What did you see when Trump got shot?

Someone tried to kill former President Trump Saturday night. Yes, I know, you already know that, but because of the nature of this event I think we must be clear about what we saw, because I have my doubts.

Here’s what I saw. 

An assassin’s bullet whizzed by Trump’s ear, nicking him as he spoke to thousands of supporters. He was tackled by the secret service and an unforgettable, if not already ironic image followed: Trump, defiant, disheveled, fist in the air, with blood dripping down his face as the American flag flaps behind him urging all his supporters to “fight” as he was ushered off stage to a hospital. He’s ok.  But several attendees are not. One person died and several were shot in the crossfire. An ER doctor in the crowd said he saw her brain matter on the ground. All these people were trying to do was exercise their freedom of peaceful, legal assembly. Whether you like their cause or not.

I was shocked by this. I didn’t see it live. I was picking up a pizza. When I got home, the girlfriend told me. I froze for a moment and dropped my keys on a plate. This, like much these days, isn't like anything I’ve seen in my lifetime. At least not in America. 

I saw a tragedy, the sum, total of my deepest darkest fears about the modern condition. We’re a kettle about to pop.

So, what did you see? No, really. That’s an honest question because the answers I've encountered run the gamut from tragedy to opportunity, from fear to glee. A living, breathing Rorschach test for our divided nation. Our imaginations, our feelings, and our political zealotry shade the image.

The internet sleuths among us are focused on the minutiae of the event. Because the minutiae in a case is everything. A curious BBC interview with a man outside the rally and other interviews like it revealed what looks like a catastrophic failure among the secret service. At least three people shot video of and claimed they told the agents that a man in camouflage was “bear crawling” on various nearby buildings. This will be debated for years if not decades.

Oh the memes! Trump as Neo from The Matrix dodging bullets. Trump with God literally shielding Trump from death. YouTubers, and content creators saw the shooting as an opportunity, hoping online for emergency podcasts, twitter and live streams reaching record audiences. As podcaster Hotep Jesus, host of The Grift Report, often says, “The grift is strong'' with them. And lest we forget the quick dozens of remixes of the video the assassination attempt to the tune of one of 50 Cent’s most well-known songs: Many Men. Its lyrics read:

Many men wish death upon me

Blood in my eye, dawg, and I can't see

I'm tryin' to be what I'm destined to be

And n*****  tryin' to take my life away

Even 50 Cent himself embraced it.

The gears of the attention economy ground on, searching for LOLs, heedless of the gravity of the situation.

There were instantaneous hoaxes.  The shooter was claimed to be a soccer super fan who was a member of Antifa. That got me for a few minutes. Others claimed that Trump, despite being shot and hospitalized in Pennsylvania, was planning on attending the UFC fight in Denver. Yeah, right. 

Vince McMahon trended. As did tales about Donald Trump staging this entire event, blading like a pro wrestler. Trump is a WWE hall of famer afterall. And the video looks awkward. Phrases like “Real False Flag” and “Staged” trended too, with those people playing the same tune. They’re not alone, even major news outlets expressed doubt that this incident was assassination attempt for hours, some downplaying it happening altogether. 

To shoot the media some bail on this one, initial reporting in breaking news situations is almost always incorrect to some degree. What we journalists don’t admit, although we should, is that it takes time to learn what actually happened in a situation and the artificial, yet all too common deadline of “ten minutes ago” leads to many reporters and news outlets making poor choices. We saw this in spades on Saturday as TV networks broke into their program aimed to carefully outflank their competition, jockeying for ratings supremacy, staying on air vamping, sharing the same information over and over as they waited for more morsels to reach their teleprompters instead of doing the obvious, ya know talking to people at the scene. Most outlets got to that later.

One of the many examples of this was on CNN, within minutes of the assassination attempt its National Security analyst, former assistant secretary of Homeland Security under Obama Juliette Kayyem said,  “Donald Trump and the people around him perceive themselves to be under threat — and that's all that matters — That is not legitimate. That is wrong.” This was disgusting, paranoid and unwarranted. She couldn't have foreseen the deaths that followed but it's better to say nothing than something that pointed and in poor taste as you watch the appearance of gunshots ringing out in any crowd. 

Actions like Kayyem’s, led to another response best said by an attendee at the rally, yelling at the media he said “this is your fault” echoing Trump rallying cry that “the media is the enemy of the people.” While I don't agree with the sentiment, the media can't be completely excused in our world of escalating rhetoric. Call someone Hitler long enough, literally depict them on your front cover as such and the deranged among us will try to do something about it. 

The left is fretting about right-wing retaliation, and rightfully so, while the right see this as a chance to rally their base and rightfully so. Both have created this combustible environment. 

 Many on the left, have stoked fear, from fragments of concepts spouted by former President Trump and documents like Project 2025. They have long claimed that Trump, a hard right former president will “end democracy” by participating in democracy and name himself Caesar or something. Call me naive but after living through one Trump administration, I don’t believe that’s his intention. He’s a sore loser, liar and constant self-promoter, who doesn’t do himself any favors due to his inarticulate flagrant, flippant style and a tone that makes progressives want to heave. Increasingly, I’ve come to believe that for politicians holding high office is like Gollum reaching for the one ring. It's their precious and they’ll do anything to obtain it. 

All this as another group emerged, lawmakers seeking clout. Right wingers like Senator JD Vance and Governor Kristi Noem sling mud, in defense of all that is Trump positioning themselves for his administration and eventual runs for all the presidential marbles. Continuing on the long tail of MAGA rhetoric claiming Donald Trump’s rise is the product of divine providence or something. While Democrats like Former President Barack Obama, Senator Chuck Schumer and a cascade of others holding their nose and publicly condemn political violence. At least in concept. But virtually no politician, right or left, was willing to admit the trouble and potential with their heightened rhetoric. 

So what do you see? I think it's important that we’re honest about how we saw this moment because I suspect ones like it will happen more and more and more. It's a moment captured on social media or live streaming, opaque enough for mucho conspiracies to fly wildly, yet clear enough for retaliation. A living breathing high stakes Rorschach test, an inkblot filled by our imaginations, psychiatric food coloring, and modern political zealotry ultimately leading to an Archduke Franz Ferdinand moment where our political and social divisions bubble over as a bloodsport follows.

We're not there yet, thankfully. But the seeds of further division were sown within minutes of the shots being fired.

In the Bible, Ecclesiastes tells us "there is nothing new under the sun." Yet this felt new, at least in my lifetime. A high-stakes test of our collective psyche, fears, hopes, and increasingly rigid political tribes.

The purpose of a system is what it does. Our media ecosystem, our social platforms, our political machinery – all of them responded exactly as designed. They amplified division, monetized outrage, and left us further apart than ever. 

As we process this near-miss with history, it's worth asking: Is this the system we want? One that turns tragedy into spectacle, that sees assassination attempts as content fodder?

Are there other options? Is this the only way? Or can we build something better?  A system that brings us together in moments of crisis, rather than driving us further apart?

I suppose the choice, as always, is ours.

What do you think and what did you see when Trump got shot? Let me know in the comments and support my work at JamesBrowntv.substack.com.

On that note, I’m James Brown and as always be well.