On Saturday afternoon in Butler, Pennsylvania, Donald Trump pulled his latest rabbit out of a hat: He cheated death.
As Washington Free Beacon editor Peter Hasson noted on X, Teflon Don has outlasted two impeachments, four indictments — and, with his fist defiantly raised in the air and blood running down his cheek, bested a would be assassin.
The former president, quite literally, dodged a bullet.
So did our great country.
With one fateful turn of Trump’s head, Americans were collectively saved from unimaginable chaos. Yet, some saw it differently — and weren’t shy about their blood thirst.
The list of Trump Derangement Syndrome sufferers taking to social media to express regret over the botched hit has been long and diverse. It’s included a staffer for a Dem congressman, a Morgan State professor, a nonbinary middle school teacher and even a firefighter in Pennsylvania — who wrote on Facebook, “too bad it didn’t hit him square” alongside a popcorn box emoji.
Apparently lost on him was the fact that Corey Comperatore, a fellow smoke-eater, was taken out instead.
A New York City nurse, said the gunman needed to “work on your skills.” At a concert in Sydney, Australia, Tenacious D — the band fronted by actors Jack Black and Kyle Gass — was uniquely disgusting.
Onstage, Black, who gave a speech at the recent George Clooney-fronted LA fundraiser for Joe Biden, sang “Happy Birthday” to his bandmate and told him to make a wish.
Without missing a beat, Gass said: “Don’t miss Trump next time.”
So much for the compassionate lefties of La La Land.
Yesterday, a friend of a friend even expressed it to me without an ounce of shame. “It’s terrible that he missed.”
Shocked, I simply raised my eyebrows and said, “No. Quite the opposite. We should be grateful.”
For one thing, how inhumane and grotesque it is to wish for anyone’s murder.
And if the gunman had succeeded, we’d be in a very different America right now. Taking out Trump would have opened a Pandora’s box: a portal to a political hellscape and a cascade of real-world consequences reverberating around the globe.
The already tenuous ties holding our society together would be ripped apart. Violence, anger and an insatiable appetite for revenge would have led to a place so dark and twisted, I’d rather not visit even the hypothetical.
Who remembers the violent excesses of the “fiery but mostly peaceful” summer of 2020, which left cities across our country lawless and burned out? They also left innocent people dead. And then there was the turmoil of January 6. Both events were shameful — and a repeat of either would be catastrophic in this election year.
It would lead to volatility in the stock market and disrupt the economy. Our foreign enemies, clocking our ever growing weakness and divisions, would be licking their chops while sharing a cocktail of schadenfreude.
Also: a family would lose their father, husband, grandfather.
What did these creeps really want? To see Trump’s head blown off on stage, in front of men, women and children, with the macabre scene replayed over and over online like a snuff film?
It’s nihilistic. It’s grim. And it’s selfish and shortsighted. Because it would not have ended well for any one of us, regardless of which political jersey we wear.
Funnily enough, I don’t see these people posting the gunman’s image on social media like a fallen foot soldier.
It’s human to disagree with someone. It’s also possible to be highly critical of a politician and their policies, actions and moral code (or lack thereof) and not wish them a bloody and public death.
As Americans, we all should want fair elections.
A candidate should be taken out at the ballot box by bad ideas and ineffective leadership. Not by a sharp metal projectile fired from a depraved gunman. That is not justice — that’s a hallmark of a third world country.
And yet, I have faith. There were many civilized Democrats who grasped the gravity of the situation.
They say a near death experience gives one a new lease on life. Fresh from the dramatic moment, Trump said he’s rewriting his Republican National Convention speech to preach unity.
Perhaps that renewed spirit will ring true for all of our citizens. The USA needs the healing.
