"Krone" analysis

Why Trump is now virtually unstoppable

The wounded Donald Trump managed to get the most iconic moment of the US election campaign, even though his life was potentially still in danger.

(Bild: AFP/2024 Getty Images)

Another assassination is likely to have changed US history. Accelerated in this case: Joe Biden no longer has a de facto chance. Not even another Democratic candidate.

Donald Trump has once again proven what he is made of. After the Republican presidential candidate was shot and had to go down, his Secret Service agents, some of whom were late to help him up and wanted to cover him according to security protocol and take him away immediately at a run, he ordered them to stop with clear "wait" orders.

This gave the presidential candidate, who had been hit on the ear and was bleeding, the opportunity to have the iconic moment of this election campaign, despite the fact that his life was still in grave danger.

With a grim look on his face, he raised his fist in the air, blood on his head and neck, his shirt open: this is the look of a fighter who cannot be stopped. Then he shouted "Fight! Fight! Fight!" into the ranks of his supporters.

"Fight! Fight! Fight!", Trump - wounded in the ear by a bullet just moments before - shouted to his supporters.

(Bild: AP/Gene J. Puskar)

No one can campaign like him
No matter how dangerous he can be as president, no matter how radical he is, no matter how crazy some of his statements are, no one can campaign like him. It goes without saying that the Republican National Convention will now be the biggest triumphal procession since Aida. 

With July 14, 2024 and the assassination attempt in front of the cameras, Donald Trump is finally the clear favorite for the election of the US President, the confused, ageist Joe Biden has de facto no more chances. His appearances and the discussion about his mental state in contrast to Trump's elemental force in the literal sense? No longer winnable.

Two things will now happen in the US:

• First, there will be a very heated debate about possible Secret Service and police failings. A gunman on a rooftop with a view and a clear shot to the lectern at a campaign appearance by the ex-president? Sounds like a bad Hollywood movie. The criticism has already started on a massive scale.

• Secondly, the internal party discussion about Joe Biden, which was briefly suppressed by the assassination, will quickly flare up again. The nationwide moment of shock may even offer the opportunity for unobserved discussions in Biden's entourage about his withdrawal.

Why actors and advertising stars are needed for the pressure
What is happening shows the difference between our party system and the American one: There, there are no large party structures with presidiums and executive committees that can be convened to exert at least formal and official pressure on a leading candidate. Strictly speaking, this does not even exist in our usual form in the USA.

That's why actors and coffee machine advertising stars like George Clooney or millionaire guest speaker Barack Obama are suddenly so important in ousting Biden. Incidentally, he, his family and his team are displaying the kind of behavior that can often be observed at the end of a political career just before the final end: the wagon-castle phenomenon in a true parallel universe.

The land of presidential assassinations
Once again, a political assassin has made history, in this particular case probably his subjectively wrong one. After the murders of the Kennedy brothers, the assassination attempt on Ronald Reagan and foiled attacks on Jimmy Carter and Gerald Ford in the 1970s: The USA has been the land of presidential assassinations since the shooting of Abraham Lincoln. A bit like ancient Rome.