The 127th edition of this was teed up to go before last night's White House Correspondence Dinner, or this would be that edition. Having the other one ready to go, I went ahead and ran it.
I didn't realize anything had happened right away until I went upstairs and my wife was watching a little of the news feed. It was fairly typical with the press doing the usual "oh gosh, who could the target have been" routine. We all know who the target was, Donald Trump.
This is a tragedy, even though nobody was hurt, thankfully, for a variety of reasons, one being that while there are now questions about how the assailant "got so close" (in a country armed to the hilt, Trump probably comes surprisingly close to armed people every single day), what this accomplishes once again will be to help rally people around Trump. I know that's not supposed to be the first observation, but it's quite true.
Trump has been sinking like a rock in popularity but people rally around somebody who is attacked. And in the MAGA camp, where quite a few people believe that Trump is on some sort of Devine mission, it'll be seen as proof of that.
That this occurred is not a surprise at all. Trump is an illegitimate President who vomits hatred on a nearly daily basis. He inspires hatred of him and is likely the most hated American President since Abraham Lincoln. He is a horrible human being.
None of that justifies an attempt at murder, but it's not surprising the attempt was made. What's additionally interesting, fwiw, is the far right of this country effectively adopted the concept of tyrannicide during both Biden's and Obama's terms in office, so in a way, that set the table for something like this to occur in a way that didn't exist when there were attempts on prior Presidents.
With this attempt, depending on how you look at it, Trump holds the record for the most attempts on a Presidents life. Having said that, if you limit that to while a figure is in office, he's tied with Ford if you regard him as being presently in office.
I probably would have skipped mentioning the dinner as its shameful that it even occurs anymore.
Some outside commentary on it:
Inside the Ballroom: Chaos and Confusion
That article by a reporter who was there.
Surreal? Maybe, but by this point in Trump's illegitimate reign I suspect a lot of people are like me. We know that this was a horrible event but it hardly even registered on the attention meter. Trump so dominates the news with his horrible behavior that even when its directed at him, it's hard to really get too worked up about it.
Again, I don't condone this, and the effect will aid Trump, who needs to be removed via the 25th Amendment.
About the dinner itself, a lot of people, myself included, flatly feel that it should have been cancelled, or at least Trump should not have been invited. He treats the Press horribly, and yet there they are, worshipping him.
Aid and Comfort to the Enemy
The recklessness of the White House Correspondents’ Association’s self-own
A cartoon:
The WH Correspondents' Dinner
Unethical and tone deaf
Apparently J.D. Vance and sycophantic today Mike "Toady" Johnson were at the event. Of interest, the Secret Service rushed Vance off first.
That's interesting.
If that comes up again, I'm sure there will be some solid explanation, but I wonder if its just not a combination of fatigue on the part of security as well. Vance and Trump probably have separate security details and Trump's is probably numb from having to be around such a horrible person constantly.
On clearing the room, the excessive number of iPhone cameras anymore means everything is photographed to the hilt and then over analyzed. That's already happening, but as horrible as something like this is, it can lead to some semi assuming photographs, none of which would be the slightest bit amusing if you were there.
One is that Kennedy Jr. appeared to leave his wife behind as he was escorted out to safety. His wife, actress Cheryl Hines, later explained that her formal dress hindered her ability to get out and she had to be carried.
Stephen Miller basically shoved his wife out, which is understandable, but photographically unfortunate too, as he was leading her while behind her and his hand was unfortunately placed for control on her upper torso, um, well anyhow.
On the post scene photographs, one security figure is clearly carrying a SIG M17 in the same photograph as a female security officer carrying a Glock 19. The M17 is way larger. It had the conventional iron sights.
The man carrying it was way larger than the female officers as well. I know that in 2025 a person isn't supposed to feel these things but in at least two of the Trump attempts a female secret service officer has been present and just the photographs don't inspire confident in me. That's probably just me. Anyhow, well. . .
Well, a slight addition.
Since the decline in sartorial standards, Secret Service officers are absurdly easy to pick out. They're always wearing dark suits. I have a photograph of Theodore Roosevelt from 1903 or so in which a Secret Service officer is wearing tweed and a newsboy cap. Much harder to pick out. The women are even easier to pick out as women don't normally wear dark business suits.
Glocks leave me unimpressed as well. M'eh.
Trump promised to reschedule the event, which of course, wasn't his to schedule in the first place.
Trump offered some comments from the White House. Included in those were that the military is demanding the ballroom.
The military probably doesn't normally provide any sort of security to the President at all, although the man with the M17 is interesting as he was clearly in some security role, and was not in the Secret Service, and probably in the military. That aside, the military probably doesn't give a rats ass about the ballroom in this context. Trump just makes crap up.
What does seem to be the case is that there's a giant bunker being built under where the ballroom is supposed to go, but won't. We only know the details of that which we know as Trump can't stop his verbal diarrhea.
It is an interesting aspect of this however is how much of the White House destruction was motivated by a military request, and then taken advantage of by the White House, if it was.
I'll add that building giant bunkers leads to an inflated sense of self worth on the part of everyone involved. That part of this project ought to be halted as well.
One final note. Most people who attempt to assassinate Presidents are nuts. This is notable as by an large, their efforts are incredibly poorly done. This is true of nearly every historical assassination attempt. Of all of them, Lee Harvey Oswald's was by far the most competent attempt, which is probably why people insist it must have been a conspiracy.
Not that this isn't already happening here. I've already read claims that this attempt, and all the prior ones, on Trump's life were staged. They weren't, but something remarkable here is that Trump, Vance and Johnson were all present, which is stupid. The argument would be that you know they were staged, as the government would never be so dim as to put the first three people in line for power in the same public room.
Oh yes it would.
Rubio was there too.
Given the line of succession, if a competent attacker was president, Chuck Grassley might now be President. That would assume a lot of skill that most attempted assassins really lack, which is a good thing for everyone. Indeed, even well trained assassins tend not to pull regime change off, as the repeated German Army failures on Hitler demonstrate.
It does demonstrated a lot of hubris, however. We are presently at war with a country whose entire leadership was assassinated early on. Murdering the leadership of opposing combatants is generally regarded as beyond the Pale in war. We did not do it in World War Two, and our opponents didn't attempt it either. The targeting of Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto in Operation Vengeance during World War Two is still controversial. It was well known that Trump would be at this event and it was likely known that members of his cabinet would be too. That Iran did not regard the event as a target of opportunity says a lot about their restraint, and frankly, their intelligence. They could literally have decapitated the administration and left a person so old in charge that he would have had to resign. I don't know how many members of Trump's cabinet were in fact there. Maybe all of them.
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