By the grace of God, former President Donald Trump turned his head and the assassin’s shot sliced into his ear instead of piercing his skull. We could very well be planning a state funeral in a country changed forever where Trump is not the GOP candidate and will not be elected to lead in a world that has been roiled in crisis over the last four years. There is a lot to cover here.
It is without question that Trump’s Secret Service detail was negligent in not securing the only nearby buildings 130 yards away from the venue. Numerous Trump supporters notified police of the shooter’s nest ahead of the shots and no immediate action was taken to eliminate the threat.
This incident raises questions on President Joe Biden’s appointment of Kimberly Cheatle as director of the US Secret Service. She is responsible for successfully executing the agency’s integrated mission of protecting key politicians and their families from harm. Prior to her appointment, Cheatle served as senior director of global security at PepsiCo, where she was responsible for directing and implementing security protocols for the company’s facilities in North America. Risk management experience is hardly the qualification required to thwart assassins.
Biden’s choice to lead the Secret Service is as much a failure as Cheatle’s leadership to ensure the protection of Trump during the rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. She has been more concerned about the hiring and screening process for this agency, specifically overlooking the best agents and lowering the strict standards for her Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) effort. It is one thing to ruin a company by hiring inept employees, but to make DEI nonsense part of the cultural structure in an agency responsible for protecting and killing is off the wall.
Perhaps controversial to say, but witnessing the women in action around Trump after he was shot is of great concern, considering there was difficulty holstering a side arm. We need the best and most physically and mentally Seal Team-like qualified personnel to serve and protect presidents.
The perimeter was not secured, leaving a direct elevated line of fire to the president unchecked. This is a failure of execution. Some Democrats in Congress, following Trump’s recent bogus conviction, have recently called for stripping him of his Secret Service detachment. If they had been successful, Trump would likely have been eliminated. Cheatle needs to resign immediately.
Following the assassination attempt, Biden addressed the nation with a short message stating that there is no place in America for this violence. He added that we have to unite and not allow this to happen.
Let’s be very clear: We have heard Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, and cohorts in the news media time and again state that Trump is a threat to democracy – will be a dictator if elected – and that the man is an existential threat to the US. Some have even gone to the extreme of labeling Trump a “Hitler.” Is it any surprise that a lone-wolf shooter has seized these narratives as marching orders to save the country?
WE CAN compare the track records of the two presidents to understand whether Trump was a dictator during his term and a greater threat to America than another term under a mentally declining Biden.
Let’s start by recalling that no major wars broke out under Trump’s administration, his leadership kept the world a safer place by wielding a big stick. All hell broke loose, however, once Biden came to power, with Iran leading the worst terrorist attack since 9/11 by its proxies on Israel, which has resulted in thousands of lives lost in an effort to eliminate Hamas.
Then we have Biden’s expansionist NATO policy into Ukraine, threatening Russia and resulting in a terrible conflict with Ukrainians being fed into the meat grinder in a war that NATO cannot win. Biden’s strategic decision has only pushed China, Iran, North Korea, and India into an alliance where the world is at its most dangerous moment for nuclear war. Who is the greatest existential threat to America and the world?
This assassination attempt on Trump is only the latest endeavor to stop him from leading the United States in 2025.
WHILE THE political arena has always been vicious in America, the volume of in-your-face “do whatever it takes,” “as long as the end is justified by any means” rhetoric has become the norm for the Democrats’ efforts to halt Trump. Following the failure of numerous legal warfare fronts to prosecute the former president’s alleged election interference, classified documents violations, probes into the family business and civil lawsuits, it has all come down to attempts to kill Trump to ensure there is no way he can rise again.
Biden is now in a quandary on the same level regarding his cognitive ability to lead the country. How can he possibly continue with his only campaign slogan – that Trump poses an existential threat to democracy – and possibly encourage another shooter to save the day or to run on his dismal record on open borders, the economy, crime, and a world in chaos?
A bloodied Trump’s wherewithal to rise up after taking a bullet to raise his fist and tell America to fight, fight, fight under the American flag demonstrates steadfast leadership to put the country ahead of his own life.
Refusing protection for RFK Jr
ON ANOTHER note, it would be remiss not to bring up Biden’s Department of Justice continuing to refuse Secret Service protection for independent presidential candidate, Robert F. Kennedy. He knows all too well the threat to himself because both his father and uncle were assassinated. Providing Kennedy with Secret Service protection raises his stature to a viable third-party candidate and perhaps a thorn in Biden’s side when the ballots are counted. Give Kennedy the protection now, before it’s too late.
The recent unfortunate turn of events now gives Trump more cards in his hand with the convicted felon narrative overplayed and the disarray in the Democrat Party over Biden’s cognitive ability to lead. He may just decide to tamp the tone down in a gentler approach to unify the country and widen the tent to attract centrist independent voters now coming to terms on who is best to lead America.
The contributor is a freelance writer based in Detroit, Michigan.