My first thought when I read this was "Oh no, here it comes."
But I can see a big upside, too.
Trump gave an interview to Byron York:
TRUMP: 'I'M NOT SUPPOSED TO BE HERE': Former President Donald Trump can't stop thinking about the way he moved his head in the split second before a gunman, intent on assassinating him, pulled the trigger during his speech in Pennsylvania Saturday evening. Trump was standing at the podium and began to refer to a large screen, hanging to his right, that showed statistics about immigration. To better see the screen, Trump turned his head to the right and a little up, and at the millisecond in which his head was at just the right angle for the bullet to graze his ear but not enter his skull -- at that moment, the bullet whizzed by. Trump suffered a bloody wound to his ear, but no other injuries. It seemed like a miracle.
"The most incredible thing was that I happened to not only turn but to turn at the exact right time and in just the right amount," Trump said Sunday afternoon in a talk aboard his Boeing 757 as he flew to Milwaukee for the start of the Republican National Convention. "If I only half-turn, it hits the back of the brain. The other way goes right through [the skull]. And because the sign was high, I'm looking up. The chances of my making a perfect turn are probably one-tenth of 1%, so I'm not supposed to be here."
"I had to be at the exact right angle," Trump said at another point in the conversation, which included the New York Post's Michael Goodwin. "Because the thing was an eighth of an inch away. That I would turn exactly at that second, where he [the gunman] wouldn't stop the shot is pretty amazing. Pretty amazing. I'm really not supposed to be here."
...
I said that watching the video, it appeared that after being shot, surrounded by agents shielding him from any further threat, Trump actually wanted to return to the microphone to continue speaking. Indeed he did. "I wanted to keep speaking -- I wanted to keep speaking, but I just got shot," Trump said with a little laugh. "It's a very surreal experience, and you never know what you're going to do until a thing like that happens."
It was obvious that Trump was still processing what had happened. Who wouldn't be? It is something that will stay with him for the rest of his life. At the moment, he is grappling with the feeling that something very big has changed in his life and in the presidential race. When I asked him, "Does this change your campaign?" he immediately answered, "Yes."
Trump explained that before Saturday night, he had finished the speech he planned to give later this week at the Republican convention. "I basically had a speech that was an unbelievable rip-roarer," he said. "It was brutal -- really good, really tough. [Last night] I threw it out. I think it would be very bad if I got up and started going wild about how horrible everybody is and how corrupt and crooked, even if it's true. Had this not happened, we had a speech that was pretty well set that was extremely tough. Now, we have a speech that is more unifying."
...
The idea is to reframe the intense conflicts Trump has engaged in during his years in national politics. "I've been fighting a group of people that I considered very bad people for a long time, and they've been fighting me, and we've put up a very good fight," Trump said. "We had a very tough speech, and I threw it out last night. I said I can't say these things after what I've been through."
...
"I'd love to achieve unity if you could achieve unity, if that's possible," Trump said. "There are many good people on the other side. ... But there are also people who are very divided. Some people actually want open borders, and some people don't want open borders. The question is can those two sides get together? Can sides where you have people who want to see men play in women's sports and you have a side that doesn't understand even the concept of allowing that to happen [get together]?"
Trump knows it's a long shot. "It has an impact," he said of the assassination attempt. "Now, maybe the impact will wear off if the other side gets nasty." It seems quite likely that that is exactly what will happen and the fighting will resume, even though both Trump and President Joe Biden are talking about unity.
He also said, "I'm supposed to be dead."
Ben Domenech warns against Trump seeking a "false unity" with the left and the Uniparty.
I can understand why this would be the impulse -- the man came a millimeter away from dying in a field less than seventy-two hours ago. But in pursuing a "unity" message -- something the nation's media elite always runs to when they fear being blamed when things happen for which they bear responsibility -- Trump is about to make several mistakes. First, he's sacrificing the moral high ground he now occupies. Second, he's catering to his critics, who have been beating the drum that Trump himself, [blame-the-victim] style, created the atmosphere that led to his near-death. And third, he's ignoring the temperature of the nation and voter frustration with everything around them in favor of some limp noodle message in an attempt to get plaudits from the Atlantic and the New York Times.
That was my first thought as well. As I've said a lot, one of my main problems with Trump is that he continues to be a prisoner of ideas that he had when young: For example, he still has a view of the New York Times as a prestigious paper of record, and cannot see the Times for what it is: A debased propaganda sheet run by 25-year-old political extremists. That's why he spoke on the phone almost every night with NYT local reporter Maggie Haberman, a woman who probably cried out when she heard Trump had survived the attack.
And he does continue seeking the approval of the elites. The big shots, the Hollywood crowd, the "glitterati." Yes, he appreciates the support from MAGA, but that's not the approval he craves.
But on the other hand: There are few chances in life to form a second impression with the public. By being shot, and by being a victim of leftwing violence no matter how much the left claims that Trump Brought This On Himself, and by standing heroically after being shot in the head, and by being spared by what some see as the hand of Almighty God intervening, many members of the public might actually be ready to hear Trump's words without the taint of prejudice that eight long years of nonstop leftwing propaganda have instilled in them.
And this isn't just about the election, either, which I consider to be very much in Trump's favor this time. If Trump actually garners the approval of a majority of the public, the left will be exposed as hateful minority, and Trump's ability to implement his agenda will be strengthened.
Besides, I've always thought Trump's bark was worse than his bite. He sometimes talks like an extremist, while proposing the program of a moderate. That's the exact opposite of where you want him to be: I want his bite to be much worse than his bark. I'd like him to offer soothing banalities while pursuing the hardest-core rightwing extremist agenda possible.
Speak softly, and carry a big, bloody stick.
So as long as he merely moderates his tone, and does not moderate his already moderate-ish agenda, I'll bless this gambit.
Even if it likely won't work, it's still worth the gamble.
Hack inveterate Democrat extremist Paul Begala has similar thoughts:
CNN political commentator Paul Begala acknowledged that he detests former President Donald Trump but that he can become "sympathetic" after the attempt on his life.
A man attempted to assassinate Trump during a Saturday rally in Pennsylvania, with a bullet grazing the former president's ear and drawing blood. "CNN News Central" host Kate Bolduan asked Begala how difficult it would be for Trump to remake his image to woo voters after the shooting, with the commentator acknowledging that it's possible for the former president to now appear more sympathetic because of the nation's open-mindedness.
"It's almost impossible to answer your question, Kate, that someone this well-defined can be redefined, but this country is always open to it. You know, we are a really big-minded country," Begala said. "Mr. Trump has the opportunity now to be both strong and sympathetic ... The latter half of that is not Trump's brand. He's never been brand unity. Joe Biden is, but he is brand strength. So if he can combine those, that would be really formidable."
"And I do think even I, as a Democrat, I can't stand him. Okay, but I wish him well, and I would love to see him try to redefine himself because there's so much division in this country, and a whole lot of it is fostered by Donald Trump," he continued. "So if he can change that, that would be a wonderful thing for our country. And frankly, for Mr. Trump politically."