Bloodied, defiant and mouthing ‘fight’: This image of Trump will redefine the election

It is an image that will travel the world; a picture that will be seared into America’s national story for generations to come: Donald Trump, bloodied but defiant, surrounded by US Secret Service officers, mouthing the word “Fight” repeatedly as he is led away to safety.

The framing reminded me of perhaps the most famous photo from the Second World War: the raising of the flag at Iwo Jima by the US Marine Corps. Last night, Donald Trump was the flag, as he was almost carried away by his security detail.

The former president has survived, but had that bullet flown one or two inches further right, things would have been very different. It is indeed depressing to wake to yet another story of political violence; a story that goes back to the foundation of the republic itself.

To the roll-call of dishonour, which includes names such as John Wilkes Booth, Charles J Guiteau, Lee Harvey Oswald and John Hinckley Jr, we can now add Thomas Matthew Crooks – the latest individual to make an attempt on a serving or former US president’s life.

It is too early to know what Crooks’ motivation was – he was a registered Republican, but had given money to progressive causes as well. With Booth and his assassination of Abraham Lincoln at the Ford Theatre in Washington DC, it was purely political, motivated by fury over the abolition of slavery. Oswald’s assassination of JFK in Dallas was murkier, and spawned a million conspiracy theories. But Hinckley’s attempt on Ronald Reagan’s life? The shooter did it to impress the actor Jodie Foster, with whom he was obsessed.

The one thread, of course, that links all these assassination attempts, successful or otherwise, is the ready availability of high-powered weapons with which to carry out your chosen “hit”. The irony is that the Maga crowd in Pennsylvania are full-throated in their support of the right to bear arms. It is considered as fundamental as the right to draw breath.

Pennsylvania, at the close of the 2020 campaign, was the last Trump rally I attended. It was near an airfield in Scranton. The security at these events is like nothing you see in the UK. The whole area is cordoned off, and there is airport-style security with metal detectors and wands before you get anywhere near the stage. The US Secret Service has considerable power to shut down any nearby buildings that might pose a risk. It looks as though yesterday’s shooter managed to get onto the roof of a nearby factory. There are serious security questions to be answered.

It is the political fallout from this, however, that is most troubling. It is encouraging – and right – that Joe Biden came out immediately in condemnation of his rival’s attempted assassination. Apparently, the two men have spoken – a positive sign, although Biden saying that political violence like this is “unheard of” is a long way wide of the mark.

But – and let’s be magnanimous and put this down to the shock of what had just happened – when Trump repeatedly mouthed the word “Fight” as he was escorted from the scene, is that really what America needs more of right now? We’ve already had an election that descended into political violence with the riots of 6 January.

In politics – like any other contest – the word “fight” is a metaphor. I am sure Gareth Southgate and Harry Kane will be urging England to do just that when they take to the field in Berlin this evening. But it can also be seen as an injunction. And as we saw on 6 January, with groups like the Oath Keepers and the Proud Boys, there are some in the US who don’t need much encouragement in that direction.

There is an irony that on 6 January, according to evidence given at the inquiry into the day, Trump fought with the Secret Service over who should gain admittance to the Ellipse – the patch of ground to the south of the White House, where Trump exhorted his supporters to go to the Capitol and “fight like hell” for the country.

The president argued that there was no need to set up the usual security arrangements to check whether people were carrying weapons, because all the people attending loved him. It seemed that, on that day, he didn’t want them to be separated from whatever they were carrying.

Surely, any political leader should today be calling for calm heads to prevail. They should be seeking to evoke the idea of the US as the shining city on the hill – the model to the rest of the world. US leaders love to speak about American exceptionalism, but unless the temperature can be lowered and the toxicity diluted, then America will be seen as exceptional for all the wrong reasons.

The immediate effect of last night’s assassination attempt will probably be to give Trump a big polling boost. He survived and is unbowed. Yet for Biden, too, there is something positive. Who is going to be talking about his age and fitness for office now? The president has won some breathing space.

For different reasons, the events of last night increase the chances that it will, indeed, be Trump versus Biden in November. Whether that is the best thing for America is another question.