We need to do all we can to lower the anger pervading American politics | Robert Reich

My first thought on hearing about the attempted shooting of Donald Trump at a rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday was “I hope to God he’s OK”.

I thought this for the usual reasons we human beings hope that other humans are safe from harm.

But I had another reason in the case of Donald Trump.

Trump has shaped his campaign around his own paranoid martyrdom. I didn’t want anything to add fuel to his dangerous message.

It would be unseemly to speak ill of a man who could have lost his life today, but let me remind you of the constant undercurrent of violence in Trump’s messages to his followers during this election. He talks of an America divided between Trump supporters and “enemies within” the nation who are seeking to destroy both him and his followers.

On 24 June 2023, after his second indictment, he told his followers:

“They’re not after me. They’re after you. And I just happen to be standing in their way.”

The first rally of Trump’s 2024 election campaign on 25 March in Waco, Texas, opened with a choir of men imprisoned for their role in the January 6 insurrection singing Justice for All , intercut with the national anthem and with Trump reciting the Pledge of Allegiance with his hand on his heart. Behind, on big screens, was footage from the Capitol riot.

Trump then repeated his bogus claim that the 2020 presidential election was “rigged”. He then declared:

“Our enemies are desperate to stop us and our opponents have done everything they can to crush our spirit and to break our will. But they failed. They’ve only made us stronger. And 2024 is the final battle, it’s going to be the big one. You put me back in the White House, their reign will be over and America will be a free nation once again.”

He has conjured up a conspiracy against him, and therefore against his followers.

“In 2016, I declared: I am your voice. Today, I add I am your warrior. I am your justice. And for those who have been wronged and betrayed, I am your retribution.”

After Saturday’s attempt on his life, expect more of the same paranoid martyrdom from Trump.

Today is no time to dwell on the direct and alarming connection between Trump’s political rise and the increase in political violence and threats of such violence in America.

Let me just say that in 2016, the Capitol police recorded fewer than 900 threats against members of Congress. In 2017, after Trump took office, that figure more than quadrupled, according to the Capitol police. The numbers continued to rise every year of the Trump presidency, peaking at 9,700 in 2021. In 2022, the first full year of Biden’s term, the numbers declined to a still-high 7,500. (The 2023 data is not yet available.)

Much more to say about all this. For now, though, please join me in doing everything possible to lower the hostility and anger now pervading American politics.

And let us pray that Trump, Biden and everyone running for political office and every American engaged in politics remains safe from harm.

• Robert Reich, a former US secretary of labor, is a professor of public policy at the University of California, Berkeley, and the author of Saving Capitalism: For the Many, Not the Few and The Common Good . His newest book, The System: Who Rigged It, How We Fix It , is out now. He is a Guardian US columnist. His newsletter is at robertreich.substack.com