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Assassination attempts and new threats have reshaped how Donald Trump campaigns

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is seen with a bandage on his ear after being wounded in an assassination attempt during the first day of the 2024 Republican National Convention at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, July 15, 2024. (AFP)
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Updated 05 October 2024
AP
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Assassination attempts and new threats have reshaped how Donald Trump campaigns

  • Beyond the two attempts on his life, the former president and GOP nominee faces ongoing death threats from Iran
  • Trump speaks more often publicly of divine intervention, musing that God saved him in order to save the country
Updated 05 October 2024
AP

NEW YORK: Donald Trump was onstage at a rally on Long Island last month, talking about taxes, when he appeared momentarily spooked by something he’d spotted over his shoulder.
“I thought this was a wise guy coming up,” he explained, joking that he was getting his elbow ready to fight back.
“You know I got a little bit of a yip problem here, right?” he added to laughs, using a term familiar to golf aficionados to describe a phenomenon once blamed on performance anxiety where players suddenly lose the ability to make easy shots. “I was all ready to start duking it out.”
It was a fleeting moment passed off as a joke. But as he returns to Butler, Pennsylvania, on Saturday for a rally at the site where a gunman opened fire in July, grazing his ear with a bullet, the scare underscores the lasting fallout for the candidate and his campaign even as much of the national attention has shifted to other crises.
Beyond the two attempts on his life in as many months, the former president and GOP nominee faces ongoing death threats from Iran, which has also been blamed for hacking top campaign officials and allies, exacerbating anxieties already heightened by a stepped-up security apparatus and new restrictions on how he can campaign.
Trump’s allies insist he was not fundamentally changed by the gunman who fired from an unsecured roof at the rally in July or the would-be assailant in September who shoved a rifle barrel through the fence at his West Palm Beach golf course.
The picture of Trump standing, with blood streaked across his face, as he raised his fist and shouted “Fight!” has become the indelible image of the campaign.
“When you almost lose your life, it stays with you. It stays with him,” said Florida Rep. Byron Donalds, a close Trump ally. “But that doesn’t change his resolve. His resolve is just as strong as it ever has been.”
Threats have reshaped how he campaigns
Trump staffers are on edge. There have been death threats directed at his aides, and his team isn’t as able to quickly organize the mass rallies that have always been the signature of his campaigns.
Armed security officers now stand guard at the campaign’s Florida headquarters, and staff have been told to remain vigilant and alert.
Events have been canceled and moved around because the US Secret Service lacked the resources to safely secure them. Even with the use of glass barricades to protect Trump onstage, there are concerns about holding additional rallies outdoors due to fears about drones.
Trump has accused President Joe Biden’s administration of intentionally denying security resources to help Vice President Kamala Harris, his Democratic opponent, by preventing him from addressing large crowds.
“They couldn’t give me any help. And I’m so angry about it because what they’re doing is interfering in the election,” he said in a recent Fox News interview.
US Secret Service spokesperson Anthony Guglielmi said in a statement that Trump “is receiving heightened levels of US Secret Service protection” and that “our top priority is mitigating risks to ensure his continued safety at all times.” Biden expressed concern for Trump after both assassination attempts, saying in September, “Thank God the president is OK.”
Trump also now travels with a larger security footprint, with new traffic restrictions outside his Mar-a-Lago home in Florida, and a line of dump trucks and big guns on display outside Trump Tower in New York when he’s staying there.
As reporters filed into his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, for a press conference this summer, guests — including a little girl wearing a red, white and blue bathing suit — were forced to exit their cars and go through airport-style metal detectors as their vehicles were searched for bombs.
Trump’s campaign last week was briefed on continued threats from Iran in presumed retaliation for his administration’s killing of Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani, an act that prompted Iran’s leaders to vow revenge. In August, a Pakistani man alleged to have links to Iran was charged in a plot to carry out political assassinations on US soil. Law enforcement did not name the targets of the alleged plot, but legal filings suggest Trump was a potential target.
Iranian hackers have also been charged with stealing information from Trump’s campaign and trying to pass it along to news organizations. In May, prosecutors say, the men charged began trying to penetrate the Trump campaign, successfully breaking into the email accounts of campaign officials and other Trump allies. They then sought to “weaponize” the stolen campaign material by sending unsolicited emails to people associated with Biden’s campaign. None of the recipients who worked for Biden responded.
The cyberattacks have forced some staff to change their email addresses and others to be wary of communicating online.
Trump already faced unprecedented legal jeopardy for a presidential candidate, with four criminal indictments — one resulting in a felony conviction with sentencing delayed until after the election, one case dismissed, and two pending — along with civil lawsuits that carry hundreds of millions of dollars in potential penalties.
“I think that from our perspective, just from the campaign standpoint, operationally, if there’s one group of people that can handle something like this thrown in their lap, it’s the team that Donald Trump assembled to run this campaign, just based on everything we’ve had to deal with, whether it’s lawsuits to keep him off the ballot, to indictments, to assassination attempts,” Trump campaign senior adviser Chris LaCivita said.
Trump talks of divine intervention
As for Trump, he speaks more often publicly of divine intervention, musing that God saved him in order to save the country. He also often says that assailants only go after consequential presidents.
“Obviously, when you come within a half an inch of a very different outcome, that’s going to impact you,” said New York Rep. Elize Stefanik, another ally who said she spoke to Trump the morning after the Butler shooting.
“Of course, those moments really make you consider a higher power, why you are so committed to helping save this country,” she said. “I think it has further empowered and energized President Trump.”
Trump was recently asked by NewsNation if he’s concerned about his safety ahead of his return to Butler. “Well, I’m always worried,” he responded.
“I’m going back to Butler because I feel I have an obligation to go back to Butler. We never finished what we were supposed to do,” he said. “And I said that, when I was shot, I said, we’re coming back. We’re going to come back. And I’m fulfilling a promise; I’m fulfilling really an obligation.”
His most loyal supporters at his rallies, including the one on Long Island where he joked about the “yips,” haven’t been dissuaded from seeing him in person.
“I know some people are scared to come, but I’m not,” said Eileen Deighan, 63, a nurse from nearby Yonkers, New York, who said she was inspired by Trump’s decision to keep on campaigning given the threats.
“The fact that he didn’t give up, he’s willing to fight for our country, how could you not support that?’ she asked. “That will that he has — doesn’t give up. It’s very contagious.”
Trump told his supporters at a rally in Wisconsin on Saturday that he would continue fighting “no matter what obstacles and dangers are thrown on our path.” But he had another point to make.
“I tell you what, I had a good life before I did this,” he said. “Nobody was shooting at me. I had a hell of a life.”


 

Topics: Trump Returns Donald Trump

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India’s Naga tribes renew efforts to repatriate ancestral skulls from UK collections

Updated 5 sec ago
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India’s Naga tribes renew efforts to repatriate ancestral skulls from UK collections

  • British auction house put 19th-century Naga tribesman’s skull up for sale in October
  • Colonial authorities started to collect Naga skulls as specimens in the mid-19th century
Updated 5 sec ago
Sanjay Kumar

NEW DELHI: Ellen Konyak Jamir was left in a state of disbelief when she discovered that the skull of a tribesman from the state of Nagaland was being auctioned in the UK. What made the discovery even more unsettling was that it was being publicly advertised.
Part of a “Curious Collector Sale” at an auction house in Oxfordshire, the 19th-century horned skull was one of thousands of items — including human remains — that British colonial administrators had collected from the northeastern Indian state and placed in museums and private collections.
It was featured on the sale’s website in October as a piece that “would be of particular interest to collectors with a focus on anthropology and tribal cultures,” and was offered with an opening bid of $4,400.
“When the news of the auction by the Swan in Tetsworth, Oxfordshire was brought to our attention, we were absolutely shocked and dismayed,” Konyak, a Nagaland native and member of the Forum for Naga Reconciliation, an association of members of various Naga tribes, told Arab News.
“(It was) an act of disrespect, dehumanization and the continuation of colonial violence ... We appreciated the prompt response and the removal of the item.”
The listing was quickly removed, but the incident has resulted in renewed efforts by the Naga community to repatriate the remains of their ancestors held in Britain.
“It created shockwaves of anger, humiliation and disbelief that in this century some people will be advertising to sell human skulls. That’s very serious,” said Visier Sanyu, a professor of history and an elder of the Angami tribe in Nagaland, who leads the Forum for Naga Reconciliation.
“We were approached to bring back these human remains, the skull, the hair, and hands and all from the Pitts River Museum, where they were exhibited for about 100 years ... It is a very long process. It can take 10 to 15 years.”
The University of Oxford’s Pitts River Museum has the largest Naga collection, featuring more than 6,500 items taken from the state. The items include dozens of human remains.
There are 16 Naga tribes inhabiting northeastern India and until the early 20th century most of them would collect the heads of their rivals after winning battles.
British colonial authorities started to take those skulls as specimens in the mid-19th century, but most were collected when anthropologist John Henry Hutton was an administrator in the region.
“He was the one who collected many of them,” Sanyu said.
“Hutton was here somewhere in the beginning of the century and then he went away during World War One and then he came back and stayed on for a long time, probably up till the 1930s or 40s.”
Dr. Dolly Kikon, a member of the Naga community and anthropology professor at the University of California, who co-founded the Recover, Restore, and Decolonize group under the Forum for Naga Reconciliation, is involved in the efforts to return human skulls from the UK.
She said the organization will request the respective tribes to decide what will happen to the remains of their ancestors once they are brought back to India.
“In cases where the remains are clearly identified as belonging to a respective Naga cultural group, it will depend on the elders and community members to determine the process. There are suggestions for burials, common memorial ceremonies, a memorial park signifying Naga unity and history, and also keeping the skulls as part of community history,” she said.
“Our role is to facilitate dialogues and take up awareness programs ... There is a need to connect repatriation to larger issues of colonial violence and the quest for dignity and justice.”
While it is not clear yet who will cover the expenses, some Naga activists, such as retired school principal Nyamto Wangsha, believe the UK should bear them.
“After identifying, we have to bury them and lay a memory stone in their name ... I feel the UK government should bear the expenses,” he said.
“It is the responsibility of the Britishers to bring back the skulls because they have taken them.”

Topics: NAGALAND

Indian tribes renew efforts to repatriate ancestral skulls from UK collections

Updated 32 sec ago
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Indian tribes renew efforts to repatriate ancestral skulls from UK collections

  • British auction house put 19th-century Naga tribesman’s skull up for sale in October
  • Colonial authorities started to collect Naga skulls as specimens in the mid-19th century
Updated 32 sec ago
Sanjay Kumar

NEW DELHI: Ellen Konyak Jamir was left in a state disbelief when she discovered that the skull of a tribesman from the state of Nagaland was being auctioned in the UK. What made the discovery even more unsettling was that it was being publicly advertised.

Part of a “Curious Collector Sale” at an auction house in Oxfordshire, the 19th-century horned skull was one of thousands of items — including human remains — that British colonial administrators had collected from the northeastern Indian state and placed in museums and private collections.

It was featured on the sale’s website in October as a piece that “would be of particular interest to collectors with a focus on anthropology and tribal cultures,” and was offered with an opening bid of $4,400.

“When the news of the auction by the Swan in Tetsworth, Oxfordshire was brought to our attention, we were absolutely shocked and dismayed,” Konyak, a Nagaland native and member of the Forum for Naga Reconciliation, an association of members of various Naga tribes, told Arab News.

“(It was) an act of disrespect, dehumanization and the continuation of colonial violence ... We appreciated the prompt response and the removal of the item.”

The listing was quickly removed, but the incident has resulted in renewed efforts by the Naga community to repatriate the remains of their ancestors held in Britain.

“It created shockwaves of anger, humiliation and disbelief that in this century some people will be advertising to sell human skulls. That’s very serious,” said Visier Sanyu, a professor of history and an elder of the Angami tribe in Nagaland, who leads the Forum for Naga Reconciliation.

“We were approached to bring back these human remains, the skull, the hair, and hands and all from the Pitts River Museum, where they were exhibited for about 100 years ... It is a very long process. It can take 10 to 15 years.”

The University of Oxford’s Pitts River Museum has the largest Naga collection, featuring more than 6,500 items taken from the state. The items include dozens of human remains.

There are 16 Naga tribes inhabiting northeastern India and until the early 20th century most of them would collect the heads of their rivals after winning battles.

British colonial authorities started to take those skulls as specimens in the mid-19th century, but most were collected when anthropologist John Henry Hutton was an administrator in the region.

“He was the one who collected many of them,” Sanyu said.

“Hutton was here somewhere in the beginning of the century and then he went away during World War One and then he came back and stayed on for a long time, probably up till the 1930s or 40s.”

Dr. Dolly Kikon, a member of the Naga community and anthropology professor at the University of California, who co-founded the Recover, Restore, and Decolonize group under the Forum for Naga Reconciliation, is involved in the efforts to return human skulls from the UK.

She said the organization will request the respective tribes to decide what will happen to the remains of their ancestors once they are brought back to India.

“In cases where the remains are clearly identified as belonging to a respective Naga cultural group, it will depend on the elders and community members to determine the process. There are suggestions for burials, common memorial ceremonies, a memorial park signifying Naga unity and history, and also keeping the skulls as part of community history,” she said.

“Our role is to facilitate dialogues and take up awareness programs ... There is a need to connect repatriation to larger issues of colonial violence and the quest for dignity and justice.”

While it is not clear yet who will cover the expenses, some Naga activists, such as retired school principal Nyamto Wangsha, believe the UK should bear them.

“After identifying, we have to bury them and lay a memory stone in their name ... I feel the UK government should bear the expenses,” he said.

“It is the responsibility of the Britishers to bring back the skulls because they have taken them.”

Topics: India United Kingdom (UK) NAGALAND Pitts River Museum

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Georgia PM vows retribution for protests as court rejects bid to annul vote

Updated 5 min 47 sec ago
AFP
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Georgia PM vows retribution for protests as court rejects bid to annul vote

  • Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze also suggested he would take retribution on public servants if they take part in protests
  • Georgia has been gripped by political turmoil since a contested October election
Updated 5 min 47 sec ago
AFP

TBILISI: Georgia’s prime minister on Tuesday threatened to punish his political opponents, accusing them of being behind violence at mass protests, as Tbilisi’s top court rejected a key lawsuit to annul the result of a contested October vote.
Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze — who infuriated protesters last week by announcing his government would shelve EU accession talks until 2028 — also suggested he would take retribution on public servants if they take part in protests.
Thousands of demonstrators took to the streets on Monday against the ruling Georgian Dream party in a fifth straight night of protests, with more demonstrations planned on Tuesday.
They accuse the government of bringing Tbilisi back into Moscow’s orbit and betraying the Black Sea nation’s bid for EU membership, which is enshrined in its constitution and supported by around 80 percent of the population.
Georgia has been gripped by political turmoil since a contested October election, which pro-EU President Salome Zurabishvili and the opposition say Georgian Dream rigged, demanding a re-run.
But, intensifying the crisis, Tbilisi’s top court on Tuesday rejected a lawsuit filed by Zurabishvili and opposition parties to overturn the election result.
A re-run of the contested vote was one of the protesters’ main demands.
Zurabishvili, who backs the protests and whom Georgian Dream are trying to remove from office, did not yet respond to the court’s decision to throw out her case.
That announcement came shortly after Kobakhidze — who has ruled out talks with the opposition — vowed to punish his opponents.
“Opposition politicians who have orchestrated the violence in recent days while hiding in their offices will not escape responsibility,” he said at a press conference.
The ruling Georgian Dream party has refused to back down despite increasing international criticism of Georgia’s handling of its protests, with several Western countries saying Tbilisi had used excessive force.
Kobakhidze, 46, also threatened to punish civil servants who join the protests, after several ambassadors and a deputy foreign minister resigned over the demonstrations crack-down and his decision to suspend EU talks.
“The process of self-cleansing within the public sector has been very interesting. We are closely monitoring everyone’s actions, and they will not go without a response,” he said.
Evoking language used by the Kremlin, Kobakhidze alledged the protest movement was “funded from abroad.”
He also singled out NGOs — heavily targeted in a repressive pre-election campaign by authorities — for being behind the protests, vowing that they will “not evade responsibility as defined by law.”
Tbilisi earlier this year adopted Russian-style legislation designed to restrict the activity of NGOs as well measures that the EU says curb LGBTQ rights.
The adoption of the laws prompted the US to slap sanctions on Georgian officials.
But Kobakhidze said his government hoped that the “US attitudes toward us will change after January 20” — when Donald Trump, who has criticized federal support for gender transition, takes office.
Kobakhidze’s threats to the opposition came as more Western leaders criticized Tbilisi’s police response to the protests.
NATO chief Mark Rutte on Tuesday slammed as “deeply concerning” the situation in Georgia, condemning “unequivocally” the reports of violence.
The mostly young protesters accuse Georgian Dream of acting on Russian orders and fear the ex-Soviet country will end up back under Russian influence.
“We want freedom and we do not want to find ourselves in Russia,” 21-year-old protester Nika Maghradze, told AFP.
Georgia’s health ministry earlier said that 26 people — 23 protesters and three law enforcement officers — were injured in the latest protest on Monday night.
President Zurabishvili has described the protests as Georgians “rising against the Russian puppetry regime.”
“The message is clear: Give me my vote back! Give me my European future back!,” she had said on social media on Monday.
Some protesters placed their hopes in the 72-year-old president.
“She is our only chance,” 43-year-old demonstrator Mariam told AFP on Monday.

Topics: Georgia Irakli Kobakhidze Tbilisi Protests EU

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Fighting resumes in eastern Congo despite ceasefire between army and rebels

Updated 03 December 2024
AP
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Fighting resumes in eastern Congo despite ceasefire between army and rebels

  • M23 is one of a 100 armed groups that have been vying for a foothold in eastern Congo near the border with Rwanda
  • The conflict has created one of the world’s largest humanitarian crises, with more than 7 million people displaced
Updated 03 December 2024
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GOMA, Congo: Fighting between the Congolese army and the M23 rebel group resumed in eastern Congo in yet another ceasefire violation ahead of potential mediation talks, both groups said.
The army said in a statement it inflicted heavy losses on the rebels in the Lubero territory of North Kivu province Monday, including several dead and wounded. An M23 spokesperson said on X the group also was attacked by the army early Tuesday.
M23 is one of a 100 armed groups that have been vying for a foothold in mineral-rich eastern Congo near the border with Rwanda, in a conflict that has created one of the world’s largest humanitarian crises. More than 7 million people have been displaced.
Congo and the United Nations accuse Rwanda of backing M23. Rwanda denies the claim, but in February admitted that it has troops and missile systems in eastern Congo to safeguard its security, pointing to a buildup of Congolese forces near the border. UN experts estimate there are up to 4,000 Rwandan forces in Congo.
Last week, Congo and Rwanda’s foreign ministers agreed on the terms and conditions of the disengagement of Rwandan forces in eastern Congo.
In July, Congo signed a ceasefire with M23, which came into effect in August, but fighting has resumed since. Earlier this month, the United States said it was “gravely concerned” by ceasefire violations by M23 rebels.
The resumption of fighting comes as Congo’s President Felix Tshisekedi and Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame are set to meet on Dec. 15, according to the state news agency of Angola, which has been mediating the conflict. It would be their first official meeting since last year.

Topics: Congo

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Philippine VP Sara Duterte faces calls for impeachment after threats to president

Updated 7 min 55 sec ago
Ellie Aben
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Philippine VP Sara Duterte faces calls for impeachment after threats to president

  • Duterte said last month that she has contracted an assassin to kill Marcos, his wife and House speaker
  • Another coalition of civil society groups will file a new impeachment complaint against VP this week
Updated 7 min 55 sec ago
Ellie Aben

MANILA: Philippines Vice President Sara Duterte is facing an impeachment bid filed by civil society activists in the House of Representatives over a death threat she made against the president, as well as over her alleged role in extra-judicial killings of drug suspects.

A coalition of 16 signatories comprising civil society activists, religious leaders and former lawmakers filed an impeachment complaint against Duterte on Monday, accusing her of violating the country’s constitution and mismanagement of funds, and cited the recent death threat she made against President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.

“The public/open discussion about the act of engaging an assassin to kill the incumbent President, his wife and the Speaker of the House of Representatives constitutes not only betrayal of public trust but also a High Crime which would warrant her immediate impeachment from Office,” read a copy of the complaint seen by Arab News.

“The conduct of Respondent as a public officer has clearly fallen short … thus necessitating the initiation of this process of impeachment.”

The complaint, which received its required endorsement from Rep. Percival Cendana of progressive political alliance Akbayan, will be scrutinized by the Philippine Congress in a process that could take weeks or months.

“Vice President Duterte deserves to be impeached for her abuse of power and plunder of the nation’s coffers,” Cendana said in a statement. “The Filipino people deserve a vice president who is ethical, accountable, and committed to public service–not one who weaponizes authority for personal gain.”

The daughter of former President Rodrigo Duterte has been embroiled in a row with Marcos and is the subject of an enquiry into her spending by the House of Representatives.

On Nov. 23, Duterte said in an online news conference that she had contracted someone to kill Marcos, his wife and House Speaker Martin Romualdez if she were killed. She later said that she was not threatening him, but was expressing concern for her own safety.

Monday’s complaint also accused her of being “directly involved” in extra-judicial killings of drug suspects in southern Davao City when she was mayor, continuing a deadly crackdown that was started by her father, who formerly held the same position.

The Philippines’ largest alliance of grassroots groups, BAYAN, announced it would also file an impeachment petition against Duterte this week.

Topics: Philippines Sara Duterte

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