How Trump assassination attempt has turbocharged his presidential re-run

New Delhi

Donald Trump quickly returned to his feet on Saturday (July 13) moments after he had been shot at during a rally in Pennsylvania, the state between Washington and New York that has backed a Democratic presidential candidate in every election since 1992, except in 2016 when it chose the Republican candidate Donald Trump. 

Trump's white shirt was undone and his signature 'Make America Great Again' red cap was no longer on his head. Blood streaked across his face as men and a woman from US Secret Service security detail rushed towards him. 

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"We have got to move, we have got to move," one person said. 

"Wait, wait, wait!," Trump instructed with a command, moments after a bullet that could have very well killed him, went above his right ear.

Trump's security detail halted. He looked into the crowd and then reached his arm toward the sky with a clenched fist.

"U-S-A! U-S-A!", the crowd started to chant. 

As Trump's security detail escorted him toward the stairs on the stage, he lifted his arm a little higher. The crowd roared a little louder.

Donald Trump raised his fist in the air to create the optics that have turbocharged his presidential re-run | Reuters

It was in this moment that Trump showed the power of his incredible political reflexes that resulted in optics strong enough they have turbocharged his presidential re-run. 

Trump did not leave the stage without showing his supporters that he was alright. He did not just wave or nod but instead signed off an assassination bid in defiance, leaving an image that history will not forget.

Moments later, a spree of high-profile endorsements came for Trump. While leaders from Chinese President Xi Jinping to Italy's Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni expressed shock, the billionaires and influencers in the United States reacted with endorsement of Trump's presidential re-run. 

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"I fully endorse President Trump and hope for his rapid recovery," wrote Elon Musk, the world's richest person, on X — a day after WION carried the report that Musk had thrown his weight behind Trump with a sizeable donation. 

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"Last time America had a candidate this tough was Theodore Roosevelt," Musk wrote in a subsequent post on X. 

The assassination attempt came just on the eve of Republican National Convention in which Trump, currently the presumptive Republican nominee for November presidential elections, will be formally named Republican Party's candidate to take on serving US President Joe Biden.

"In the end, they are not coming after me. They are coming after you — and I'm just standing in their way," Trump told supporters after his first federal indictment last year. 

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While there was swift condemnation by Biden and other top Democrats, with the president dialing Trump to ask about his well-being, the assassination attempt has turbocharged the existential narrative Trump has placed at the centre of his campaign.