How Donald Trump Assassination Attempt Could Impact Campaign

A presidential race already rocked by one assassination attempt on Donald Trump could now be impacted by a second attempt on the former president’s life, experts have told Newsweek.
Ryan Wesley Routh, 58, is accused of lying in wait for Trump while the former president golfed at his club in West Palm Beach, Florida, on Sunday until Secret Service spotted a rifle poking out of bushes and opened fire, thwarting the possible attack. Routh fled in an SUV but was apprehended in a neighboring county.
He faces charges of possessing a firearm despite a prior felony conviction and of possessing a firearm with an obliterated serial number. Additional charges are possible.
The episode marks the second attempt on Trump’s life in as many months, after a gunman opened fire from a rooftop while the Republican nominee was speaking at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13. Trump sustained an ear injury, while one rallygoer was killed and two others were injured.
Trump was not harmed on Sunday, but the incident could further unsettle a presidential race that has already seen plenty of upheaval.
“Multiple assassination attempts against Trump only make him more of a sympathetic figure,” Thomas Gift, an associate professor of political science and director of the Centre on U.S. Politics at University College London, told Newsweek.
Sunday’s incident “will also once again remind voters of the iconic image of Trump in Butler, PA—after the nearest of near-misses on his life—pumping his fist and yelling ‘fight, fight, fight,'” Gift said.
“Trump continues to maintain that he took a bullet for democracy, and for some percentage of Americans, that could be enough to earn their vote.”
Some polls indicated the July shooting had given Trump a boost against President Joe Biden.
But Biden dropped his re-election bid in late July and Trump’s opponent in November’s election is now Vice President Kamala Harris, who has erased Trump’s polling lead. Polls conducted since Trump and Harris debated on Tuesday show Harris gaining an advantage over Trump, though the contest remains close.
“Politically, a second assassination attempt could strengthen support among Trump supporters, but it is unlikely to move the needle by much for independents and undecided voters,” Costas Panagopoulos, a political science professor at Northeastern University, told Newsweek.
Panagopoulos added that such incidents “would likely cause security to be reinforced, but I doubt it would affect the campaign schedule much.
“The race is simply too tight, and there is little time left. Neither candidate can afford to curtail campaign activities at this stage.”
Trump has not announced any changes to his schedule. The Trump campaign has been contacted for comment via email.
Trump publicly recounted Sunday’s apparent assassination attempt during a live discussion on X.
“I was playing golf with some of my friends on a Sunday morning and very peaceful, very beautiful weather… and all of a sudden we heard shots being fired in the air, and I guess probably four or five, and it sounded like bullets,” Trump said.
The Secret Service’s acting director Ronald Rowe said on Monday that the suspect “did not have a line of sight to Trump” and did not fire his weapon before fleeing the scene.