe Biden, his enemy are the members of the press, some of whom have been calling him Hitler, his enemy are people on the other side of the political spectrum that want to destroy him.”The motivation of the gunman is not yet known. The suspect, 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, was a registered Republican, according to state voter records. He previously made a $15 donation to a political action committee that raises money for left-leaning and Democratic politicians.His assault came within the context of the biggest and most sustained increase in US political violence since the 1970s. Of 14 fatal political attacks since supporters of Trump stormed the US Capitol on 6 January 2021, in which the perpetrator or suspect had a clear partisan leaning, 13 were rightwing assailants. One was on the left.Members of Congress have been targeted: US Capitol police opened 8,008 threat assessment cases in 2023 – an increase of more than 500 from the previous year. A recent PBS NewsHour/ NPR/ Marist opinion poll found that one in five adults believes that Americans may have to resort to violence to get their own country back on track.Political leaders sought to douse the flames over the weekend. Biden, putting his campaign on pause, said such violence has no place in America and phoned his opponent, whom he referred to as “Donald” – a marked shift from the palpable rancour between the men at their first debate in Atlanta. Trump used social media to call for Americans to “stand United” and show their “True Character”.View image in fullscreenAnd Republican Mike Johnson, the speaker of the House of Representatives, told the NBC network’s Today show: “We’ve got to turn the rhetoric down. We’ve got to turn the temperature down in this country. We need leaders of all parties, on both sides, to call that out and make sure that happens so that we can go forward.”But Trump has regularly used violent, degrading and even apocalyptic language with his followers, warning of a “bloodbath” if he is not elected and saying immigrants in the US illegally are “poisoning the blood of our country”. In the wake of the shooting, his advisers and allies flipped the script on Biden, suggesting that it was the demonisation of the Republican candidate that led to the assassination attempt.JD Vance, an Ohio senator widely tipped to be named as Trump’s running mate at this week’s convention, posted on X: “Today is not just some isolated incident. The central premise of the Biden campaign is that President Donald Trump is an authoritarian fascist who must be stopped at all costs. That rhetoric led directly to President Trump’s attempted assassination.”Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina posted a similar message, while Mike Collins, a Republican congressman from Georgia, tweeted: “The Republican District Attorney in Butler County, PA, should immediately file charges against Joseph R Biden for inciting an assassination.”Chris LaCivita, the co-manager of Trump’s campaign, said on X that “for years and even today, leftist activists, Democrat donors and now even Joe Biden have made disgusting remarks and descriptions of shooting Donald Trump … it’s high time they be held accountable for it … the best way is through the ballot box.”LaCivita was apparently referring to recent remarks by Biden made in the context of asking his supporters to focus on beating Trump rather than his own performance. “So, we’re done talking about the debate, it’s time to put Trump in a bullseye,” said Biden, who has always condemned any political violence.Some compared America to a tinderbox. With disinformation and conspiracy theories swirling on social media, the mood was very different from past national traumas such as the attempted assassination of President Ronald Reagan in 1981 and the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington on 11 September 2001.Bremmer told CNN: “The response here needs to be like 9/11. It needs to be something where everyone comes together and says, this does not stand, we are all Americans together. I fear it’s going to be a lot more like January 6, where there will be a large number of people that will weaponise what just happened and we will continue to tribalise as a country and people won’t accept that the people on the other side of the aisle are Americans just like they are.” More

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      The Guardian view on Trump’s shooting: America’s future must be set by voters, not the gun | Editorial

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      The attempted assassination of Donald Trump, which injured the former president at a rally for his re-election campaign and killed a spectator, marks a shocking and frightening moment. Political violence is neither a new development nor an aberration for the US. Though thankfully Mr Trump survived, four American presidents have been murdered, along with candidates and holders of lower offices. Many more have faced serious threats to their lives.Sometimes such attempts are the work of an individual, such as John Hinckley Jr, who shot and injured Ronald Reagan while mentally ill, or of a small group bent on a particular aim. Sometimes, as with Abraham Lincoln’s murder, they speak to the roiling currents within American politics.Much remains unknown about the gunman, 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, who was shot and killed by a Secret Service sniper. Records show he was a registered Republican, but had given a small sum to a progressive action committee in 2021. Yet at a time of such rancour and division, many on both left and right already see Saturday’s shooting as part of a wider tide of violence and political hatred. The term “civil war” began trending on social media after the shooting.Mr Trump urged people to “stand united, and show our true character as Americans … not allowing evil to win”. His political opponents were also swift in denouncing this appalling act of violence, with Joe Biden describing the attack as “sick”.Many places around the world are seeing growing political violence and tolerance of such acts. A small but significant and persistent minority support violence either for or against Mr Trump, research has found. The director of the centre that carried out that research, the Chicago Project on Security and Threats, has called the US a “tinderbox”. Many more Americans have weapons, thanks to surging gun sales in recent years; disinformation is rampant; and the internet also makes it easier for people with ill intent to organise.Conspiracy theories are already swirling, on both left and right. The image of a bloodied Mr Trump, fist raised in defiance, in front of the stars and stripes will surely harden the conviction of supporters that he is a martyr, persecuted politically, legally and now physically for trying to make America great again. Steve Scalise, the Republican House majority leader – himself seriously wounded in 2017 by an anti-Republican gunman with a history of aggression and violence – was swift to accuse Democrats of “incendiary rhetoric” that was “fuelling ludicrous hysteria that Donald Trump winning re-election would be the end of democracy in America”.True incitement cannot be tolerated. Violence must be condemned – as Mr Trump himself failed to do when he joked about the brutal attack on Nancy Pelosi’s husband Paul and said it was “common sense” that rioters who stormed the Capitol chanting for the hanging of his vice-president, Mike Pence, were angry.There must also be care that extreme acts by a minority are not used to silence legitimate criticism. There is very good reason to believe that Mr Trump is a threat to American democracy; there is no justification whatsoever to the belief that he should be stopped through violence. Politicians of all stripes must be more careful than ever in their choice of language. It is up to the American public too to make this grim moment mark a turning point for the better, not a slide into something still worse.

      Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here. More

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      Trump deserves our sympathy. That doesn’t make him an acceptable candidate | Katrina vandel Heuvel

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      I was on the phone with my daughter when emails started streaming through. “Trump has been shot.” She teared up, asking in a fearful and trembling voice – “What does this mean for our country?”What it means, I think, is that we have entered a moment when, more than ever, we need perspective, context, history and clarity about the threat of political violence in a time so charged as this.Being the victim of a shooting is terrifying. Donald Trump and those wounded and killed deserve our sympathy and concern. We should not forget the risks that political leaders take in a society as polarized and as gunned up as this one.The shooting at Trump’s rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday – which authorities have labeled an assassination attempt on the ex-president – ended with two people critically injured and two killed: a rally attendee and the shooter. Trump was on his feet immediately, having suffered a wound to his ear.In this era of 24/7 propaganda, the incident was quickly turned into campaign grist. Fox News suggested Trump’s reaction made him into a hero, a symbol of American strength and courage. Maga zealots – most vociferously the Ohio senator JD Vance, a suitor of Trump’s vice-presidential nomination – blamed Biden’s criticism of Trump for spurring the shooting. Vance ignored the reality that no one has done more to coarsen our political dialogue than Trump, whose language has grown ever more violent and divisive over time. It was Trump who called on Iowans to vote for him and defeat “all of the liars, cheaters, thugs, perverts, frauds, crooks, freaks, creeps”, just as it was Trump who slandered political opponents and immigrants as “vermin”.It is not an exaggeration to note that Trump has gloried in the language of political violence for more than a decade. Trump has configured his campaign around a paranoid martyrdom. He shares a strong currency of violence with his followers – during this and previous elections.What should we take from this horror? We should begin by decrying all political violence as unacceptable. President Biden has condemned the shooting ardently and unequivocally. So, too, did prominent Democrats who fundamentally disagree with the former president. Hopefully, leaders from across the political and ideological spectrum will join in these condemnations. Just as, one hopes, they will condemn the growing threats of violence that public officials from the president to poll volunteers to judges and jurors now receive.But this is about more than politics and public life. This country has too much gun violence – and too many guns. Most of the victims are not famous, or powerful. With children in grade schools now forced to take part in active shooter drills, it is long past time for all of us to get serious about curbing gun violence.But, surely, we also recognize that when a former president is shot at, this stirs up our already agitated politics.While we condemn political violence, we should understand that getting shot does not ennoble the target – or transform victims into moral leaders. A presidential race is not a WWW wrestling drama. Trump should be assessed – as anyone who would lead this country – on his behavior, his character, and his agenda. That responsibility does not disappear because someone took a shot at him. The prospect of a Trump presidency was as deeply unsettling before Saturday’s shooting incident – and it remains so after it.With his instinct for vaudeville and venom, and the Republican convention about to convene, Trump is likely to use this dangerous moment and event for political advantage.No one should be fooled. Donald Trump deserves sympathy for the attack he experienced. That does not, however, make him an acceptable candidate for the presidency.

      Katrina vanden Heuvel is editor and publisher of the Nation and serves on the Council on Foreign Relations More

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      Trump rally shooting live: FBI names ‘subject involved’ after suspect shot dead in assassination attempt

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      Stephen Moore, a senior adviser to Donald Trump’s campaign, has spoken to the BBC World Service programme “Weekend”. He is echoing concerns about the preparedness of the Security Service, who are the primary form of protection for former US presidents.Moore said:
      It appeared from the video that he’d only been grazed by this bullet but what is so frightening to all of us is that if that bullet had been one inch further towards his head this would have been an assassination …
      Certainly Trump needs more protection – there is a lot of inquiry now about whether the Secret Service was totally prepared.
      The attack on Trump raised questions about how the Republican presidential candidate is protected on the campaign trail and what caused the apparent security lapses at Saturday’s rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.At least one person interviewed by the BBC (see post at 01.36) said he had tried to alert police and the US Secret Service, to no avail, to an apparent sniper climbing on to a nearby roof outside the security perimeter of the rally venue.Both Spain’s prime minister and its king have offered Donald Trump and the US their support and best wishes.“I strongly condemn the attack on Donald Trump at a rally in Pennsylvania,” the prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, wrote on X. “Violence and hatred have no place in a democracy. I send my best wishes for ex-President Trump’s recovery and to the rest of those who were injured. I also offer my deepest condolences to the family of the person who died.”In a letter, King Felipe said he was deeply struck by what had happened and wished Trump a speedy recovery, adding: “I would also like to express, to all the dear people of the USA, my strongest condemnation of any act of violence, especially when directed against democratic values.”Here is some more reaction from world leaders after the assassintion attempt on Donald Trump:

      Sweden’s pime minister, Ulf Kristersson, said: “Sweden condemns the terrible attack in Pennsylvania. My thoughts go out to those who have been affected and to their families. Sweden stands behind the United States and wishes Donald Trump a speedy recovery.”

      The president of Egypt, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, said: “We are following with concern the treacherous incident faced by former US President and presidential candidate Donald Trump, and affirm Egypt’s condemnation of the incident. I express my wishes for President Trump’s speedy recovery and for the US election campaign to continue in a peaceful and healthy environment, devoid of any appearances of terrorism, violence or hatred.”

      South Korea’s president, Yoon Suk Yeol, wrote on X: “I am appalled by the hideous act of political violence. I wish former President Trump a speedy recovery. The people of Korea stand in solidarity with the people of America.”

      Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni said she is following the news from Pennsylvania with “apprehension” and extended her best wishes for a “speedy recovery” to Trump.

      Dutch prime minister Dick Schoof wrote on X: “Shocked by the attack on former President Donald Trump. Luckily he has gotten away only lightly wounded. Political violence is completely unacceptable.”

      Poland’s president, Andrzej Duda, said the attack was a “shocking” moment for the “whole free and democratic world”.

      Thailand’s prime minister, Srettha Thavisin, wrote on X: “I am appalled to learn of the shooting incident during former President Trump’s rally. We are strongly concerned and do not tolerate such forms of violence. On behalf of the Thai people, I wish former President Trump a speedy recovery. Our thoughts are also with the injured and affected families.”

      Philippine president Ferdinand Marcos Jr said: “It is with great relief that we receive the news that former President Donald Trump is fine and well after the attempt to assassinate him. Our thoughts and prayers are with him and his family. Together with all democracy loving peoples around the world, we condemn all forms of political violence. The voice of the people must always remain supreme.”
      Anthony Albanese says he is “relieved” that former US president Donald Trump is safe after a shooting at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania, calling the incident an “inexcusable attack”, my colleague Josh Butler reports.The Australian prime minister said there was “no place for violence in the democratic process” as other politicians decried the assassination attempt four months out from the US presidential election (see earlier post at 04.47 to see how other world leaders have reacted to the attack).Drawing a link to protests outside politicians’ electorate offices in Australia regarding the Gaza war, Albanese said on Sunday:
      These things can escalate, which is why they need to be called out unequivocally and opposed.
      The Oversight Committee in the Republican-led US House of Representatives has summoned the US Secret Service director, Kimberly Cheatle, to testify at a hearing scheduled for 22 July.“Americans demand answers about the assassination attempt of President Trump,” the panel said in a statement on X, noting that Cheatle’s appearance is voluntary.The Secret Service has agreed to brief the House Oversight Committee about the attack, a spokesperson told The Hill.The assassination attempt on Trump was the first shooting of a US president or major party candidate since the 1981 attempted assassination of former Republican president Ronald Reagan, who was in the White House from 1981 to 1989.It raised immediate questions about security failures by the Secret Service, which provides former presidents, including Trump, with lifetime protection.Who was the suspected shooter?The FBI identified 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks as the suspect in the attempted assassination of Donald Trump.State voter records show that Crooks was a registered Republican, Reuters reported.When Crooks was 17 he made a $15 donation to ActBlue, a political action committee that raises money for left-leaning and Democratic politicians, Reuters wrote citing a 2021 Federal Election Commission filing.The donation was earmarked for the Progressive Turnout Project.Crooks graduated in 2022 from Bethel Park High School and received a $500 “star award” from the National Math and Science Initiative, according to the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.Donald Tusk, the Polish prime minister, has said “violence is never the answer to political differences in a democracy.”“I am sure this is one thing we can all agree on without any shadow of doubt,” he added.Here are the latest images from the US, as an investigation continues into the attempted assassination of Donald Trump. Robert Fico, Slovakia’s prime minister who was injured in a shooting in May, has drawn a parallel between the incident targeting him and the attempted assassination of Donald Trump.
      Scripted like through a copybook. Political opponents of D. they are trying to shut Trump up and when they don’t work out, they piss the public off so much that some loser picks up a gun. And now we shall witness speeches about the need for reconciliation, appeasement and forgiveness.
      China has expressed concern about the shooting, Reuters reported.“President Xi Jinping has expressed his condolences to former President Trump,” Beijing’s foreign ministry said in a statement. More

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      Cool heads needed as political fringe dwellers spread disinformation after Trump shooting

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      Disinformation researcher Amanda Rogers has described the polarized, unhinged, conspiracy-driven noise in social media responses to the shooting of Donald Trump as “a self-sustaining spiral of shit”.Rogers, a fellow at the progressive thinktank Century Foundation, has seen this before. But the scale is new and troubling, she said. Conversation on social media – and the mainstream media – is focused on the motivations of the shooter and the impact on the election, she said. Bad actors want to turn a moment like this into a broader call for violence. And they will spread lies to get there, she said.“The fact that this is the perfect storm environment for dis-info from every single point on the political spectrum, is something that worries me immensely,” Rogers said. “Because it’s an accelerationist’s wet dream … But we need to have voices in the media that are speaking to the fact that this is a breaking situation. People need to calm down about speculation.”Accelerationists are those on the political fringes – right and left – who want a civil war to burn the country to ash so they can start anew from the rubble. Notably, the term “Civil War” began trending in the wake of the Trump shooting.Social media was instantly flooded with hyperbole, lies, conspiracy theories and uninformed nonsense about the shooting. The commentary ranged from suggestions on the right like those of Georgia Rep Michael Collins that the president, Joe Biden, solicited the violence and should be charged with a crime, to those on the left suggesting that the shooting is a hoax meant to bolster Trump’s flagging poll figures.Reasonable questions about whether the Secret Service missed something become conspiracies about whether Biden deliberately withheld competent protection for Trump, said Jonathan Corpus Ong, a disinformation researcher and professor of communications at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.“I think it’s normal for people to be speculating, and kind of like trying to make sense of what happened,” he said. “I think it’s important for any journalist or any reader to be very critical of what they see in the media and what they’re reading, to take it slow as well … I think we would not want to be swept up with fear, because that would get us into a state of distrust in other people as well. It’s important to be vigilant with what we consume, and also learn when to step back from fear-mongering narratives.”Factchecking the deep fakesAI further complicates the reaction to breaking news events.Some images from the event are bound to become iconic, like the photograph taken by Evan Vucci of the Associated Press of Trump, fist raised and ear bloodied, an American flag waving behind him as Secret Service officers sweep him from the area.But others from questionable sources could be swiftly fabricated. There’s value in comparing pictures from multiple sources at the event, or noting which agencies are distributing them, Ong said.“You would like to see videos and a news account and analysis, to have multiple sources and to be corroborated and verified by multiple experts, in order to make sure that it is authentic in the age of deep fakes,” he said.The emotional, historic nature of the moment lends itself to manipulation confirming existing biases, “that trigger very strong emotions of fear or anxiety,” Ong said. “I think that’s what we need to be looking at. And be wary of.”Before the FBI had identified 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks as the “subject involved” in the shooting, speculation about the gun and the identity of the alleged shooter had begun. Posts began moving through social media almost immediately, suggesting that the shooter used a BB gun, or alternatively that the weapon was a “ghost gun” built from 3D-printed parts.Police later said they recovered an AR-style rifle at the scene.Neither claim could be immediately substantiated. Each claim serves a partisan narrative, either that the shooting was a hoax or evidence of lax gun regulations.Similarly unsubstantiated noise emerged from rightwing spaces about the identity of the alleged shooter.“These are the usual responses that we get from the accelerationists in the far right channels … you’ve got people identifying the shooter as Antifa, or as a trans person, as a Jewish person,” Rogers said. “You’ve got the usual suspects being trotted out. And then on the more QAnon channels you’ve got ‘this is the left trying to bait us into a civil war’.”The one thing Rogers found most disturbing was a pattern of mass deletion of posts in the far-right Telegram channels she follows in the minutes after the shooting. She said they do that in case it was one of their own.“Telegram aficionados know that people are watching and potentially, if there was a connection, if there’s anybody on there that did actually have facts, it’s not like they’re going to let that stuff stand.” More

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      Welcome to the Trump show: Republican convention to resemble coronation

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      The political iconography was instant and indelible. His face bloodied, his fist raised, Donald Trump stood defiant as Secret Service agents scrambled around him against the backdrop of the Stars and Stripes and a brilliant blue sky.The apparent attempt to assassinate the former president at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday shook the American political kaleidoscope once again. It cast a shadow over the Republican national convention, due to start in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on Monday – but potentially handed Trump and his allies a political opportunity.Trump’s allies will probably praise Trump as a strongman who is quite literally bulletproof – and blame his opponents for the explosion of violence.“Today is not just some isolated incident,” tweeted JD Vance, an Ohio senator widely tipped to be name as Trump’s running mate at the convention. “The central premise of the Biden campaign is that President Donald Trump is an authoritarian fascist who must be stopped at all costs. That rhetoric led directly to President Trump’s attempted assassination.”Host city Milwaukee, in the battleground state of Wisconsin, has sudden historical resonance. It was here in 1912 that Theodore Roosevelt, a former president seeking to regain the White House, was the victim of a would-be assassination. The bullet was slowed by a steel case for his glasses and a manuscript of his 50-page speech, ultimately lodging in his chest. Roosevelt went on to deliver the speech while bleeding through his shirt.Steve Schmidt, a former Republican strategist, wrote on X: “The political consequences of this assassination attempt will be immense, and they will benefit Donald Trump, who just responded to being shot in the exact same way that Teddy Roosevelt did.”Even before Saturday’s shooting, the convention was set to be a coronation of Trump as Republicans’ presidential nominee, throwing in sharp relief the Democratic discord over Joe Biden’s viability as a candidate.Republicans have nominated Trump for the presidency twice before. But in 2016 and even 2020 he faced critics inside his own party and was the underdog in the race for the White House. This time, however, Trump has the edge in opinion polls following Biden’s calamitous debate performance. And his takeover of the Republican party is complete.Dissenters have been purged, losing their congressional seats to Trump allies or quietly fading into retirement. The Republican National Committee co-chair is Trump’s daughter-in-law Lara. This week Nikki Haley, who was Trump’s closest challenger in the Republican primary election, released the delegates she won so that they are free to support him at the convention.Haley herself will not be there. Nor will Mike Pence, the former vice-president who was a key figure at the past two conventions. Nor will Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan, the Republican ticket that took on Democrat Barack Obama in the 2012 election.But delegates will hear from Tucker Carlson, a broadcaster who promotes white nationalism; Franklin Graham, a Christian evangelical who has called Islam “wicked” and “evil”; Tom Homan, an immigration hardliner who has vowed to run the biggest deportation force in American history; Charlie Kirk, a far-right activist and election denier; and Vivek Ramaswamy, a biotech entrepreneur who wants to increase fossil fuel production. All are sure to play their part in the Trump show.Larry Sabato, director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia, said: “Trump’s coronation will for once put British ceremony to shame. You will see speaker after speaker, delegation after delegation, trying to top one another in their superlatives about the greatest president, not just in American history but in world history.”Delegates will hear from Trump, 78, and ratify the Republican policy platform that he personally approved. They will be introduced to Trump’s vice-presidential running mate. They will hear speakers mock Biden as a weak, 81-year-old failure who is facing calls from fellow Democrats to exit the race.Michael Steele, a former chairman of the Republican National Committee, said: “The Democrats have spent the last 10 days giving them soundbites to talk about. The Republicans are going to take four days and everything coming out of their mouths will be a reminder that Joe Biden is old, Democrats don’t want him, why should you?”Republicans have been given a gift, Steele added. “Democrats are too stupid to realise what the gift is, and they keep giving it. Just shut the hell up, get behind the man like the Republicans have gotten behind their criminal and run the race. Because the American people are going to line up with Joe Biden if you give them a reason to do that.”Convention delegates, numbering almost 2,400, are sure to approve a policy platform that ranks among the most extreme in American history. Echoing Trump talking points, it backs the mass deportation of undocumented immigrants, calls for an end to “the weaponisation of government” and demands election integrity – code for Trump’s false assertion that the 2020 election was stolen.The 16-page platform is heavily influenced by Christian nationalism and shares significant ideological DNA with Project 2025, a 922-page plan from a conservative thinktank that outlines a dramatic expansion of presidential power and a plan to fire as many as 50,000 government workers to replace them with Trump loyalists.Biden’s re-election campaign has worked to turn Project 2025 into an electoral liability for Trump, which may explain why last week he sought to distance himself from it. “I know nothing about Project 2025,” Trump posted on his social media website, adding that “some of the things they’re saying are absolutely ridiculous and abysmal”.View image in fullscreenBut both Russ Vought, the Republican National Convention’s platform committee’s policy director, and his deputy, Ed Martin, have strong connections to Project 2025. Both men have also previously taken a hard line against abortion rights.Martin has advocated for a national ban without exceptions for rape or incest and entertained the idea of imprisoning women and their doctors. He once said: “If you ban abortion in Louisiana, is a doctor who has an abortion breaking the law? Yes. Should he be punished? Yes – I think that seems obvious. What is the punishment? Not sure yet. Could be criminal, could be a jail sentence, I suppose.”The platform committee is packed with other anti-abortion extremists including David Barton, a Christian nationalist who has called the separation of church and state a “myth”, Kimberly Guilfoyle, fiancee of Donald Trump Jr, Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, and Chad Connelly, a former chairman of the South Carolina Republican party who has described abortion as “murder of an innocent child”.Weighing the political risks, Trump intervened to ensure that, for the first time in 40 years, the party platform omits the explicit basis for a national abortion ban, leaving the policy to state governments instead. But the compromise remains fragile: if dissenting voices are raised at the convention, it will fuel Democrats’ argument that Republicans’ true intentions are as extreme as ever.Emilia Rowland, national press secretary of the Democratic National Committee, said: “The reality is that Trump literally put architects of Project 2025 in charge of the Republican platform, and the result is not only the most extreme platform in GOP history but one containing lie after lie after lie.“The American people know that Trump wants a nationwide abortion ban and they know the only thing standing in the way of Trump’s terrifying second-term agenda is re-electing President Biden and Vice-President Harris in November.”Delegates will also formally designate the presidential ticket: Trump and his yet-to-be-named running mate. The leading contender is Vance, followed by the North Dakota governor, Doug Burgum, and Florida senator Marco Rubio. All three are expected to address delegates along with the Florida governor, Ron DeSantis, who challenged Trump for the nomination and later endorsed him.To critics, the vice-presidential pick is irrelevant. Steele, a broadcaster and former lieutenant governor of Maryland, said: “To be honest, I couldn’t care less who his running mate is. It is a mindless zombified politician who has given up his soul to Donald Trump for the chance that Donald Trump will smile at him and pat him on the head.“It doesn’t matter to me. It will be an unprincipled individual. That’s all I know. They could take a stick figure and stand it next to Donald Trump. Folks in that hall would applaud it, lap it up, nominate it and call it vice-president.”Trump family members will also address the convention, organisers announced on Saturday. The former president’s sons, Donald Trump Jr and Eric Trump, will both have speaking slots, along with their partners Kimberly Guilfoyle and Lara Trump. The former first lady Melania Trump is expected in Milwaukee but she is not listed among the speakers. She has been notably absent from the 2024 campaign – a stark contrast to the first lady Jill Biden’s prominent role at her husband’s side.Trump’s campaign has outlined daily messaging with themes that riff on his signature “Make America great again” slogan. Monday’s theme is economics: “Make America wealthy once again.” Trump has outlined an agenda of sweeping tariffs and accelerated production of oil and gas, even though it already hit a record under Biden.On Tuesday the theme is immigration and crime: “Make America safe once again.” Trump and Republicans believe the border debate is among their strongest issues. They have arranged speeches for the family members of people killed, allegedly by undocumented immigrants, as part of Trump’s broader attempts to blame crime on border policies.Wednesday will be national security day: “Make America strong once again.” Delegates and the viewing audience can expect to hear arguments that Biden is a “weak” and “failed” commander-in-chief and head of state. This is the day, typically, that the vice-presidential nominee addresses the convention.Thursday will culminate with Trump himself: “Make America great once again.”His speech accepting the party nomination will be watched closely for the tension between red meat for the base and outreach to swing state votes. His 2016 address included the memorable line “I alone can fix it” and drew comparisons with the trappings of fascist rallies.Frank Luntz, a political consultant and pollster, said: “The question is whether he goes 80% Maga, 90% Maga or 100% Maga. They would be best off with low-fat milk rather than the 2%, because 2% just goes overboard. He has four days of unchallenged, uninterrupted messaging, and there’s usually a bounce.“He’s going into his convention so strong and with curiosity over who his VP candidate is going to be. If they have discipline and they can exercise it then their their lead will grow. But there’s only so many votes available among the undecideds.”Protesters are expected but will not be permitted inside the security zone established around the convention arena by the Secret Service. Principles First, which describes itself as a nationwide grassroots movement of pro-democracy, anti-Trump conservatives, is holding a rally on Wednesday with Steele among the speakers.The Democratic National Committee is also holding events in Milwaukee, promising daily press conferences, counter-programming and voter engagement in the Democratic stronghold. But the Republican mood inside the arena is likely to be triumphant, lavishing praise on Trump as a great survivor while hammering Democrats over their uncertainty about BidenMonika McDermott, a political science professor, at Fordham University in New York, said: “That’s a winning point for the Republicans after the debate and they’re going to continue to run with it. The Democratic party has been showing such cracks in their support behind President Biden at this point that it would be smart to stick a crowbar in there to make those cracks larger.” More