The Assassination Attempt on Donald Trump and Political Violence Waged by the U.S.

Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist

17 Jul 2024

Iranian general Qassem Soleimani's body was identified only by a ring on his severed hand after Donald Trump ordered his assassination.

The words “political violence” are the latest hackneyed and dishonest phrase emanating from the political class. The assassination attempt on Donald Trump was a minor affair compared to the treatment that the U.S. state doles out around the world and even to its own people.

On January 3, 2020, Iranian general Qassem Soleimani and nine other people were killed by a United States drone strike under the orders of President Donald Trump. Soleimani was in Baghdad, Iraq to meet with Prime Minister Adil Abdul-Mahdi in order to broker a peace initiative between Iran and Saudi Arabia, two nations which had been antagonists for many years.

At the time Joe Biden was a presidential candidate and he issued a “Statement from Vice President Joe Biden on the Killing of Qassem Soleimani.” Biden said, “No American will mourn Qassem Soleimani’s passing. He deserved to be brought to justice for his crimes against American troops and thousands of innocents throughout the region. He supported terror and sowed chaos.”

Everything Biden said about Soleimani was untrue. There was no evidence of Iran fighting U.S. troops in Iraq. It is the U.S. that killed thousands of people in the region after its 2003 invasion of that country. The lies about Soleimani were spread in order to justify killing him and preventing Iran from improving relations with a U.S. ally. It is important to remember this and other examples of state terrorism practiced by the United States now that we are inundated with hypocritical platitudes in the wake of the assassination attempt on Donald Trump.

Before the July 13th assassination attempt which killed one person, injured two others, and resulted in the death of the alleged shooter, we were told that Trump posed an existential threat to democracy and was hell bent on dictatorship and the murders of his opponents. Establishment corporate media like The New Republic even portrayed him as a new Adolf Hitler.

After being harangued by Democratic Party assertions that democracy itself was on the ballot, suddenly we were exhorted to pray for Trump and for his entire family. Not only was the devil suddenly turned into an angel but history itself was rewritten in the process. President Biden informed the public that political violence was to be condemned and also claimed that it doesn’t even exist in this country. "But the idea, the idea that there's political violence or violence in America like this, is just unheard of, it’s just not appropriate." Then again, Soleimani was assassinated in Iraq. Perhaps the rejection of violence ends at the U.S. borders.

Of course, that assertion is also untrue. Presidents Abraham Lincoln, James Garfield, William McKinley, and John F. Kennedy were assassinated. Franklin Roosevelt survived an assassination attempt shortly before his inauguration as did Gerald Ford and Ronald Reagan while in office.

Biden was joined by others who were tripping over themselves to offer thoughts, prayers and condemnation of the violence that they usually sign onto. Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez condemned political violence and wished Trump a “speedy recovery.” Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries left no stone unturned as he offered thoughts, prayers, wishes for a full recovery and also condemnation of political violence. Democratic pundit Van Jones, once a Maoist and now firmly a member of the political class, expressed happiness that Trump is still alive. “I’m so glad that Donald Trump is alive, I’m so glad, I’m so glad he’s alive, I’m so glad his family is not having to bury a father and a grandfather.”

The crocodile tears were proof that depicting Trump as the embodiment of evil is a desperate attempt to obscure the Democratic Party’s failures and, in the process, stave off a defeat that is looking more likely. Biden has been struggling in the polls for months, and his debate performance revealed that the party’s leadership has been lying about his health for four years. Biden’s legislative agenda, such as it was, was undone by the greedy capitalist oligarchy that refused to allow even the tiniest crumbs of help for the masses of people. All that was left was demonizing Trump until fate intervened and took that weapon away from them.

Not only were we awash in nonsense but none of these people now paying homage to Trump mentioned the political violence that took place the same day in Gaza, as Israeli forces killed nearly 100 Palestinians in an effort to assassinate Hamas military commander Mohammed Deif. Not one member of congress expressed condolences, condemnation, thoughts, or prayers about this latest Israeli war crime. The atrocity received scant attention in corporate media, and the same officials who regularly vote to give Israel billions of dollars were in all probability relieved that they were not called upon to comment on their handiwork.

Perhaps the use of the term “political violence” is an admission that the U.S. is awash in violence perpetrated by its states and by individuals against one another. But no distinctions should be allowed. Police in this country have killed 704 people this year. They are on track to exceed the 1,352 victims in 2023. Surely that violence is political. Political prisoners languishing in prison for decades are victims of political violence. It can be argued that everyone caught up in the 50-year-long acceleration of the mass incarceration prison state is also victimized by political violence.

Donald Trump was very lucky as he was merely grazed on his ear during the shooting. Qassem Soleimani was quite literally blown to bits on Trump’s orders. He was identified only by a ring on his finger. His body was otherwise unidentifiable. The U.S. doesn’t play around with its political violence. If a former president is targeted by a would-be assassin or if a seemingly ordinary person decides to shoot up a school or shopping mall we get the same fake concern and pretend bewilderment. The same country that assassinates foreign leaders or U.S. citizens like Anwar Al-Awlaki and his son Abdulrahman Al-Awlaki, who were killed by drone strikes on the orders of Barack Obama, expresses confusion when the violence hits home. It is not possible for the same country that spends more on the military than any other, that has more than 800 bases around the world, and that regularly attacks the sovereignty of other nations in a variety of ways, to be shocked when anyone is shot, whether the victim is a former president or John Q. Public.

Pretend outrage and pretend political differences go hand in hand in the United States. Denial is a running theme in politics, especially in a presidential election year. While Trump is lauded for heroism for raising his fist after being grazed on his ear, Soleimani’s broken body and those of the 186,000 Palestinians in Gaza are consigned to selective amnesia. Political violence is the default position in this country and not an aberration.

Margaret Kimberley is the author of Prejudential: Black America and the Presidents. You can support her work on Patreon and also find it on the Twitter, Bluesky, and Telegram platforms. She can be reached via email at [email protected].