Assassination attempts are always horrendous, evil and sinful, and we condemn the attempted murder of Donald Trump in the strongest terms. No political disagreement is an excuse for violence. Yet, the United States has a dark history of political assassinations – Lincoln, Kennedy, Luther King – as well as assassination attempts. And before Trump, there was Pence.
In this election cycle, many seem to have forgotten the attempted assassinations of Mike Pence, Nancy Pelosi and other members of Congress on the January 6th storming in 2021 when Trump supporters tried to overturn the results from the 2020 presidential election. Some of them had even made a noose, shouting that it was time to hang Mike Pence for accepting the election results.
Trump has repeatedly supported the January 6th rioters, calling them great patriots, and has even expressed support for those who shouted “Hang Mike Pence” according to his White House chief of staff at the time, Mark Meadows.
Of course, this does in no way legitimize or excuse the assassination attempt of Trump. As a peace organization, we reject all typs of violence, both when it comes from Trump’s camp as well as when its directed towards it.
Violence is all too often a vicious cycle: sin that leads to sin that leads to sin. After Trump had been hit and the Secret Service had killed the attacker, his bodyguards wanted to immediately take him to a safe area but the former president ordered them to wait so that he could raise his fist to the audience and shout: “Fight!”
The audience loved it, and even some in the non-MAGA crowd have called it “badass”. At the Republican convention where Trump was nominated as presidential candidate in spite of being a convicted felon, the audience shouted “Fight! Fight! Fight!” as he entered the stage with a damaged ear from the attack.
This conflict narrative of fighting is strangely combined with calls for unity, primarily directed at political opponents. Trump’s speech at the convention, which was his first after the assassination attempt, called for unity and respect for a couple of minutes only to then go after the Democrats for over an hour, calling them dangerous and a threat to democracy that uses the justice system for illegitimate “witch hunts”. Meanwhile, president Joe Biden was asked by reporter Lester Holt to stop pointing out facts about Trump in the name of unity, including when Trump welcomed and laughed about a political opponent being attacked with a hammer.
Do you see the double standards here? Trump and many of his supporters have welcomed political violence and threats of violence multiple times, but when political violence is aimed at Trump the demand is not only that his critics should denounce the violence (which, of course, they should) but also denounce factually correct statements that are critical of Trump, such as him being a threat to democracy with his disdain for election results that don’t go his way. And if calls for unity is incompatible with talking about threats to democracy, why don’t Trump’s supporters criticize him when he described the Democrats as a threat to democracy?
Because of the very fact that we’re against all violence, we feel obliged to remind everyone that the Trump movement is in no way foreign to assassination attempts and deadly threats. Violence begets more violence – what’s needed is the way of the Prince of Peace who tells us to love our enemies and reject all kinds of killing.
Micael Grenholm is a Swedish church historian, author and an editor for PCPJ.
Pentecostals & Charismatics for Peace & Justice is a multicultural, gender inclusive, and ecumenical organization that promotes peace, justice, and reconciliation work among Pentecostal and Charismatic Christians around the world. If you like what we do, please become a member!
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