International leaders and the world’s media have reacted to the news of former President Donald Trump’s assassination attempt with many leaders decrying the incident as an attack on democracy.
Gunman Thomas Matthew Crooks shot Trump in the ear during a botched assassination attempt during a rally in Butler Pennsylvania at about 6:15 p.m. on Saturday local time.
Mr Crooks was killed by secret service agents, while an innocent spectator was killed in the incident and two others were critically injured.
News of the shocking incident is already dominating front pages across the United States and Europe as the world reacts to the first assassination attempt on an American Presidential nominee in over 50 years.
The New York Post cover for 14 July 2024. Picture: Supplied.
The front page of la Repubblica, Italy ,14 July 2024. Picture: Supplied.
United States President Joe Biden led the response to the incident at a press conference in his home state Delaware.
“Look, there’s no place in America for this kind of violence – it’s sick. It’s sick. It’s one of the reasons why we need to unite this country, we cannot allow for this to be happening, we cannot be like this,” he told reporters about two hours after the incident.
World leaders reacted swiftly to the news, with leaders like Britain’s new Prime Minister Keir Starmer, France’s President Emmanuel Macron and Canada’s Justin Trudeau all framing the shooting as an attack on democracy.
“It is a tragedy for our democracies. France shares the shock and indignation of the American people,” Mr Macron said.
Mr Albanese and other world leaders likened the incident to an “attack” on democracy. Picture: Liam Kidston
Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump is rushed offstage by U.S. Secret Service agents. Picture: Getty.
Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese echoed those sentiments and condemned the attack as an affront to “the essence” of democracy.
In the United Kingdom, the Sunday newspapers mostly led with the Trump assassination story with editors likely working late into the night to rush the story onto the front page.
Meanwhile, British tabloid The Mirror opted to splash their Sunday front page with England’s football captain Harry Kane ahead of the Lions’ appearance in the Euros final against Spain, placing Trump in top righthand corner.
In China, state-run newspaper The Global Times blamed the shooting on the United States’ “poisonous” election cycles, adding it was “not hard to imagine one or even more violent incidents occurring”.
The shooting has dominated front pages worldwide but the Mirror opted for England captain Harry Kane. Picture: Sunday Mirror.
The cover of the Mail on Sunday for 14 July 2024. Picture: Supplied.
“Trump” is also leading global search traffic on Google and is currently the number one most searched topic in dozens of countries.
In Japan, the attack likely brought back memories of the assassination of former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in eerily similar circumstances.
Mr Abe, who was PM from 2006 to 2007 and again from 2012 to 2020, was assassinated by a lone gunman while giving a campaign speech in 2022.
The attack on Trump also comes months after the attempted assassination of Slovakia’s Prime Minister Robert Fico, who was shot four times at close range in May but survived.
“Trump” is currently dominating search traffic on Google. Picture: Getty Images
The FBI has identified the gunman who shot Trump as 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, a predominantly white, upper-middle class area in the greater Pittsburgh area.
Mr Crooks’ attempt on Trump’s life also recalled the violence of presidential campaigns during the 1960s and early 1970s, when three separate candidates were the target of assassination attempts.
Then President John F. Kennedy was killed in 1963 while his brother Robert ‘Bobby’ Kennedy was also killed in 1968.
Law enforcement agents stand near the abandoned stage of a campaign rally for Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump after the shooting. Picture: Getty.
In 1972, Alabama Governor George Wallace was shot while campaigning for the Democratic party nomination in an incident that saw him paralysed for life.
Sitting President Ronald Reagan also survived an assassination attempt in 1981 early in his first term and later roared to re-election three years later.
Trump’s reaction to the shooting also drew comparisons to former US President Theodore ‘Teddy’ Roosevelt, who was shot while giving a speech at a campaign rally in 1912. Roosevelt went on to finish his speech, telling the Wisconsin crowd “It takes more than that to kill a Bull Moose”.
