Shots Fired
Table of Contents
What must have begun as a normal day in the life of the Republican Party’s forerunner for the 2024 US presidential elections, Donald Trump ended as a day he will be unlikely to forget for the rest of his life. While speaking at a campaign rally which was held in Meridian, Pennsylvania, Trump was shot from the sloping roof of a nearby house. A lucky turn of his head saved his life with the bullet grazing his ear and drawing blood. Trump fell to the ground, holding his ear. But a moment later, he was up with a blood-streaked face, fist pumping and shouting, “Fight! Fight!”. This moment was captured by cameras and has gone viral. Multiple politicians and world leaders have roundly condemned the attacks, taking a strong stance against political violence. A few accounts, unfortunately, expressed sentiments wishing the shooter had not missed. The would-be assassin, a 20-year-old man named Thomas Matthew Crooks was killed by the Secret Service’s sniper squad on the spot.
It is not every day that one gets to survive an assassination attempt. What could this rare occurrence possibly do to Trump’s psyche?
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PTSD and paranoia
We quickly learned after the Vietnam War that not everything that happens on the battlefield stays on the battlefield. Soldiers came home unable to forget what they had done or what was done to them during the war. Something as simple as a loud sound or a flashing light could trigger them into a murderous rage. Studies have shown that people who have had near-death experiences are more likely to develop PTSD. While Trump is tough, even the toughest of people could get rattled by such a close call. There is a chance that Trump could grow more paranoid, jumping at shadows and seeing threats where there are none. If such fears are allowed to get out of hand, it could affect his decision-making skills and ability to make a friend-enemy distinction. This could lead to him alienating those close to him as he might start to believe that they are complicit in plans to end his life. If this were to happen, this could begin a downward spiral in his life which would inevitably spill over to his politics and all of America would be worse off for that.
Dipped in the river Styx
Achilles, the legendary hero was made invulnerable by his mother, Thetis, the silver-footed goddess of the sea dipping him in the River Styx. Just like him, Trump could adopt an air of invulnerability, an outlook that studies show is also common among survivors of near-death experiences. This outcome is likely due to Trump’s natural braggadocio and would be easily lapped up by his ardent followers who could begin seeing him as something close to a god. Such an outlook has some advantages as it could provide a massive morale boost not only to Trump but to every single person supporting him for the presidential elections. Campaign rallies could take on the air of victory marches, replete with more fist pumping and gauntlets being thrown at future assassins to take another shot. The downside of this is that if Trump begins to believe his own myth, he could become more lax with his security arrangements, and just like Achilles, could fall to one well-timed missile to a weak spot.
I am the Chosen One
Self-actualization sits on the very pinnacle of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. What more could a billionaire want other than a driving purpose? And what purpose could be more driving than what appears to be a divine intervention in the failed assassination? Trump might see the missed bullet as the hand of God saving his life. This could be God giving him another chance at life and sending him as a savior to the poor, weary, and downtrodden common people of America. What Mandela was to South Africa, Gandhi was to India (Bharat) and Lee Kuan Yew was to Singapore, Trump could see himself becoming for the United States of America. No longer motivated by petty concerns like greed and prestige, he could become a focus for the outpouring of communal American consciousness and lead the nation away from the precipe of ideological warfare and into a more peaceful and prosperous future.
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Conclusion
Any one of these outcomes could occur, or all of them, or none of them. The story of Trump is unfolding like a saga right before our eyes. While hindsight is 20/20, foresight is decidedly more myopic and prone to errors. For now, all we can do is keep our eyes peeled and see what the future has in store.
References
Greyson B. Getting comfortable with near death experiences. An overview of near-death experiences. Mo Med. 2013 Nov-Dec;110(6):475-81. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6179792/
Kopel J. (2019). Near-death experiences in medicine. Proceedings (Baylor University. Medical Center), 32(1), 163–164. https://doi.org/10.1080/08998280.2018.1542478
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