Donald Trump assassination attempt: Just when it seemed that the US presidential race could not become any more chaotic, Republican candidate Donald Trump experienced his second assassination attempt, marking this year's election the most violent and turbulent in American history and shining the spotlight on the country's gun control system and the capabilities of the US intelligence services. It is important to see how the attempts underscore a dark reality of American politics - where numerous US Presidents have been targets of assassination attempts.
Trump was rushed off the golf course at Trump International in West Palm Beach, Florida, after a Secret Service gunman discovered a gunman in the bushes. Agents engaged the gunman and fired at least four rounds of ammunition around 1:30 pm (1730 GMT). The gunman then dropped his rifle, two backpacks and other items and fled in a black Nissan car. Authorities identified the suspect as Ryan Wesley Routh, 58, who was arrested later in another county as he fled from the spot in an SUV. Trump was safe and his plans to resume campaigning have remained unchanged.
Several former presidents and presidential candidates have faced assassination attempts. Historically, four presidents—Abraham Lincoln, James A Garfield, William McKinley, and John F Kennedy—have been assassinated, while others have managed to survive the attempts. However, apart from Trump, there is only one president who managed to survive not one, but two assassination attempts.
Who is the other president to survive two killing attempts?
This is the second attempt on Trump's life in two months. The former president and Republican candidate for the White House was shot at during a Pennsylvania campaign rally on July 13, a bullet grazing his ear resulting in minor injuries. The shooter was identified as Thomas Matthew Crooks, who killed one bystander and wounded two others before being killed by a Secret Service sniper.
Gerald R Ford was the president when he survived two assassination attempts that took place within three weeks in 1975. In the first attempt on September 5, 1975, Ford was in Sacramento, California where he met then-California Governor Jerry Brown. As he shook hands with Brown in the presence of a large crowd outside his hotel, a woman - Lynette Fromme - attempted to shoot Ford but misfired, and she was arrested quickly on the spot. Fromme was a member of the infamous Manson cult and received a life sentence, before being released on 2009
Mere weeks later on September 22, a woman named Sara Jane Moore shot at Ford in San Francisco but missed her target. Moore was grabbed by a bystander as she fired a second shot that injured a taxi driver. Moore was arrested for her attempt and was reportedly affected by radical revolutionary ideology. She was imprisoned and released in 2007.
History of assassination attempts on US Presidents
The list of US Presidents at the other end of assassination attempts is long and includes prominent names like Abraham Lincoln, John F Kennedy, Franklin D Roosevelt, Harry Truman, George W Bush and now Donald Trump: Here's a brief timeline of the assassination attempts carried out against US Presidents in American history.
- 1835: Andrew Jackson survived an attempt by Richard Lawrence outside the US Capitol when both of his pistols misfired.
- 1865: Abraham Lincoln was shot in the back of his head by John Wilkes Booth while attending a performance in Washington, and died the following day.
- 1881: James A Garfield was killed just six months after taking office, as he was shot by Charles Guiteau while walking through a train station in Washington to catch a train to New England. Guiteau was executed in 1882.
- 1901: William McKinley was shot twice in the chest at point-blank range after delivering a speech in New York. Initially, doctors were hopeful for his recovery, but complications from gangrene around the bullet wounds led to his death on September 14.
- 1912: Theodore Roosevelt was shot by John Schrank in Milwaukee while campaigning to return to the White House. He was saved by folded papers and a metal glasses case, which dented the impact of the bullet.
- 1933: Franklin D Roosevelt narrowly evaded death when gunshots were fired by Guiseppe Zangara while he was delivering a speech in Miami from the back of an open car.
- 1950: Harry Truman also survived an assassination attempt when two armed Puerto Rican nationalists barged into Blair House to kill him. Oscar Collazo was arrested and sentenced to death before his sentence was changed.
- 1963: John F Kennedy was shot and killed by Lee Harvey Oswald in his motorcade as it passed through Dealey Plaza in downtown Dallas.
- 1968: Robert F Kennedy, who was a presidential candidate, was shot dead at a Los Angeles hotel after winning the 1968 California primary. Sirhan Sirhan was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to death, which was later commuted to life in prison.
- 1972: George Wallace was seeking the Democratic presidential nomination when he was shot by Arthur Bremer during a campaign stop in Maryland, rendering him paralysed from the waist down.
- 1975; George R Ford survived two assassination attempts - one by Lynette Fromme in Sacramento on September 5, and another by Sara Jane Moore in San Francisco on September 22.
- 1981: Ronald Reagan was leaving a speech in Washington and heading towards his motorcade when he was shot by John Hinckley Jr. Hinckley was arrested and confined to a mental hospital before being released in 2022.
- 2005: George W Bush was attending a rally in Tbilisi in 2005 alongside Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili when a hand grenade was hurled toward them. Fortunately, the grenade did not detonate and Vladimir Arutyunian was sentenced to life in prison.
ALSO READ | Trump blames Biden, Harris' 'inflammatory language' against him for second assassination attempt
