Two months after a gun man tried to shoot the Republican candidate in the 2024 American presidential elections and former USA president, Donald Trump and less than two months to the presidential elections, gun shots have been heard around a venue where Trump was campaigning (at the Trump Golf Course in West Palm Beach, Florida).
His campaign communications director, Steven Chung has released a statement to say the former president is safe and that further details are lacking “this time”. Trump’s son later made a post on X, clarifying that the shots were aimed at his father and a suspect has been arrested.
On July 13, shots aimed at him scrapped his left ear, narrowly missing what could have been a fatal spot. The assassination attempt was made by Thomas Matthew Cooks, a 20 year old male from Bethel Park, Pennsylvania who fired 8 shots from the roof of a building near the venue of Trump’s campaign in the swing state. Cook was shot and killed by officers from the counter snipper team of the United States Secret Service.
Impact on the November 5 2024 presidential elections
The Republican candidate Donald Trump defiantly clenched a raised fist and shouted, “fight, fight” in an attempt to capitalise on the July 13 attempted assassination in mobilising his supporters. He later claimed that it was the rhetoric of the Democrats that motivated Thomas Matthew Cooks to try and assassinate him. Trump will certainly exploit the new attempt on his life for electoral gain.
