Trump attack could sway undecided US voters, analyst says

It is going to be difficult to reverse the “acidic” political violence in US politics after the assassination attempt on Donald Trump at a campaign rally, a US-European policy expert has told Euronews.

Senior fellow at the German Marshall Fund think tank in Washington, Jackson Janes, said although he is unsure whether the attack on the presumptive Republican nominee will meaningfully impact the US presidential election in November, it could yet change the minds of undecided voters.

Janes said that the attack is expected to deepen the fervour of Republican voters supporting Trump and will not sway deeply embedded Democrats – but it has raised questions about the opinions of those “in the middle of the two armies” and how they will respond.

“I think that will have a large, large amount to do with the way that the leadership handles the event,” Janes said.

Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin are regarded as key battleground states in the upcoming presidential election, with the states' hundreds of thousands of constituents crucial in deciding who will win in November.

'Blame game' rhetoric could impact undecided voters

Janes said that the opinions of undecided voters will be shaped by how leaders of the Democratic and Republican parties respond to the assassination attempt, and whether they will play into a “blame game” percolating in the political fringes.

“It's an immediate opportunity for people to say that both sides have contributed to the kind of heated polarisation,” he said.

“What is really needed now is respect for the fact that there has been this violent attack on Donald Trump and this needs to be recognised for what it was, and I think (US President Joe) Biden did that in his statement.

“The question is going to be, as Trump has said – in one of his social media post recently on Truth United – how's that going to play out in the coming days and whether people on the fringes of both parties might use this as a way to heighten the commentary further.”

Biden denounced the attack, describing it as “sick” and stating “there is no place in America for this type of violence.”

Despite this, many Republicans quickly blamed the violence on Biden and his allies, arguing that sustained attacks on Trump as a threat to democracy have created a toxic environment.

Trump, who was lightly injured after being shot in the ear at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania, posted on bespoke social media platform Truth Social confirming he was fine and “it is more important than ever” for the US to be united.

Trump added that he looks forward to “speaking to our Great Nation this week from Wisconsin.”

The presumptive nominee is expected to attend the Republican National Convention in the Wisconsin capital of Milwaukee kicking off July 15.

Although the event is centred on Republican Party members officially nominating a presidential candidate, Janes predicts the event will focus heavily on the emotions of the attack – but a new challenge that will emerge us how to lower the "temperature" of these emotions.

'Acidic' political violence and political talk

Although Trump survived, Janes is concerned that unless something changes in the US, the politically-motivated attack could be the first of many to occur over the next decade.

The expert likened the current atmosphere in the US to the tumult of the 1960s, punctuated by the the assassinations of political leaders John F. Kennedy and Robert F. Kennedy, and community leaders Martin Luther King and Malcolm X.

“This momentum of political build-up, this acidity, this temperature that we have – you put that together with the same availability of people to use weapons… and you're asking for trouble,” he said.

"I would like to think that we've gotten this far but political violence and political talk has become much more acidic. We got to turn that around."

International leaders across the political spectrum condemned the attack, which left one rally-goer dead and two injured.

US Secret Service agents fatally shot the 20-year-old gunman Thomas Crooks shortly after he fired at Trump.