Trump’s toughness will deliver him a landslide victory

Trump displayed great presence of mind in raising his fist in defiance and shouting “fight” as Secret Service agents sought to move him to safety. He now becomes a living martyr for the MAGA cause. Not since Theodore Roosevelt continued speaking for an hour after he was shot in October 1912 has an American president displayed similar toughness.

The FBI has identified the suspected shooter as Thomas Matthew Crooks, a twenty-year-old man from Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, who the Washington Post says was registered Republican. Crooks was killed by Secret Service agents after firing multiple shots from outside the rally venue, on a rooftop several hundred yards from the podium. Crooks reportedly used an AR-15-style semi-automatic rifle.

When he appears before the Republican convention in Milwaukee next week, Trump, who is a master of stagecraft, will be greeted as a savior. Melania Trump, who had not been scheduled to speak at the convention, will now surely feel compelled to make an appearance supporting her husband. It will also be next to impossible for Manhattan judge Juan Merchan to sentence him to any prison time in September.

The performance of the Secret Service is bound to come under severe scrutiny. Trump was apparently not adequately protected while he was moved from the podium to his car. That the shooter may have been able to fire off a number of shots also suggests a grave lapse in security measures. In an interview with the BBC, one bystander stated that he and others had tried to point out to the police and Secret Service that there was a shooter crawling on a nearby roof.

The statement from Biden about the shooting was tepid. “There’s no place for this kind of violence in America,” Biden said. “We must unite as one nation to condemn it.” Former president Barack Obama declared that “we should all be relieved that former President Trump wasn’t seriously hurt, and use this moment to recommit ourselves to civility and respect in politics.”

It won’t happen. Trump and his followers will now redouble their efforts, painting the Democrats as domestic traitors. In announcing that it’s time to “fight,” Trump made it abundantly clear that he intends, as far as possible, to go on the offensive. The election, for all intents and purposes, appears to be over. Now more than ever, Trump is headed for a landslide victory in November.

This article was originally published on The Spectator’s UK website.