Hours after a gunman tried to assassinate Donald Trump in Florida, the European — particularly German — media outlets were back to their vicious self, blaming the former U.S. president for the second attempt on his life within just two months.
“The right-wing rhetoric threatens everyone,” leading German newspaper Die Tageszeitung declared in its headline reporting the thwarted assassination attempt.
Leading German newspapers, never shying away from stoking anti-Trump sentiment in the country, portrayed the former U.S. president as the real culprit.
“After the first assassination attempt on his life, former President Trump said the divisive rhetoric had to stop. Does anyone remember this? Exactly.” the newspaper wrote feigning irony.
The newspaper apparently showed empathy for the supposed ‘worries’ of the failed assassin if Trump were to win the election in November.
“Perhaps [the would-be assassin] was really worried that under a second Trump presidency the U.S. would simply abandon Ukraine,” Die Tageszeitung speculated. “But at least the concern about Ukraine’s future after Trump’s re-election is real and shared by Ukraine itself and its allies in Europe,” the newspaper empathized.
President Trump himself “sowed the seeds” for two attempted assassinations against himself, the German newspaper Weser-Kurier suggested.
“Donald Trump sowed the seeds,” the North German daily wrote. “Two assassination attempts on Donald Trump within two months – violence in the U.S. seems to be escalating. The [Republican] candidate himself planted the seeds for this,” U.S.-based German columnist Thomas Spang claimed.
The left-wing British newspaper Guardian worried that the former U.S. president, a victim of two attempted assassinations, could actually “adopt the language of victimhood,” thereby taking the wind out of the Democrats’ sails.
“Democrats talk about Trump as a threat to democracy, but he has been the target of violence and can adopt the language of victimhood,” the newspaper complained.
“Democrats face a dilemma about how to effectively campaign against a candidate who has been the target of violence and who continues to claim that the other side’s rhetoric is inciting that violence,” the UK daily lamented.
(Excerpts from German news reports translated by the author)
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