The political lesson that came in the wake of the July 13, 2024, shooting of President Donald Trump in Butler, Pa., was that afterward the then-candidate for president “enjoyed” a certain window of invincibility. It’s kind of like a honeymoon period for someone who was just shot by the left and survived in the most defiant way. Trump’s immediate response to an attempt to publicly execute him was so strong and powerful that, at that point, the election was his to lose.
This sent the Biden/Harris campaign and the Democrat party into a tailspin, contributing to one strategic and tactical misstep after another.
Some Democratic consultants knew this at the time and did their best to play the hand they had dealt themselves. Still, none of them learned from it all.
After the most recent assassination attempt on Trump and possibly members of his administration at the White House Correspondents’ (WHCA) Association Dinner in Washington, D.C., leftists of all stripes impulsively sought out TV cameras and microphones to spin a new anti-Trump narrative based on the event.
They literally decided not to read the room. The first thing some did after getting on their hands and knees to climb out from under their tables at the dinner was to seek out a camera, or just use the one they had in their pocket, to bash Trump.
Immediately after a gunman opened fire at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, Lincoln Project co-founder @SteveSchmidtSES blamed President Trump for “poisoning the rhetoric” in America:
“He is a vile and disgusting man.” pic.twitter.com/dUG2XrcCDl
— Daily Wire (@realDailyWire) April 26, 2026
Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) is one of the Democrat Party’s lead propagandists. When he speaks, you’re usually getting a sanctioned narrative from their spin war room. After the WHCA shooting, he pretended to be baffled by who might have radicalized the shooter and what’s going on. This technique is a blatant attempt to buy time in the news cycle until the left can land on an anti-Trump narrative they hope will stick to Trump.
Democrat Congressman @jamie_raskin – who won’t fund Secret Service – tells @CNN he has no clue what “heated rhetoric” his party has used regarding President Trump pic.twitter.com/HdINwAsHEb
— Sean Spicer (@seanspicer) April 26, 2026
As Raskin pretended to be confused about the “heated rhetoric” that he and his side have directed at Trump and many others, Democrat political mastermind David Axelrod was trying out the ballroom talking point.
Here’s the official statement announcing plans for a grand new White House ballroom last July. Not one word about the need for it due to security.
Last night, the @POTUS & his acolytes immediately seized on the WHCA attack at to justify his dream project. https://t.co/OG68BvjHqg— David Axelrod (@davidaxelrod) April 26, 2026
During Trump’s comments at the press briefing following the shooting, the president talked about how the Washington. Hilton lacked certain features that would have made the building more secure for an event of this nature. He reiterated that his White House ballroom currently under construction would solve a good many security problems for events like this.
Axelrod and others have now tried to make a semantic dispute out of it, claiming that Trump never before mentioned security as a rationale behind the building of the ballroom. As if that mattered. Trump did not have to. Even if it just occurred to him last night, this latest assassination attempt was a statement unto itself – it’s time to build the ballroom so very important people don’t get killed.
In the coming days, the Democrats and their opinion consultants will convene focus groups. They will show them video from much of the happenings surrounding the assassination attempt. They will look for cracks in Trump’s armor that they can exploit. They will try to figure out what anti-Trump messaging might still resonate with their own base at first, and then they will work outward to soccer moms, wine moms, moms of color, and men who think they’re moms.
The purpose of this is two-fold: First, they need to fundraise off of it; and second, they know that if Trump’s approval rating rises as it most certainly will after this, their momentum leading up to the midterms is at risk.
Any time it gets real, all of the lies and deception the left weaves are laid bare. This is not so attractive to independent and undecided voters. After an assassination attempt like this, the public is reminded of the things that really matter and the qualities that really matter in a leader. Even though Trump is not on the ballot, he will cast a huge shadow over these elections now.
The Democrats were already trying to make the midterms about Trump, but now they may regret that.
After Butler, Trump wore the political armor of invincibility. As savvy as he is, he knew instinctively from the moment he dropped to the deck what he had to do as a leader. Since then, Trump is going on far more than instinct. He’s going on experience, intellect, and, as he said, “study.”
No one is better aware of how he can use this “invincibility window” to his own advantage and to the advantage of his party. Republicans should take note, especially Senate Majority Leader John Thune, who has been quietly trying to bury the SAVE Act and slow-walk so many of Trump’s appointments. Trump will know how to leverage his likely jump in the polls to hammer Thune privately at first, and then publicly if necessary.
As for the left, Trump knows they never learn. He will work them into political self-immolation once again, as he has done so many times before. He will leverage all of this to help the Democrats undermine their own chances in the midterms.
The public sees that the left is violent and willing to kill its opposition. This assassination attempt is just the latest reminder. Against this backdrop on the left, demonizing the man your side just tried to kill once again is a bad look no matter what words you use and no matter what issue you try to weaponize.
The left cannot be civil. It cannot be non-violent. It cannot be gracious or compassionate to Trump. It cannot be as humane as it should be, even if its own focus groups tell it to be so. That’s why over the next few months the left will do what it always does. It will seek to further divide a nation that, after something like this, mostly wants to come together.
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