BEN HARVEY: Political assassination attempts don’t work, even when they’re ‘successful’

Three assassination attempts in as many years have handed Donald J Trump the unwanted title of most targeted president in US history.

The Secret Service is now coming to terms with an unwanted escalation in the desperation of his would-be assassins.

The men responsible for the previous two attempts had getaway plans; they weren’t martyrs.

When Thomas Matthew Crooks shot Trump’s ear during that rally in Pennsylvania in July 2024, he tried to make off before a counter-sniper security agent put a bullet in him.

Three months later, it appeared that Ryan Wesley Routh had a plan to escape after he fired at Trump as the President played golf in West Palm Beach. Routh was spotted before he could pull the trigger.

The weekend attack by 31-year-old Cole Tomas Allen was different. This man charged headlong at some of the most heavily armed security officers on the planet.

Anyone who watches that video of him sprinting through a hallway outside the ballroom, past security and firing at a Secret Service agent understood this guy had a death wish.

Allen was prepared to die for his cause.

This is a worrying development because, as close personal protection agents the world over know, if an assassin is willing to be killed in order to kill, they are very difficult to stop.

It’s why suicide bombers are so appallingly effective.

Allen wasn’t the only person at the Washington Hilton who appeared unfazed at the prospect of death.

As most of the guests at the black-tie dinner dived under the tables “salad man” continued munching unperturbed. He clearly doesn’t watch The Simpsons.

I have no idea what tickets to the White House Correspondents dinner cost (shockingly, I have never been invited) but I imagine they’re not cheap, so I can understand him wanting to neck his pea and burrata salad.

After three close calls, the life insurance premiums of the average Secret Service agent must be through the roof.

When the nickname for your job is “bullet-catcher” and your sole reason for being is to form a human shield around the president should shots be fired, you are always a high-risk proposition for underwriters, but Jeez. They must surely be pre-paying their funeral.

At this rate, Trump will be lucky to make it through the rest of his term. It was a sheer fluke he survived in Pennsylvania.

Those people who want to end him need to think about what happens if they succeed.

Killing Trump would make his MAGA movement stronger than ever.

He will be the Obi Wan Kenobi of modern politics (“If you strike me down, I shall become more powerful than you can possibly imagine”).

Any American on the fence about Trump would immediately throw in with the red side.

What did Allen think would happen if he managed to kill Trump? Did he think the next president was going to be a cuddly Democrat committed to truth, justice and the social welfare state?

Sorry mate, you don’t get Jed Bartlett from the West Wing; you get (at best) Jared Kushner and (at worst) JD Vance.

It might be a case of better the devil you know.

Trump didn’t seem rattled by the experience; within hours of the commotion he gave a press conference at the White House, delivering the mother of all underplays with the throwaway line “that was very unexpected”.

He appeared philosophical about it all. Perhaps he understands that in US politics these things really aren’t personal — Americans have a rich tradition of trying to kill a lot of their presidents.

In 2005, someone threw a grenade at George W Bush. It failed to detonate, so Dubya was not hurt.

Ronald Reagan didn’t fare as well in 1981, when he was shot walking outside the same hotel where Trump was targeted.

Whoever has the security contract at the Washington Hilton needs to pull their socks up. One assassination attempt’s unlucky; two’s just lazy.

Six years before Reagan was hit, Gerald Ford survived two separate attempts in California within three weeks.

JFK’s death in 1963 remains one of the most watched pieces of film in history.

In 1950, Harry S Truman was targeted by Puerto Rican nationalists while he was staying in a building opposite the White House.

He was at Blair House because of renovations at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Seven decades on, the famed building could be in for a new spruce up and Trump didn’t miss the opportunity to use the latest attempted assassination to press the case for his new ballroom.

There’s an old expression in politics — never waste a crisis — and the President certainly didn’t with this one.