The shooting of the former president Donald Trump Saturday was just the latest act of political violence that often shapes US history.
Trump said he was “fine” after being hit by a bullet in his ear during a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. The attacker was killed by a Secret Service agent, and one other person at the event was killed. Authorities are investigating Saturday’s attack as an attempted murder.
The assassinations of Abraham Lincoln, James Garfield and William McKinley eventually led to the protection of the Secret Service, and the assassination of John F Kennedy shocked the country and led to tighter security around the president.
However, Gerald Ford was the target of two high-profile attempts on his life within 18 days, and Ronald Reagan seriously wounded by a gunman’s bullet at the beginning of the presidency in 1981.
Almost every modern president has been a target. The Secret Service has failed in almost all of these attempts, some of which have resulted in injuries.
Political violence has also claimed the lives of world leaders, including Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme.
Even before Saturday’s incident, polls showed voters worried about the possibility of violence surrounding this year’s presidential election. A Bloomberg News/Morning Consult poll of swing-states in May found about half of those fears were shared, with nearly equal shares of Democrats and Republicans. And they are even more common among independents, the poll found.
Here are some previous attempts at the lives of US presidents and presidential candidates:
Donald Trump
Trump said he was “fine” after being hit by a bullet in his ear during a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. The attacker was killed by a Secret Service agent, and one other person at the event was killed. Authorities are investigating Saturday’s attack as an attempted murder.
The assassinations of Abraham Lincoln, James Garfield and William McKinley eventually led to the protection of the Secret Service, and the assassination of John F Kennedy shocked the country and led to tighter security around the president.
However, Gerald Ford was the target of two high-profile attempts on his life within 18 days, and Ronald Reagan seriously wounded by a gunman’s bullet at the beginning of the presidency in 1981.
Almost every modern president has been a target. The Secret Service has failed in almost all of these attempts, some of which have resulted in injuries.
Political violence has also claimed the lives of world leaders, including Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme.
Even before Saturday’s incident, polls showed voters worried about the possibility of violence surrounding this year’s presidential election. A Bloomberg News/Morning Consult poll of swing-states in May found about half of those fears were shared, with nearly equal shares of Democrats and Republicans. And they are even more common among independents, the poll found.
Here are some previous attempts at the lives of US presidents and presidential candidates:
Donald Trump
- During Trump’s 2016 campaign, a 20-year-old British man tried to grab a gun from Las Vegas police at a Trump rally there. He later told police he tried to kill Trump, and pleaded guilty to federal firearms and harassment offenses.
Ronald Reagan
- On March 30, 1981, John Hinckley Jr. fired six shots at the president in Washington, killing Reagan and three others. The president was seriously injured but recovered after emergency surgery. The other three victims also survived. Hinckley was immediately arrested and held in institutional psychiatric care until 2016, 12 years after Reagan’s death.
Gerald Ford
- Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme, a follower of cult leader Charles Manson, tried to shoot Ford in Sacramento, California on September 5, 1975. Three weeks later, Sara Jane Moore shot Ford in San Francisco, killing the two women the most. the most famous female would-be murderer in US history.
Robert F. Kennedy
- Sirhan Sirhan shot and killed Kennedy, then a candidate in the Democratic primary, in Los Angeles on June 5, 1968, less than five years after killing his brother. Sirhan was sentenced to life imprisonment. Kennedy’s son, Robert F Kennedy Jr, is an independent presidential candidate in 2024.
John F. Kennedy
- On November 22, 1963, Lee Harvey Oswald shot and killed the president in Dallas, Texas. The assassination continued to fuel debate over whether Oswald acted alone, after Oswald was killed by Jack Ruby’s restaurant two days later.
Theodore Roosevelt
- Roosevelt was a former president who was campaigning to return to the White House when he was shot while giving a speech in Milwaukee on October 14, 1912. Protected by the 50-page text of his speech and a case of glasses in his pocket, he continued his address. and recovered, eventually losing to Woodrow Wilson. Would-be murderer John Schrank was found legally insane and institutionalized for death.
William McKinley
- McKinley was shot in Buffalo, New York on September 6, 1901, and later died of his wounds, electing Vice President Roosevelt to the presidency. Anarchist Leon Czolgosz was convicted of murder and executed.
James Garfield
- Garfield was shot in Washington on July 2, 1881. He died of complications from his wounds two months later. Author and lawyer Charles Guiteau was convicted and sentenced to death.
Abraham Lincoln
- Lincoln was shot and killed in Washington on April 14, 1865, by John Wilkes Booth, a well-known actor and Confederate sympathizer, who died after a manhunt that lasted nearly two weeks.
