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The latest attempt to assassinate Donald Trump unfolded on September 15 when a Secret Service agent spotted a gun barrel sticking out of a fence next to a Florida golf course where Mr Trump was enjoying a round. Agents opened fire and a man came out of the bushes. A witness told police he fled in a black Nissan. The witness photographed the vehicle’s license plate and police soon tracked it to an interstate highway, where they stopped the suspect and arrested him.
The killer’s motive remains unclear. Last year, the man, identified by media outlets as Ryan Wesley Routh, gave an interview to The New York Times saying he wanted to volunteer to fight for Ukraine in its war against Russia. That interview, along with accounts from others and his social-media postings, painted a man whose partisan views kept shifting, who was agitated about the difficulties of volunteering in Ukraine and who sometimes spoke about participating in violence.
Mr Trump soon said in a fundraiser email that he was “safe and sound”. But this apparent assassination attempt would be the second attempt on his life in two months. At the scene, police found an AK-47-style rifle with a sighting scope and a GoPro camera that the suspect wanted to use to take photos of his exploits, the Palm Beach County sheriff, Ric Bradshaw, told a press briefing.
The arrest will reshape a presidential campaign that has suffered one setback after another in recent months. The momentum and media focus that Vice President Kamala Harris enjoyed after her strong debate against Mr. Trump on Sept. 10 will now compete with intense coverage about the suspect’s background and the puzzling question of how another rifleman could get within several hundred yards of the former president without being caught.
The Secret Service has been under intense scrutiny since its agents failed to prevent Thomas Crooks from shooting Mr Trump in the ear with an assault rifle as he spoke at a rally in Pennsylvania on July 13. Now the service and the Biden administration’s overall oversight of the former president’s security will again be under the microscope. Asked at a press briefing how a gunman got so close to the golf course, Mr Bradshaw offered an explanation that will raise even more questions: “He’s not the current president. If he was, we would have cordoned off the entire golf course. But since he’s not the current president, security is limited to only those areas that the Secret Service deems feasible.”
The biggest challenge will be demanding accountability and strengthening efforts to keep Mr. Trump, Ms. Harris and other candidates safe while minimizing politicization. Rick Scott, a Republican senator from Florida, did not help matters, posting a charge that may become commonplace in the days to come: “The media and the radical left need to immediately stop this dangerous and nonsensical rhetoric.” Mr. Scott’s line echoed charges leveled by Republicans after the July effort that Democrats’ demonizing Mr. Trump had emboldened potential killers.
Ms. Harris said she was “deeply troubled” by the potential assassination attempt and “grateful” that Mr. Trump was safe. “We must do our part to ensure this incident does not lead to further violence,” she said. After being nearly killed in July, Mr. Trump saw the effect of a rally among grateful supporters and a brief pause in partisan hostility. He reacted to that attack with rebellion and determination, as well as more than a hint of martyrdom. Hours after the incident, Mr. Trump issued a series of declarations by email: “My resolve has grown even stronger after another attempt on my life! … I will never surrender!”
Until this year, it was possible to think that heavy investments in the Secret Service and aggressive, preemptive policing had reduced America’s vulnerability to presidential assassinations, of which there have been four (Abraham Lincoln, James A. Garfield, William McKinley and John F. Kennedy), as well as serious assassination attempts against presidents and candidates (too many to list). But just as January 6 shattered complacency about the durability of America’s constitutional norms, the assassination attempts on Mr. Trump have made clear that America’s gun violence respects no boundaries. “The threat level is very high,” a Secret Service spokesman said after Mr. Routh’s arrest. “We live in dangerous times.”
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© 2024, The Economist Newspaper Limited. All rights reserved. From The Economist, published under licence. Original content can be found at www.economist.com.
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