An Attempt to Kill an Ex-President, Caught in Real Time

“It was the first attempted assassination of a current or former American president in the era of social media, and the conspiracy theories, finger-pointing and campaign gamesmanship moved at the speed of the internet, far faster than the actual facts of what transpired at former President Donald Trump’s campaign rally in Butler, Pa.,” the New York Times reports.

“The assassination of John F. Kennedy in 1963 left the nation in bewildered grief. Conspiracy theories would proliferate, of course, and Abraham Zapruder’s film of Kennedy’s last moments would be studied for decades. But first, there was mourning. The assassinations of Robert F. Kennedy and the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968 would rock the public consciousness again, leaving Americans wondering what would become of their country.”

“But in the era of memes, X posts, Truths, Threads and TikTok, introspection was never going to be the dominant mood. Rage, blame, even comedy were the watchwords of 2024. A picture of Mr. Trump, fist aloft, American flag fluttering overhead, became iconic in an instant.”