As I said Saturday, I was enormously relieved that the assassination attempt on Trump failed. Besides the human cost would have been a dangerous political one: The violence lurking just under the surface of American politics needs no further provocation.
The question I’m left with is whether the assassination attempt helped Trump politically or hurt him. My guess is that it hurt him among Americans who were reminded by it of the chaos and brutality of Trump’s term as president. But it may have helped him among other Americans, for several possible reasons.
So today’s Office Hours question: Did the attempted assassination of Trump help him politically, and, if so, why?
Robert Reich is a professor of public policy at Berkeley and former secretary of labor. His writings can be found at https://robertreich.substack.com/.