Brush with a bullet, ear bandages and NATO gaffes: An extraordinary few weeks in US politics

I’m pausing for the first moment after a few extraordinary weeks.

Time to reflect on what has been, what could have been and what might be to come.

The central punctuation point from the fortnight was the shooting. That moment just after 6pm last Saturday when phones would have pinged with push alerts worldwide: “Shots fired at Trump Rally”.

I was at home in Washington DC (it immediately became one of those ‘where were you’ moments) and I happened to have the TV on.

Within six hours, with my team from DC, I was next to a field in Butler, Pennsylvania, metres from the spot where someone had come within half an inch of killing Donald Trump.

Biden’s NATO moment

The previous week had been extraordinary enough. The biggest summit of its kind in 30 years in Washington: NATO leaders (and a few others too) gathering to show that they are united, relevant, and still led by the global powerbroker – America.

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Predictably that question of American leadership was the spotlight for all the wrong reasons. President Biden‘s age and former President Trump’s possible return.

As Joe Biden meandered through the summit, leading it, yes, but hardly with energetic aplomb, the diplomats and their principles wondered quietly what November might look like.

NATO and ‘the West’ will look different if Trump wins in November.

Even if the existential doomsdayers are wrong, it is beyond doubt that Trump 2:0 will fundamentally shift things.

The gradual realignment to Europe, the requirement for Europe to look after its own backyard will become a brutal shift. The Article 5 “all for one” principle may not be worth the paper it’s written on. The question then – what’s the point of NATO?

That was the focus of the summit. And then the predictable happened. President Biden had a moment.

There was an audible gasp in the huge press centre in Washington as the US president said: “Now I want to hand it over to the President of Ukraine, who has as much courage as he has determination. Ladies and gentleman, President Putin.”

He followed it, in his make or break news conference minutes later by referring to “Vice-President Trump”.

Everyone I speak from outside the news orbit asks me the same thing: “How long will he hang on?”

They assume I have some sort of inside track. The truth is the Biden circle is tiny and shrinking. Family and aides, so close they may as well be family.

The brush with the bullet

Then came Butler. The brush with the bullet. The news agenda swung. Biden and his age forgotten for a moment. Someone had just tried to kill Trump. And they almost managed it.

What if they had? It doesn’t bear thinking about really for a country already so splintered.

But the story wasn’t just the attempt to kill Donald Trump. It was the remarkable way he responded.

In the moment, “Wait, wait, wait,” he told his Secret Service agents as they tried to hustle him off stage.

The master of show had almost died and he still knew precisely what he needed to do.

The fist rose. The mouth moved. “Fight, fight, fight”. It was utterly remarkable. Defining and iconic, immediately.

It was the movie script no one needs to write, because in America, it actually happened.

It propelled him to the next moment in this remarkable fortnight – Milwaukee and the Republican National Convention.

The Republican National Convention

The event had immediately taken on a whole new hue.

All eyes and ears were on Donald Trump. Would he be a changed man after this near-death experience?

Well, first it turned out that the necessary ear bandage was a solidarity branding masterstroke.

All over the huge convention venue his fans wore their own bandages over the right ear.

The night of his speech was almost discombobulating.

There was rock star status at this, the Republican Party’s signature event, for a divisive convicted felon who’d lost the last election and been written off as a busted flush in the midterms just two years ago.

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It was an all-American show, at least for all of this bit of America.

There was a wrestler, there was a prayer, a rockstar and the re-emergence of the wife not seen for so long.

Melania Trump appeared with the help of Beethoven. It was weird; almost fairytale make-believe. Apt maybe.

Honestly, the build-up truly was through the looking glass stuff; through into a world where Donald Trump is the king.

The vibe felt almost hallucinogenic. And for all the talk of a toned down, humbled Trump, yes maybe there was a little less rhetoric, a little more humility.

But in the end, as he veered off autocue, it was the same rhythm, the same speech, the same man. It was low energy too and lacking in substance. But the crowd didn’t seem to mind.

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It didn’t feel like a Republican Party event. It’s the Trump Party now. And branded as much.

I didn’t spot many members of the Republican old guard. But maybe more telling? I didn’t spot one member of Donald Trump’s last White House team. That speaks volumes.

But before I could think more about that, the pendulum had swung again.

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Back to Biden. More of his own calling for him to quit. He has precipitated an unprecedented meltdown in his own party. It’s remarkable.

I’m getting on a plane right now. I wonder if he’ll still be the candidate by the time I land?

Mad times in America and this is only the prologue.

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