Not since Theodore Roosevelt has a president or presidential candidate provided such an image of strength and toughness as former President Donald Trump did on Saturday, mere seconds after a bullet fired by a would-be assassin skimmed his ear.
With blood streaming from his ear and Secret Service agents all around him, Trump pushed himself back into the view of the crowd that had come to see him in Butler, Pennsylvania, and raised his fist in a gesture of strength and defiant perseverance. Similar to Roosevelt insisting on delivering a speech moments after being shot in 1912, the image of Trump’s defiant fist is one that will go down as a defining moment in the history of the United States.
The image of a bloodied Trump with his raised fist is a perfect encapsulation of how people want to be inspired by their leaders. We have a natural desire to feel like those who lead us are the best of us, and it is a fact of human nature that we project our hopes and feelings for the future onto our leaders, exalting them above the rest of us.
Whether we care to admit it or not, the president is a quasi-monarch — an elected monarch but a monarch nonetheless. He is the image of the nation domestically and abroad, always accompanied by pomp and ceremony afforded to no one else. He is the one we turn to for comfort in moments of national turmoil and to lead our celebrations in moments of national triumph.
The American penchant for exalting our presidents dates back even to George Washington, who was so universally loved that he could have been crowned king had he so desired. Washington, like so many kings in history, had just secured a glorious victory on the battlefield and the universal goodwill of the people. And while he declined the crown, the presidency was created at the Constitutional Convention with the full knowledge and expectation that he would be the first man to occupy the office.
Trump, of course, is not Washington. But he does not need to be. The political moment of 2024 requires a very different leader than what was required in 1776. Cultural and moral sensibilities nowadays are vastly different than in the early days of the republic, and so a leader in 2024 is going to reflect those differences. But that doesn’t make Trump’s actions on that stage in Pennsylvania in the face of gunfire any less heroic or courageous.
In a moment that was a source of fear for so many, he stood up and, despite the danger to himself, delivered an unmistakable message that not even a would-be assassin could dissuade him from his purpose. And his supporters responded in kind. Moments removed from ducking in fear of more shots, the crowd rose to their feet and chanted, “U-S-A! U-S-A! U-S-A!”, as the Secret Service escorted their bloodied champion to a waiting car.
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No other political leader inspires and excites his supporters in the way that Trump does. More than any other president in recent memory, he understands the quasi-monarchical role that he held for four years and is likely to hold again come January.
On Saturday evening, he provided a moment of heroic courage fit for a king.