The Trump Assassination Attempt Caused Psychological Distress and Fueled Polarization

photorandy2023

2 years ago

I have written several articles on our President Trump. A list of the links have been provided at the bottom of this article for your convenience. This article will, however address different aspects on President Trump’s Presidency.

The attempted assassination of former president Donald Trump was a massive shock that has jarred society, regardless of where one falls on the political spectrum. The shooting at Trump’s Pennsylvania campaign rally appeared to have nicked the candidate’s ear and bloodied his face, killed one bystander and critically wounded two others. And it came amid profound and increasingly dangerous social divisions in the country. Experts have found that dramatic instances of political violence can have distressing psychological effects, not only on those who witness them in person but also on the millions of people exposed to such events through online images, videos and social media.

From the assassination of then president John F. Kennedy to the shooting of then U.S. representative Gabrielle Giffords of Arizona, violence toward a political leader or public figure often triggers not just an initial sense of shock but also a need to make sense of what has happened—and what it says about the society each us is part of. Yet unlike when these earlier tragedies occurred, people had to process graphic images and nonstop media coverage of the Trump shooting in close to real time.

“What’s different here, of course, is the growth of social media—the fact that we can see pictures and videos of the shooting or the shooting’s aftermath or former president Trump with blood streaming down his face instantaneously,”says Roxane Cohen Silver, a professor of psychological science, medicine and public health at the University of California, Irvine. Exposure to these images and the news coverage surrounding them can lead to a form of collective trauma, she says.

Silver’s research focuses on how people cope with traumatic events, such as the September 11 attacks and the Boston Marathon bombings. When 9/11 happened, most people got their news from television coverage. Today many people get their news online, often via a smartphone they carry with them all the time. “The speed with which we can access graphic images, the speed in which we can transmit graphic images, the overwhelming number of images that can be distributed rapidly without context [are] unprecedented,”Silver says.

Her research on the Boston Marathon bombings found that exposure to bloody, graphic images had a serious effect on people’s psychological functioning. One study that she and her colleagues published found that being exposed to six or more daily hours of media related to the bombings in the week afterward was linked to higher levels of acute stress than direct, in-person exposure to the attacks themselves. While perhaps not quite as graphic, the images and video of the recent Trump shooting showed blood dripping down the side of a former president’s face, and there were videos of the shooter’s body on the roof of a nearby building after he was killed by the Secret Service.

Another key difference from some previous violent events is that the Trump shooting took place in an environment of extreme political polarization—which led individuals to interpret the same event very differently. While some people reacted to the attempted assassination with outrage or distress, others did so with apathy or sarcasm, even making jokes about how the bullet had missed its mark.

And this polarization itself can be severely stressful. Silver and her colleagues have been conducting a study of several thousand people they have been following since the early days of the COVID pandemic. The study has since focused on other events, such as mass shootings, climate disasters and the police murder of George Floyd. Some of the data are still under review for publication, but “we found that political polarization was… one of the most stressful experiences that people reported,” Silver says. Although she doesn’t yet have data on how the Trump shooting affected people’s views, her team plans to collect more survey information before the November 5 presidential election.

Silver also highlights the potential for misinformation and disinformation after events like the attempted Trump assassination. Indeed, conspiracy theories about the shooting arose immediately afterward at both ends of the political spectrum. At times like these, she says, it’s crucial to verify that information is coming from a reputable source.

When we experience a collective trauma like this, “we need to take a step back,” says Robin Gurwitch, a psychologist and a professor at Duke University Medical Center, who works with people who have been exposed to traumatic events such as mass shootings. “When these events happen, one of the things we have to do is take a breath and consider, ‘What do I really know, and how does this fit into my understanding of the world around me?’” Gurwitch says.

Not everyone reacts the same. “You may have some people who use this as a sign that we need to take a step back. We need to consider our actions and our words, how we treat each other and how we talk about each other,” Gurwitch says. “Others’ first response may be wanting to double down and come out louder and stronger.” But she cautions against meeting violence with violence. “Before taking any action, we should decide ‘what is our overall goal, and what will be the most productive and effective way to accomplish this goal?’” she says.

After these kinds of events, experts recommend that people limit their media consumption as needed to protect their mental health. “We do advocate that people monitor their media exposure to graphic images,” Silver says. “There’s likely to be no psychological benefit to seeing graphic images over and over again.” Journalists, in particular, are often exposed to traumatic images or topics through their reporting, and there are resources to help cope with that.

It’s also important for parents to talk to their children about what has happened, Gurwitch says. “First and foremost, you need to make sure, as the adult, that you’ve thought through your emotions, thoughts, ideas, beliefs and values. What’s the message you want to communicate?” she says. If you seem stressed or scared, she adds, your children are going to pick up on that, so you want to be open about discussing it.“When these kinds of events happen, this is also an opportunity for us to communicate to our children: ‘How do we think about it? What are our values about handling disagreements?’” Gurwitch says. It’s not necessary to expose your children to gruesome details, she says, but you should explain the news in a manner that’s appropriate for their age and level of understanding. The National Child Traumatic Stress Network is one organization that offers resources to help parents talk to their children about mass violence.

Appendices

U.S. to Seek Attempted Assassination Charge for Trump Golf Course Suspect

The federal government will pursue a charge of attempted assassination against a man accused of lurking with a gun near where former President Donald J. Trump was golfing in Florida last week, prosecutors said in a court hearing on Monday. Among the government’s evidence, they said, was a note the suspect had written suggesting that he had planned the attack.

Such a charge — which prosecutors said they would seek through a grand jury indictment — would carry a maximum possible penalty of life imprisonment.

United States Magistrate Judge Ryon M. McCabe, of the Federal District Court in West Palm Beach, Fla., granted the government’s request on Monday to keep the suspect, Ryan W. Routh, in jail without bond. So far, Mr. Routh has been charged with unlawful possession of a firearm as a felon, which carries a penalty of up to 15 years in prison, and with possession of a firearm with an obliterated serial number.

Mr. Routh’s defense lawyers had argued that their client was not a flight risk and did not pose a serious threat to the community, but Judge McCabe disagreed.

In a statement released by his campaign on Monday, Mr. Trump accused the Justice Department and the F.B.I. of “mishandling and downplaying the second assassination attempt on my life since July.” He called the charges against Mr. Routh “a slap on the wrist” and said, “Let Florida handle the case!”

Last week, Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida, a Republican, said the state would conduct its own investigation into what happened, characterizing the federal inquiry as insufficiently transparent and perhaps biased against Mr. Trump.

At the court hearing on Monday, which lasted nearly three hours, Mark D. Dispoto, an assistant United States attorney, argued that Mr. Routh had ensconced himself in “nothing short of a sniper’s nest” to target the former president, while Mr. Routh’s federal public defenders extensively questioned the strength of the government’s evidence.

Kristy Militello, one of his two lawyers, said that Mr. Routh’s actions were the “unsophisticated and sort of untrained” work of a man whose writings suggested that he intended the assassination attempt to fail.

Mr. Routh, wearing a dark jail uniform with his blond hair combed back, appeared to closely follow the proceedings, especially when Renee Michelle Sihvola, his other lawyer, cross-examined Christian Hull, an F.B.I. special agent, about the government’s evidence.

According to prosecutors, Mr. Routh, 58, appeared to have surveyed the grounds of the Trump International Golf Club for about a month before his arrest. On Sept. 15, Mr. Routh positioned himself outside the fence near the sixth hole of the course, where at about 1:30 p.m., a Secret Service agent on a golf cart who was scouting one hole ahead of the former president saw part of Mr. Routh’s face and the barrel of his gun.

At the time he was spotted, prosecutors said, Mr. Routh was aligned directly with the sixth hole, with the intention of shooting Mr. Trump from a relatively short distance using a semiautomatic rifle. The rifle, equipped with a scope, was found abandoned at the scene; it had a round in the chamber and a total of 11 rounds loaded. Investigators found Mr. Routh’s fingerprint on duct tape affixing the scope to the weapon.

“This was an assassination attempt on Donald Trump but I failed you,” Mr. Routh wrote in a note that was placed inside a box that he left at a friend’s house in North Carolina, according to prosecutors.

“I tried my best and gave it all the gumption I could muster,” the note continued. “It is up to you to finish the job; and I will offer $150,000 to whomever can complete the job.”

The friend contacted law enforcement officials and told them about the note three days after Mr. Routh’s arrest.

In the note, prosecutors said, Mr. Routh also wrote that Mr. Trump was unfit to be president. Mr. Routh had left the note at the house several months before the shooting — an indication, they said, that he had been planning the assassination for a long time.

Ms. Sihvola got Mr. Hull, the F.B.I. agent, to identify multiple references in the note to Mr. Routh’s belief that his plan would likely fail; those references were in parts of the note that prosecutors had not included in their memo asking the judge to detain Mr. Routh indefinitely.

Mr. Hull also acknowledged under questioning by Ms. Sihvola that he was not aware of any footage from surveillance or other cameras showing Mr. Routh at the golf course or with the rifle.

Mr. Hull also disclosed that another handwritten note had been found perhaps 15 feet from the rifle. That note, he said, was addressed to The New York Times.

Mr. Dispoto called the second note “ancillary” and pointed out that it was not part of the government’s filing. Mr. Routh was interviewed by The Times last year about his efforts to recruit foreign fighters to Ukraine.

The developments on Monday painted the clearest picture to date of an itinerant and impoverished building contractor, with no apparent ties to Florida, who repeatedly professed his willingness to die defending Ukraine.

Mr. Routh’s lawyers portrayed their client as dedicated to the cause of democracy in Ukraine and Taiwan, and added that, even after his arrest, he has the support of his adult children and siblings. He lived with a partner in Hawaii for the past eight years and spent “the better half of the past decade,” Ms. Militello said, “as a law-abiding citizen.”

Prosecutors noted Mr. Routh’s extensive criminal history, including a 2002 felony charge in North Carolina for possessing a weapon of mass death and destruction. Court documents described the weapon as a “binary explosive with a 10-inch detonation and a blasting cap.” Mr. Routh was convicted and placed on supervised probation for 60 months.

Investigators who searched the black Nissan Xterra S.U.V. that Mr. Routh was driving on Sept. 15, found “a handwritten list of dates in August, September and October 2024 and venues where the former president had appeared or was expected to be present,” according to the prosecutors’ memo.

Agents also found six cellphones — including one that contained a Google search of how to travel from Palm Beach County to Mexico — as well as 12 pairs of gloves, a Hawaii driver’s license in Mr. Routh’s name and a passport.

Judge McCabe cited the Google search and Mr. Routh’s passport as evidence of his potential flight risk, and his criminal record, his apparent staking out of the golf course and the seriousness of the existing firearms charges against him as evidence of his potential danger to the community.

“The government has met its burden” to warrant detention, Judge McCabe said.

Resources

scientificamerican.com, “The Trump Assassination Attempt Caused Psychological Distress and Fueled Polarization.” By Tanya Lewis; nytimes.com, “U.S. to Seek Attempted Assassination Charge for Trump Golf Course Suspect.” By Patricia Mazzei Adam Goldman and Glenn Thrush;

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