Of the 46 presidents the U.S. has had, four have been assassinated. Many more attempts to kill presidents have been made. In the last few months, there have been two assassination attempts on former president Donald Trump.
The first assassination attempt took place on July 13th, 2024, during a rally in Pennsylvania, and was carried out by a 20-year-old man named Thomas Micheal Crooks. It resulted in the death of a spectator, Corey Comperatore.
According to AP News, several people reported to officers that they had seen Crooks acting suspiciously during the rally. Crooks still managed to make it onto the roof of a building and open fire at Trump. He missed, grazing Trump's ear and hitting nearby spectators instead, critically injuring two and killing one. Crooks was then shot and killed by Secret Service snipers.

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It is hard to say what Crooks' motives were exactly. The FBI officials investigating him said there wasn't much to find on his social media accounts concerning political ideology. His actions in real life were of little help to investigators as well. He seemed to have registered as a Republican voter in the past but donated money to a progressive political action committee aligned with Democratic causes.
Before July 13th of this year, the last assassination attempt on an American president was in 2005, when a hand grenade was thrown toward the then president George W. Bush. The last time anyone was hurt during an assassination attempt on an American president was in 1981, when someone tried to shoot Ronald Reagan and missed, but hit three other people.
Many people, particularly teens, haven't witnessed a serious attempt to take a president's life in a long time, if ever. As a result, Americans were taken by surprise and worried by the assassination attempt.
Due to social media, the effect the assassination attempt had on Americans was perhaps greater than it would have been in the past. Many were rapidly exposed to conspiracy theories, with some people suggesting that the Democratic Party had orchestrated the incident, and others proposing the incident had been staged in order to help Trump gain support. This is yet another stark reminder to verify the authenticity of anything you see online.

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What makes the entire incident even more shocking is that, just a couple months later, a second attempt on Trump's life occurred at the Trump International Golf Club on September 15th, 2024. This time, it was carried out by a 58-year-old man named Ryan Routh. He was spotted by the Secret Service and fled the scene, but was shortly detained.
Routh is currently in jail, charged with unlawful possession of a firearm as a felon, which could put him in prison for up to 15 years. Prosecutors hope to eventually have him facing life in prison, as evidence suggests the attack had been planned for months in advance.
Routh's motives are much clearer than those of Crooks. According to the New York Times, he left a note to his friend prior to the attempt, writing that Trump was unfit to be president and detailing what he was planning to do. In a book he wrote, Routh heavily criticized Trump for his role in the war in Ukraine. Also unlike Crooks, Routh has a criminal history, having been charged for being in possession of a weapon of mass death and destruction in 2002.

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Despite nobody being injured with this attempt, it still heavily impacted America. Once more, conspiracy theories began to circulate online. Instead of coming together and condemning political violence, the different sides of the political spectrum have become further polarized as a result of the assassination attempts. According to Scientific American, this division between the left-wing and right-wing is a source of stress and anxiety for many Americans.
America has been heavily impacted by political violence for hundreds of years, having been plagued by the assassinations of numerous presidents and countless assassination attempts. U.S. presidents today may not be in as much danger as they were in the past, but that doesn't mean they're safe. Political violence continues to be a real threat in America, as demonstrated by these two recent assassination attempts on former president Donald Trump.
The threat it poses is only being exacerbated by the spread of misinformation on social media. For now, we can attempt to prevent further political violence by raising awareness about it and collectively condemning it as a society.