Trump’s Teddy Roosevelt Moment

Several commentators have compared the recent assassination attempt on candidate and former president Donald Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania, to the attempted assassination of candidate and former president Theodore Roosevelt in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, during the 1912 presidential election campaign. Trump was shot by a 20-year-old man in his right ear while giving a speech at a campaign rally just a few days before he was scheduled to accept the Republican Party’s nomination for president in Milwaukee. Roosevelt, who was running as the Progressive Party (or Bull Moose Party) candidate, was shot in the chest while acknowledging a crowd of supporters on his way to give a campaign speech in Milwaukee by a 36-year-old German-American bar owner named John Schrank. Trump’s would-be assassin was killed by a Secret Service sniper. Schrank was arrested, pleaded guilty, determined to be insane, and committed to hospitals for the criminally insane. He died in one of them in 1943.

Trump’s shooting came in the wake of a multi-year campaign by Democrats, some Republicans, and the mainstream media that portrayed Trump as a lackey of Russian President Vladimir Putin, a “threat to democracy,” a would-be dictator like Julius Caesar, and a fascist who made untrue claims that the 2020 election was stolen and who, if elected in 2024, would never give up power. Schrank, after his arrest, expressed beliefs that Roosevelt would dangerously erode the Constitutional tradition by seeking a third term as president and that if Roosevelt succeeded the country would be torn apart by civil war. Schrank claimed that his reading of history and newspapers of the time, as well as a dream in which the slain President William McKinley told Schrank that it was Roosevelt who killed him, persuaded Schrank that Roosevelt had to be “put . . . out of the way.” Schrank also saw danger in Roosevelt’s repeated claims that Republican Party elites in 1912 stole the party’s presidential nomination from him. Schrank believed that Roosevelt would not hesitate to take the presidency by force if he lost the election, and would establish himself as a monarch or perpetual president. Schrank, like some of our modern-day anti-Trumpers, even compared Roosevelt to Julius Caesar. (READ MORE: The Bloodless Coup of Joe Biden Will Not Work Out Well for Democrats)

Roosevelt likely survived the assassination attempt, as biographer Edmund Morris explains, because the bullet passed through Roosevelt’s overcoat, his folded speech located in his vest pocket, a thick glasses case, a suspender belt, and his shirt and undershirt. The bullet lodged against one of Roosevelt’s ribs but never struck his heart. Though Roosevelt was bleeding, he insisted on giving the prepared speech at an auditorium nearby instead of being taken to a hospital. When Roosevelt reached the podium, he pulled open his vest to expose the bloodstain on his shirt, then boldly remarked, “It takes more than that to kill a bull moose.” He delivered the speech, which lasted some 80 minutes, even as he continued to lose blood and strength. He later spent a week in a Chicago hospital, but the bullet was never removed. During and after the assassination attempt, Roosevelt demonstrated courage, perseverance, determination, and the fighting spirit that made him a legendary figure in American history. (READ MORE: Dear Academia: Biden Didn’t Save Us From ‘Trumpian Chaos’)

Donald Trump survived the assassin’s bullets due to a brief shift of his head at just the right moment. One bullet grazed his ear and blood flowed down his ear and across his face. After ducking to the floor and being surrounded by Secret Service agents, Trump defiantly rose up, raised his right arm, made a fist, and yelled “Fight, fight.” As he was escorted off the stage and into a vehicle, Trump repeated that show of determination, grit, and fighting spirit by again raising his right arm, making a fist, and yelling “Fight.” It was eerily reminiscent of Teddy Roosevelt in 1912.

Roosevelt was an insurgent Republican trying to recapture control of the party. When party regulars frustrated his efforts, Roosevelt formed a third party and challenged the Republican establishment, accusing them of nefarious tactics to steal the nomination from him. Roosevelt took enough votes away from incumbent William Howard Taft to enable Democrat Woodrow Wilson to be elected president. Donald Trump in 2016 was an insurgent Republican who captured control of the party and won election to the presidency thereafter. Some party regulars continued to resist Trump’s populist takeover of the GOP and hoped that after Trump’s 2020 defeat, he would simply go away and return them to party control. That didn’t happen. Trump’s capture of the GOP is now complete, as evidenced by the recently concluded national convention. If anything, the attempted assassination and Trump’s response have made him stronger. If Trump should be elected in November, his Teddy Roosevelt moment in Butler, Pennsylvania, coming in the wake of President Biden’s disastrous debate performance and its aftermath may be the moment that sealed the victory.

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