Why killing Trump is (probably) bad
Some thoughts on the morality and utility of political violence.
Before any Substack admins rush to ban my account I’d just like to make it clear that, as I state in the title, my conclusion is that killing Trump is bad, but I want to explore the topics of morality and political violence more thoroughly before reaching that conclusion, so cut me some slack.
Unless you’ve been living under a rock you’ve certainly already heard about the attempted assassination of Donald Trump at one of his rallies. While the shooter’s motivations are still not entirely clear, what little information is available makes it more likely that he was a conservative, and not motivated by liberal or left-wing politics.
Still, this has sparked a lot of discussion and controversy surrounding the topic of political violence, as some liberals and leftists expressed disinterest in Trump’s well-being and instead focused on the hypocrisy of Republicans, pointing out that when violence is directed at their political opponents, or when the left expresses concerns about stochastic terrorism, Republicans are quick to downplay and dismiss it.
Some people have also made jokes at the expense of Trump and his supporter that was killed at the rally. Others have gone further and expressed disappointment that the shooter failed to kill Trump, and openly celebrate the attempted assassination, saying that Trump deserved it.
While the shooter was probably a conservative, many people on the left and liberal sides of the political spectrum have expressed a desire to see Trump dead, so let’s put this specific shooter’s motivations aside for a second to explore the question: Would killing Trump be justified?
Most people actually support politically-motivated violence to some extent depending on the situation, with the authors of the book “Radical American Partisanship” finding that 80% of Americans support the American revolution:
Support for American Revolution violence is relatively bipartisan, consistent with the national consensus: 78 percent for Democrats and 84 percent for Republicans. That makes sense given that the parties and the broader political culture generally send unified signals to the public on the subject. (p. 111)
A while back I made a video talking about the topic of political violence, what its prevalence is on the left and the right, how many people support it, and when it might be morally justifiable. I’ll spare you the details since the video is quite long, but my belief is that when we consider what the left and the right stand for - equality and hierarchy respectively - there are situations where left-wing political violence is justified, while arguably right-wing violence may never be justifiable. For example, the Nazis weren’t justified in killing Jews, other minorities and their political opponents, while Jewish resistance groups were justified in using violence to defend themselves and fight for their rights - it’s not like Hitler would have peacefully given up power through democratic means after all.
It is due to my views on the morality of left-wing violence that I believe that, from a moral perspective, killing Trump is justifiable. He’s a narcissistic racist, fraudster, misogynist, rapist and pedophile, and besides his incompetence directly leading to hundreds of thousands of preventable deaths during his presidency, he also indirectly led to the death of many more through his violent rhetoric and the people he put in positions of power.
Besides all of this Trump is also an existential threat to U.S. democracy itself, and arguably to the entire world considering his promise to cut back environmental regulations. Trump is demonstrably a terrible human being, whose crimes have gone and likely will continue to be unpunished, and whose policies would entrench hate and discrimination into law, and would enrich elites at the expense of the 99%. As justice for who he is and for his actions, as well as to prevent him from becoming president (or attempting another coup if he loses the election), assassinating Trump would be morally justifiable.
But “morally justifiable” is not the same as “useful” or “good” in an utilitarian sense. There are crimes for which I believe the morally righteous punishment is death, but from a logical perspective I believe it’s not the job of the government to impose mine or anyone else’s sense of morality. Save for a few specific situations, the state shouldn’t get to decide who lives or dies. I also believe that killing Trump would not be useful or good, though for a different reason.
Previous polls conducted in 2023 and earlier this year showed Ron DeSantis tied with or leading Biden in January, and Nikki Haley enjoyed an even bigger lead. Little attention has been given to either Republican ever since they bowed down to Trump and dropped out of the race, so it’s hard to say exactly how voters would feel about them nowadays. But if the earlier polls are any indication, both of them, and especially Haley, might’ve beat Biden with comparable or even greater ease than Trump.
If the shooter was a leftist and had succeeded in killing Trump, that wouldn’t make the Republican problem go away. Both DeSantis and Haley are as much of a threat as Trump, so when we consider that most polls show his lead increasing slightly after the shooting (though not all replicate this pattern), had Trump been killed we can assume that this apparent increase in Republican support would have transferred to the other candidates. Considering all of this - and if a previous failed assassination is any indication - either DeSantis or Haley might have end up easily beating Biden.
While I started writing this article when Biden was still the presumptive nominee, he has since dropped out and endorsed Kamala Harris, which undoubtedly changes the whole game. And while the Democratic party seems to be more energized after Biden dropped out, and some of the polls even suggest that Kamala has a slight lead over Trump, other polls show her tied, or slightly behind him. Things look more promising with Harris as the presumptive nominee, but Democrats are not out of the woods just yet. Considering it’s still not clear if she actually has an advantage over Trump, plus everything else I’ve discussed - how other Republicans had an advantage over Trump in the polls, and how the attempted assassination may have given them a slight boost in support - Democrats still have their work cut out for them in order to ensure they win the presidency, and killing Trump would likely get in the way of that goal, so that’s (probably) bad.