Trump, Donald J

Subterms

    More stories

    • 113 Shares149 Views

      in Elections

      The Attack on Donald Trump Is Antithetical to America

      by

      Americans received a sobering reminder on Saturday of the threat that political violence poses to our democracy. It is a mercy that Donald Trump was not seriously injured by gunfire at an evening campaign rally in Butler, a Pennsylvania city north of Pittsburgh, and a tragedy that at least one person at the rally was killed. We hope that Mr. Trump recovers quickly and fully.There is much we don’t know yet about the gunman and the shooting, which is being investigated as an attempted assassination. But this much is clear: Any attempt to resolve an election through violence is abhorrent. Violence is antithetical to democracy. Ballots, not bullets, should always be the means by which Americans work through their differences.It is now incumbent on political leaders of both parties, and on Americans individually and collectively, to resist a slide into further violence and the type of extremist language that fuels it. Saturday’s attack should not be taken as a provocation or a justification.Americans also must be cleareyed about the challenge that is confronting this nation. Saturday’s events cannot be written off as an aberration. Violence is infecting and inflecting American political life.Acts of violence have long shadowed American democracy, but they have loomed larger and darker of late. Cultural and political polarization, the ubiquity of guns and the radicalizing power of the internet have all been contributing factors, as this board laid out in its editorial series The Danger Within in 2022. This high-stakes presidential election is further straining the nation’s commitment to the peaceful resolution of political differences.Democracy requires partisans to accept that the process is more important than the results. Even before Saturday’s events, there were worrying signs that many Americans are failing that essential test. In a survey conducted last month by the Chicago Project on Security and Threats, 10 percent of respondents agreed that the use of force was justified to prevent Mr. Trump from becoming president, and 7 percent said the use of force was justified to return Mr. Trump to the presidency.Mr. Trump’s political agenda cannot and must not be opposed by violence. It cannot and must not be pursued through violence.The attack on Saturday was a tragedy. The challenge now confronting Americans is to prevent this moment from becoming the beginning of a greater tragedy.This election must be resolved by the votes Americans will cast.The Times is committed to publishing a diversity of letters to the editor. We’d like to hear what you think about this or any of our articles. Here are some tips. And here’s our email: letters@nytimes.com.Follow the New York Times Opinion section on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, WhatsApp, X and Threads. More

    • 138 Shares129 Views

      in Elections

      Butler County, Where Trump’s Rally Was Held, Is a Republican Stronghold

      by

      The city of Butler, a blue-collar town that was built on steel, has been trying to get a foothold economically in recent years after struggling to reinvent itself following a loss of industry in recent decades.Home to about 13,000 people, the city is perched on the banks of Connoquenessing Creek, about a 50-minute drive northeast of Pittsburgh. It retains a relatively high poverty rate compared with the nation and the rest of Pennsylvania.But the county that the city sits within has been changing over time, becoming both more educated and more prosperous.Broader Butler County’s population of nearly 200,000 remains about 95 percent white, according to the Census Bureau, but the nonwhite share of the population has been slowly growing. The county has been becoming more heavily educated — about 38 percent of adults there now have a bachelor’s degree, slightly higher than the 34 percent average nationally.The county’s unemployment rate is well below the national level: just 2.8 percent. And per capita earnings in Butler County surpassed the state average in 2007, after being below it ever since records had begun to be kept.In fact, professional and business services are now the county’ largest employer. The southern part of the county is accessible to Pittsburgh, which makes it popular among commuters into the city, and it has seen new housing developments and businesses spring up in recent years.But even as it changes, Butler county retains large swaths of rural farmland and wooded forests. Gun ownership in that corner of Western Pennsylvania is pervasive, and hunting is such a major pastime there that local schools long took off the first day of deer season.The area skews heavily Republican, and Trump signs dot local roadsides. Voter registration data from the local Bureau of Elections shows that just under 40,000 Democrats are registered in the country, and nearly 80,000 Republicans. About 20,000 voters are registered as members of neither party.True to those trends, Trump voters outnumbered Biden voters nearly two to one in the 2020 election. More

    • 125 Shares199 Views

      in Elections

      Two Attendees Describe the Moment Trump’s Rally Erupted Into Chaos

      by

      Corey Check, a local conservative activist and Republican committeeman in Butler, Pa., and his friend Nathan Rybner were sitting in a section of seats to the right of where former President Donald J. Trump was standing onstage on Saturday evening when they heard a series of loud pops. The sounds seemed to be coming from over their heads in the section where they were sitting, they said.“I heard what I thought was firecrackers,” said Mr. Rybner, a Republican committeeman from Erie County, Pa. “It did not sound like a typical gunshot.”They were sitting close enough to the stage that as Mr. Trump spoke, they could take photos of themselves with the former president in the background. They watched in shock as Secret Service agents rushed toward Mr. Trump.Some of the other attendees in their section tried to flee the chaotic scene that followed, Mr. Check said, but a Secret Service agent ordered everyone to get down.“The first thing I thought to myself was, America’s under attack,” Mr. Check said. “I grabbed the hands of a couple of people I didn’t even know. We said the Lord’s Prayer. I called my family and told them I loved them.”When they were allowed to stand up, Mr. Rybner said he saw what appeared to be blood on a higher level of the seating section behind them. “There was a lot of blood,” he said.Before the rally devolved into chaos, while Mr. Rybner was still waiting for Mr. Trump to arrive onstage, he said he passed the time by looking at the crowd in the section. “I didn’t see anything out of the ordinary,” he said.Mr. Check, speaking by phone minutes after the shooting, was still struggling to process what he had just experienced.“We chanted ‘U.S.A.’” after all this happened, he said, adding that the country will live on “despite what some maniac did to Trump.”“We’re alive. And we will never stop. America has been here, we will always be here, chanting ‘U.S.A.’ Because we’re not done. These people will not destroy our country,” he said. More

    • 138 Shares119 Views

      in Elections

      Tiroteo en mitin de Donald Trump: esto es lo que sabemos

      by

      Un espectador también murió después de que una persona disparara contra el expresidente durante un mitin en Pensilvania, según personas informadas sobre el asunto. El candidato parecía tener sangre en la cara cuando lo sacaron del escenario.[Estamos en WhatsApp. Empieza a seguirnos ahora]Una persona armada disparó un arma contra el expresidente Donald Trump el sábado en su mitin en Butler, Pensilvania, según un funcionario de EE. UU. y dos personas informadas sobre el asunto, el cual está siendo investigado como un intento de asesinato.Un asistente al mitin falleció y el presunto tirador fue neutralizado por el Servicio Secreto, mientras Trump fue escoltado fuera del escenario con la cara y la oreja ensangrentadas, según tres personas informadas sobre el asunto.El presidente Joe Biden se dirigió a la nación poco después del incidente y condenó la violencia como “enfermiza”. Trump se encontraba “bien”, según Steven Cheung, portavoz de su campaña, y un portavoz del Servicio Secreto dijo que Trump estaba “a salvo”. Cheung no proporcionó más información sobre si Trump había resultado herido ni cómo, y los funcionarios no proporcionaron más información sobre si otros asistentes al mitin resultaron heridos.Esto es lo que hay que saber:We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

    • 75 Shares129 Views

      in Elections

      For Biden, a Race Against Time

      by

      When my mom got into her 80s, we had to deal with periodic medical issues. Fainting. Falls. Broken bones.Luckily, she was in good stead with the local rescue squad because she faithfully attended their crab feast fund-raisers.Each time, my siblings and I would move heaven and earth to get her home from whatever hospital she had landed in.In 2003, I tried to talk one emergency room doctor into releasing her after 11 hours.“I’ll let her out if she can tell me who the president is,” the doctor said.We both looked at my mom, expectantly.“George,” she said.I was thrilled; W., it was.“George Washington,” she finished.After each episode, I’d proudly tell her internist, Dr. Simon, how we had nursed her back to health.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More