The Attempted Assassination of Trump: What Man Intended for Bad, Turned to Good

The horrific assassination attempt against former President Trump on July 13 resulted in the murder of one American man and the wounding of two others. The implications for domestic politics are profound and will be long-lasting, as are the international consequences. The consequences are myriad, and we address three in this essay.

First, the fist-pumping Trump is now the human face of American power in global politics, despite not being the elected president. While the assassination attempt was intended to be a blow to American power through the spectacle of U.S. leadership being in chaos, the providential survival of Trump, incredibly, has erased that negative and turned the tables. But that American power depends on credibility to defend U.S. interests wherever they are threatened. That credibly depends upon strong and sure U.S. military power. In turn, U.S. military power depends on the health of American society. Thus, the cleavages and tensions in U.S. society that are evinced in American politics today, in the electoral process, and in the media and popular culture have a direct impact on the credibility of American military power. The attempted assassination tells Americans that they have a national security threat within their society and social weakness can have dire international security consequences. It is clear for all to see that the assassin was awash in the waters of a hate-filled media, degenerating popular culture, and a corrupted public education system that have been polluted by the twisted, left-wing image of Trump. While the world will never truly know what motivated the attempted assassin, as he took the cause of his actions to his grave, the fact that he failed saved the U.S. from far darker outcomes and illuminated the desperate need for the kind of leadership that Trump’s raised right arm means for America’s national security.

Second, and most important to America’s national security from afar, Trump is also the most prominent symbol of resistance to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). His death would have removed that powerful symbol and the fact that he survived the attempt and immediately conveyed to his supporters and the world that he had survived and would continue to fight were physical manifestations of his core character and beliefs—the foundations of Americanism. It was a profile in courage that equals any by a president in American history. They are also powerful symbols of resistance that inspire global populations. As President Ronald Reagan did. Trump’s unrivaled bravery and the images and video of his actions that day provide the United States with a new focal point, a dramatic and crystalline act that inspires and defines the differences between Americans and the members of the Chinese Communist Party.

There were five defining statements in the Cold War that defined the differences between America’s ideology of political liberalism and the soulless statism of Communism. Churchill’s 1946 “Iron Curtain” speech in Fulton, Missouri. The 1959 “Kitchen Debate” in Moscow between Vice President Richard Nixon and Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev. In 1963, in West Berlin, John F. Kennedy would draw the indelible differences between Soviet and Western ideology with his masterful “Ich bin ein Berliner” speech. Finally, and most iconically, was in 1983, when Ronald Reagan defined the Soviet Union as the “evil empire,” the focus of evil in the modern world, which lifted the spirits of many around the world. Soviet dissident Natan Sharansky (born Anatoly Shcharansky) was imprisoned in Permanent Labor Camp 35 at that time and recalled his reaction after Reagan’s death in 2004: “It was the brightest, most glorious day…Finally, Orwell’s Newspeak was dead. President Reagan had, from that moment on, made it impossible for anyone in the West to continue closing their eyes to the real nature of the Soviet Union. It was one of the most important, freedom-affirming declarations, and we all instantly knew it. For us, that was the moment that really marked the end for them and the beginning for us. The lie had been exposed and could never, ever be untold now. This was the end of Lenin’s ‘Great October Bolshevik Revolution’ and the beginning of a new revolution, a freedom revolution—Reagan’s Revolution.” But Reagan would continue to undermine the Soviet Union. In 1987, also in West Berlin, Reagan delivered a rhetorical body blow to the Soviet system in his “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall” address.

Trump’s courage and bravery on July 13 will be equally inspiring as the brilliant rhetorical thrusts of Churchill, Kennedy, or Reagan. Trump’s “fight, fight” not only encourages and inspires Americans but can also become a rally cry for those living under the yoke of communism around the world. Like Sharansky in the Soviet Gulag, or Muslims today in the People’s Republic of China Gulag in Xinjiang, it can sustain others in great distress and in the face of tyranny.

Third, Trump showed the American spirit, the “Spirit of 1776,” in his response that day and after. It was a fearless response to a terrific shock and adversity at a time when he knew he was under life-threatening attack and did not know its end. There might have been other assassins lurking elsewhere. Thus, it was the equal of the heroism of those in victory or defeat at Saratoga, Lundy’s Lane, Missionary Ridge, Wake Island, Hürtgen Forest, Chosin Reservoir, or Khe Sanh. In his acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Donald Trump relayed what was going through his mind on that fateful Saturday in Butler County, Pennsylvania, which was highlighted by this statement: “There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for others. This is the spirit that forged America in her darkest hours, and this is the love that will lead America back to the summit of human achievement and greatness.”

As such, the attempted assassination and Trump’s words are a reminder of the age-old wisdom that while some may intend harm, providence (the hand of God) intended it for good to accomplish greater things that will save many lives. This wisdom does not come without also taking the practical actions necessary to achieve that good—it is now time for everyday Americans to raise up and fight alongside their leader to defend America’s interests at home and abroad.

James E. Fanell and Bradley A. Thayer are authors of Embracing Communist China:  America’s Greatest Strategic Failure.