World leaders have expressed shock over the attempted assassination of Donald Trump on Saturday. The attack marks the most serious attempt on a US president or presidential candidate’s life since the shooting of Ronald Reagan in 1981.
The shooting pierced Trump’s right ear, killed one man at the rally, and left two other men critically injured.
The Secret Service said it killed the suspected shooter, identified as Thomas Matthew Crooks of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, who attacked from an elevated position outside the rally venue.
UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer said he was “appalled” by the attack. “Political violence in any form has no place in our societies,” he added.
Conservative Tory leader Rishi Sunak posted on social media that he was “horrified” and that “violence and intimidation must never be allowed to prevail.”
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau wrote on X that “It cannot be overstated — political violence is never acceptable.”
The Chinese Foreign Ministry said in a statement that the attack was concerning for China and that President Xi Jinping had already reached out to Trump.
Czech President Petr Pavel and French President Emmanuel Macron also wished Trump a speedy recovery. “It is a drama for our democracies. France shares the indignation of the American people,” Macron posted on X.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese called the attack “inexcusable,” while Brazil’s president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, said the attack must be “strongly repudiated” by all defenders of democracy.
The UAE’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs described the attack as “a criminal and extremist act,” while German Chancellor Olaf Scholz posted on X, saying the attack was “despicable” and extended his “compassionate thoughts” to the other people who were hurt in the attack.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said his thoughts and prayers were with Trump “in these dark hours.”
India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi said he was very concerned by “the attack on my friend.” He strongly condemned the incident, writing on X, “Violence has no place in politics and democracies.”
Masrour Barzani, the prime minister of the Kurdistan region of Iraq, condemned the attack, saying on X that his thoughts are with the victims of “this senseless act of terrorism.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, at the start of the weekly Cabinet meeting in Jerusalem, said the attack was an “assassination attempt on American democracy.” He said Israel was wishing Trump “a quick recovery and return to full strength.”
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa also wrote on X that the attempted assassination of Trump “is a stark reminder of the dangers of political extremism and intolerance.”
Egyptian President Abdelfattah El Sissi said in a statement that Egypt condemned the attack and wished for the U.S. election campaigns to resume peacefully.
Trump ally and Reform MP Nigel Farage has said he is “very upset” but “not shocked.”
“I’m obviously pleased that my friend Donald has got away with it, only just, but he’s got away with it. But one person is dead, two more are fighting for their lives in hospital, so it’s an absolutely horrendous incident and yet somehow I’m not shocked by it,” he told the Laura Kuenssberg show.
“The narrative that is put out there about Trump by the liberals that oppose him is so nasty… that I think it almost encourages this type of behavior.”
Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico, who survived an assassination attempt in May, suggested that the attack on Trump was the result of a campaign by his political opponents.
However, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that “they do not at all think or believe that the attempt to eliminate presidential candidate Trump was organized by the current government, but the atmosphere that this administration created during the political struggle. The atmosphere around candidate Trump provoked what America is faced with today,” he added.
He also mentioned that Russian President Vladimir Putin had no plans at present to call Trump.
Former Tory PM Boris Johnson said it was “a miracle that Donald Trump escaped an attempted assassination,” adding that the incident reflected “the tragic fragility of democracy in the face of violence and unreason”
Similarly, Italian President Sergio Mattarella in a statement called the attack a cause for serious alarm and “a disconcerting symptom of the deterioration of the civil fabric and of the dangerous refusal of confrontation, dialogue and respect for democratic life.”
Since the assassination attempt, Biden’s team has been pulling election advertisements criticizing Trump.
The White House also confirmed that the president spoke to Mr Trump several hours after the shooting.
President Joe Biden called the shooting “sick“, adding: “There’s no place in America for this type of violence.”
The shooting is still under investigation by the U.S. authorities.
