Trump assassination attempt and the visual history of US political violence
Christian Caliandro analyzes the July 13, 2024 assassination attempt on Donald Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania, framing it within a long visual tradition of US political violence. The image of Trump raising a fist with blood on his face is compared to iconic moments from Lincoln to JFK. The article traces the influence of these events on artists, from Warhol's Jackie series to DeLillo's Libra and Ellroy's American Tabloid. It highlights Warhol's own near-death experience on June 3, 1968, and his subsequent confusion with RFK's assassination. The piece argues that the Trump image resonates because it echoes decades of collective imagery.
Key facts
- Donald Trump survived an assassination attempt on July 13, 2024 in Butler, Pennsylvania.
- The article compares the event to the assassinations of Abraham Lincoln (April 14, 1865), James Garfield (July 2, 1881), William McKinley (September 6, 1901), John F. Kennedy (November 22, 1963), and Robert F. Kennedy (June 5, 1968).
- Other assassination attempts mentioned include those on Theodore Roosevelt (October 14, 1912), Gerald Ford (September 5, 1975), and Ronald Reagan (March 30, 1981).
- Andy Warhol created the Nine Jackie series in 1964, depicting Jacqueline Kennedy before and after JFK's assassination.
- Warhol was shot by Valerie Solanas on June 3, 1968, and upon waking saw TV footage of RFK's assassination, thinking it was his own death.
- J.G. Ballard's The Atrocity Exhibition (1970) includes fragments on Jacqueline Kennedy's assassination.
- Don DeLillo's Libra (1988) focuses on Lee Harvey Oswald; James Ellroy's American Tabloid (1995) uses political violence as metaphor.
- Stephen King's The Dead Zone (1979) and 11/22/63 (2011) explore assassination themes.
- Films inspired by JFK include JFK (1991, Oliver Stone), Parkland (2013), Jackie (2016, Pablo Larraín), and The Irishman (2019, Martin Scorsese).
- A 50-year-old firefighter was killed in the Trump attack; the young attacker also died; two spectators were seriously injured.
Entities
Artists
- Christian Caliandro
- Andy Warhol
- J.G. Ballard
- Don DeLillo
- James Ellroy
- Stephen King
- David Cronenberg
- Oliver Stone
- Peter Landesman
- Pablo Larraín
- Martin Scorsese
- Spike Lee
- Michael Mann
- Valerie Solanas
- John Wilkes Booth
- Lee Harvey Oswald
- Sirhan Sirhan
- Abraham Zapruder
- Paolo Mieli
Institutions
- Artribune
- Netflix
- Corriere della Sera
- Accademia di Belle Arti di Firenze
- Symbola Fondazione per le Qualità italiane
Locations
- Butler
- Pennsylvania
- United States
- Washington
- Ford's Theatre
- Los Angeles
- Hotel Ambassador
- Dallas
- Dealey Plaza