An assassination attempt on Trump, the end of Biden in politics. Nothing that should change the USA

The European Parliament elections, the elections to the French and British parliaments, the ongoing Russian aggression against Ukraine, Israeli hostages, including infants, held by Palestinian terrorists—all of this seems to have vanished as if by magic in the face of two events in the USA. I won’t even mention the daily human suffering happening in Africa and Asia, as it doesn’t seem to interest anyone. Either it’s too far from Europe, or it can’t be blamed on the Jews, so for European media, which otherwise constantly preach diversity and relentlessly chastise their consumers for the long-past or often merely perceived sins of the “white man,” today’s suffering of people from the so-called third world simply isn’t a topic. But America, hated by the European left and all sorts of dictators worldwide, is a different story. Unfortunately, the European perspective often resembles condescending advice, given by someone who is themselves up to their neck in problems when commenting on American events. However, this doesn’t mean that what happens in America isn’t important—it is still, despite all its internal problems, the only global superpower, and for us disarmed Europeans, the guarantor of our security. For now.

So, let’s take a look, with a bit of hindsight, at the failed assassination attempt on former American President and current candidate for the same office, Donald Trump. This time lag is beneficial because, in today’s world, where media, pressured by competition from social networks where events are commented on in real-time by often anonymous people without any accountability, often resort to very brief information, and I’m being diplomatic here. It was no different this time. Immediately after the failed assassination, we could hear from even “big” media outlets that the assassin, Thomas Matthew Crooks, “was a Republican.” For the average media consumer, this implies he was a member of the Republican Party, the same party under which Donald Trump, the target of the failed assassination, is running for president. But no, Crooks wasn’t a Republican; he was only registered as a Republican voter, and that’s a significant difference. In some US states, if you want to influence the selection of a presidential candidate, you can vote in the primaries, during the time when the political party is deciding whom to send into the presidential race. In the past, it didn’t occur to anyone that someone who doesn’t actually support the Republican Party might want to interfere in these elections, but the extreme left can exploit anything, even this old institution. So, opponents of a specific candidate, usually one who might have a chance of success, register as voters for the party and vote for one of the outsiders in the primaries. If things go really well, theoretically (with truly massive participation), you could pick someone for the opposing political party who your candidate will certainly defeat. But even that’s not necessary; it’s enough if the opposing candidate enters the election weakened just by the fact that they didn’t gain as much support in the primaries. The attempt to plant such “cuckoos” into Republican primaries has been known since the time of George Walker Bush, but it became a truly mass phenomenon only during Donald Trump’s first candidacy. With a high degree of probability, considering Crooks’ traceable history, I lean towards the theory that it was precisely the above-mentioned “out of spite” registration. Membership in a party is something entirely different. Incidentally, soon after, there were reports from the other side that he was a supporter of the Democrats because he “financially supported” the Democrats. And the reality? In 2021, he sent a meager fifteen dollars to Act Blue, an initiative supporting Democrats. So, we can conclude that the effort to preemptively label from both sides is not foreign to any media, not to mention hysterical social networks. After all, we know very little about the shooter’s political views, and we still know very little about him himself, except that he was twenty years old and was evidently a frustrated poor guy who wasn’t interesting to anyone, like many other mass shooters or so-called “ostentatious” assassins. That is, people who, through their killing, don’t aim at some dubious goals like changing politics, fighting against capitalism, or against democracy, but it’s just their desperate attempt to draw attention to themselves, to be noticed somehow. Incidentally, during the last unsuccessful assassination attempt, during which the American president suffered a gunshot wound, the attacker’s motive was to finally attract the attention of actress Jodie Foster.

This brings me to another factor that caught my attention in the media coverage of the assassination attempt on Donald Trump. Once again, there was too much space given to those who claim that it’s not the people who are to blame for the killing, but the tools, namely guns. That there are too many of them in America, and therefore they should be banned in Europe because then nothing bad will ever happen to anyone again. I am always touched by European concern about American guns and our overall effort to lecture America on what it should do differently and better, especially when compared to how we do things here in Europe. If we look at the unfortunately successful political assassinations in recent times in countries we can consider civilized, or if you prefer, in countries we can consider part of our civilization circle, they didn’t happen in the USA, full of legally and illegally owned firearms, but in progressive Great Britain. It has one of the strictest laws in the world regarding obtaining and owning firearms, but not just them. In Great Britain, for example, it is illegal to carry a knife with a blade longer than 7.62 centimeters in public! Not to mention that some types of knives, which are commonly sold in the Czech Republic, are even banned from being owned in Great Britain. So, Great Britain holds the sad distinction of being the European country where the last successful political assassination was committed on October 15, 2021, when Islamist terrorist Ali Harbi Ali murdered Conservative MP David Amess with a prohibited knife.

So yes, attempts at political murders and assassinations exist and will continue to exist, but their occurrence doesn’t say anything about how many guns there are in society, how strict a country’s laws are, or how much a particular politician irritates their opponents. And once again, murder as an argument in politics is nothing new—if I don’t deal with assassinations of dictators or monarchs, the first elected politician to be murdered, according to all indications, was a certain Tiberius Gracchus, and it happened 133 years before our era. Enough history, let’s return to America. The only thing we can say for sure at this point is that Joe Biden reacted as expected after the assassination attempt, that it was a massive failure of the Secret Service, and that the unsuccessful attempt on Donald Trump’s life alone will not win him the presidential election.

The performance, or rather the lack of performance, of the Secret Service deserves some attention. Protecting politicians is really hard work. They don’t like listening to good advice; they like to be close to their voters, want to be seen, and generally do everything to make their protectors‘ job as difficult as possible. That was the case, for example, with the unsuccessful attempts on Ronald Reagan’s life, if I stay in America, or if you want something more recent, then Robert Fico. But this is a different case—the shooter wasn’t in a chaotic crowd but on a roof, where he was clearly visible. The later excuses of the now thankfully former Secret Service chief Kimberly Cheatle that the roof couldn’t be covered because it was too steep became the subject of numerous memes and jokes. Cheatle, who became the director of the Secret Service in August 2022, was famous primarily for her efforts to increase its “diversity.” The result was seen by the whole world—female agents who couldn’t handle weapons, who, due to their insufficient height, weren’t able to cover the protected person, and one who at one point even hid behind them. This is no criticism of women in the protective role—I’ve had the opportunity to experience many, and they are great, and on the contrary, many men have also botched their jobs in history, but this was a case where filling progressive quotas at all costs significantly compromised quality.

Then there are the comments from various “talking heads” about how the failed assassination attempt will help Donald Trump win the election. It won’t; first of all, the elections are still far away, and many things could happen before they take place. Secondly, people who wanted to vote for Trump would have given him their vote—attempt or no attempt, and people who didn’t want to vote for him won’t change their decision because of a “divine intervention,” even if they are extremely religious, and no significant numbers can be expected from the undecided who might still remember the failed assassination at the polls. After all, Theodore Roosevelt didn’t win the presidential election in the USA despite having already served one successful presidential term and, during the pre-election campaign, was also shot in the chest by a nutcase, not in the ear, and Roosevelt even talked to the failed assassin and finished his speech. He was a hero; everyone, including his political opponents, appreciated his behavior, yet he didn’t win the 1912 election.

But American presidential elections are influenced by things other than failed assassination attempts. If it initially looked like a winning ride for Donald Trump against Joe Biden, everything changed the moment Joe Biden was forced to withdraw from the presidential race. He handed the reins to his vice president, Kamala Harris, who doesn’t overwhelmingly dominate over Donald Trump but is a better choice compared to Biden, who has unfortunately become a sad parody of himself over time. And again, it’s worth remembering that it was young Senator Biden who in 1972 criticized then US President Richard Nixon for being too old for such a demanding job. Nixon was 59 at the time, and Biden was first elected president at 77, but maybe his memory wasn’t serving him too well back then. Back to Kamala Harris’s chances—they are higher, as confirmed by donors who sent her nearly two billion crowns for her campaign on the first day after Biden’s withdrawal. But these are people who support the Democrats, and although they are wealthy, they by no means represent the whole of America. Kamala Harris also has to get through the August nominating convention of her party, and although she seems to have enough electors, she will have to make a lot of promises. And in today’s Democratic Party, which is more divided on many issues (such as support for Israel) than the Republicans, that won’t be easy.

A crucial step, in my opinion, will be the choice of vice president or vice president. Donald Trump has already chosen his vice president, and according to all reactions so far, he has chosen well considering his voter base. Ohio Senator J. D. Vance will only turn forty this week, thus balancing one of the arguments the Democrats suddenly “discovered,” namely Trump’s age. He also has a great story behind him, a boy from poor, even desperate circumstances, who managed to rise from a broken family with a drug-addicted mother to become a successful businessman, author, and now politician. Moreover, he has served in the Marine Corps, and service to the nation in the armed forces still counts with voters in the USA.

Given Harris’s current lack of prominence, one might even say her lack of success in the only role Joe Biden allowed her to take on, namely in addressing the issue of illegal immigration, particularly from South America, her choice of vice president will now be extremely important. Logic would suggest a white man, especially when the Democratic campaign has started portraying Harris, who is of mixed race, as a Black woman, but until a name is on the table, we can only speculate. In any case, this summer in America will be hot, and Europe, instead of offering unsolicited advice, should focus on solving its own problems, of which we have plenty, and thanks to the tireless work of the European Commission and the European Parliament, we are creating new ones every day, not to mention Russia, China, and Iran, who won’t miss an opportunity to harm us.