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PARIS — A few hours after the second attempt on Donald Trump’s life, Elon Musk, the world’s richest man and a supporter of the Republican candidate, posted on his own “X” network: “no one is even trying to assassinate” President Joe Biden or Vice President Kamala Harris! He eventually deleted his tweet, which he said was meant as a “joke,” but not before it had been read by tens of millions of people.
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So Elon Musk, one of the most prominent figures in America, and indeed the world, can be both a genius entrepreneur, with his Tesla cars and SpaceX rockets, and an immature adolescent the moment he swipes his fingers on a social network.
Perhaps he’s also a wonderful metaphor for American society: high-performance, modern, and at the same time relentlessly brutal. According to an article by The New York Times a few days ago, Elon Musk said he dreads this violence, which he nevertheless feeds with his projections: he has built up a serious private secret service, and travels with 20 armed bodyguards where he previously had only two.
Two visions of America
In the United States, there’s a history: from the assassinations of the Kennedy brothers and Martin Luther King in the 1960s, to the attempt against Ronald Reagan in 1981, to Trump twice in the last two months.
But there is also pervasive verbal violence, which has only increased with the growing polarization of public debate, and the place taken by social networks with little or no filter. It’s only a short step from online violence to acting out.
Last week on CNN, Republican Vice Presidential candidate JD Vance even defended the right to invent stories in support of his election campaign, the continuation of the “alternative truth” already theorized by Trump. Such is the case with this latest tale of Haitian migrants eating dogs and cats in Springfield, Ohio, Vance’s home state.
Fake news fool
Donald Trump made a fool of himself during the debate with Kamala Harris by insisting on this “fake news”, which has since been endlessly hijacked on the internet, in rap, or in images generated by artificial intelligences. It shows Trump, two kittens in his arms, being chased by a horde of starving migrants! We laugh about it, but for the migrants of Springfield, it’s no joke.
Could this assassination attempt change the electoral landscape? The personality of the suspect, Ryan Wesley Routh, is certainly troubling and contradictory. The 58-year-old sought to fight in Ukraine against Russia, and Republicans have pounced on this aspect of his chaotic career to try to discredit their opponents.
It’s hard to assess the impact of this event on a campaign already full of twists and turns. The two assassination attempts reinforce Trump’s narrative of a country in perdition; while Kamala Harris, on the other hand, has cast her campaign in a more optimistic, joyous light.
Which of these two visions will win over the undecided voters? Because, ultimately, it’s a few thousand or tens of thousands of voters who will make the difference in a handful of states. What will it be: Trump’s rage, or Harris’s optimism?
