Assassination Attempts Mark Next Stage Towards Banana Republic

Censorship, political prosecutions, and assassinations are common features of a third-world banana republic where the term “democracy” is used by incumbent regimes as merely a buzzword to cloak authoritarianism. If there’s ever any wonder who won the last two presidential debates run by moderators from state media, just look at who keeps getting shot at after them.

Darren Beattie, a former speechwriter in the Trump White House, characterized the “grim new reality of our ‘democracy’” as one where “we can tell whether Trump won a debate by whether an assassination attempt follows shortly thereafter.”

On Sunday, former President Donald Trump survived a second attempt on his life just days following another primetime forum against his far-left opponent. While Trump was out golfing at one of his West Palm Beach resorts, a gunman line up a scoped “AK-47-style rifle” within just 300 to 500 yards of the Republican presidential nominee. After hiding for 12 hours, the suspect was prevented from firing at Trump only because of a Secret Service agent who engaged the rifleman first.

According to Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw, Trump still does not have full Secret Service protection because he is out of office.

“At this level that he is at right now, he’s not the sitting president. If he was, we would have had this entire golf course surrounded. But because he’s not, security is limited to the areas that the Secret Service deems possible,” Bradshaw told reporters Sunday. “I would imagine that the next time he comes to a golf course, there’ll probably be a little bit more people around the perimeter. But the Secret Service did exactly what they should have done.”

The latest revelation about Trump’s security detail coupled with the myriad failures earlier this year legitimately calls into question the agency’s commitment to Trump’s safety. In the months running up to the July 13 attack in Butler, Pennsylvania, the Trump campaign had been denied multiple requests to beef up security by the incumbent administration, leaving the regime-declared Public Enemy No. 1 vulnerable to an assassination attempt. The gunman had meanwhile been allowed to scope out the Pennsylvania rally grounds hours in advance with a reconnaissance drone just 200 yards from the event site, and even reportedly hid the gun either in or nearby the building where he would fire eight rounds.

The timeline of the assassination plot foiled last weekend eerily resembles the same sequence of events that unfolded this summer. Trump narrowly survived a would-be assassin’s bullet in Butler just two weeks after a CNN debate with President Joe Biden, who failed so badly at reassuring voters of his mental capacity to serve as commander-in-chief that he stepped down from the race.

Trump would go on to survive his second attempted assassination after a debate with Vice President Kamala Harris, who failed to show skeptical voters how she might govern after months of major policy reversals with scant explanations.

America started the last presidential election with a censorship regime in Silicon Valley colluding with Deep State operatives who sought to undermine the entire Trump presidency.

The Democrats ushered in this year’s race with a cascade of criminal litigation to place their chief political opponent under a courtroom siege. Trump faced nearly 100 federal and local charges across four cases brought by political prosecutors determined to jail the Democrats’ most prominent threat against four more years in power.

The slew of indictments introduced the first stage of America’s descent into a banana republic. The multiple assassination attempts that followed marked the near completion of that transformation. Heaven forbid Trump land behind bars, or worse, in a casket.

Tristan Justice is the western correspondent for The Federalist and the author of Social Justice Redux, a conservative newsletter on culture, health, and wellness. He has also written for The Washington Examiner and The Daily Signal. His work has also been featured in Real Clear Politics and Fox News. Tristan graduated from George Washington University where he majored in political science and minored in journalism. Follow him on Twitter at @JusticeTristan or contact him at [email protected]. Sign up for Tristan’s email newsletter here.