European leaders offered prayers and wishes for the health of Presidential candidate Donald Trump after another apparent assassination attempt as well as concern at the emergency of political violence in democracy, but several European capitals seem content to let the attack go unremarked.
Former U.S. President Donald Trump, who is running for office again in the forthcoming November election, appears to have been again targeted by a gunman at his golf course in West Palm Beach on Sunday. Officials are treating the shooting as an “attempted assassination” and a suspect is in police custody.
Several European leaders have spoken out to express sympathy for President Trump, but at the time of this publication, many national capitals remain functionally silent, with no meaningful statements going public over 18 hours after the incident.
Top European leaders who have yet to comment on the apparent assassination of the former American president currently include French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, and European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen.
Several British political figures including a former Prime Minister and Trump ally Nigel Farage have commented, and newly installed left-wing Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, who is presently on a visit to Italy, told television crews that he was “very worried” by the assassination attempt, and emphasised his concern about violence. He said: “absolute clarity: violence, no place in political discussion at all, anywhere.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was one of the first European leaders to speak out on the attack on Monday morning, expressing his pleasure that President Trump was unharmed and also speaking of the need to divorce violence from politics. He said: “It’s good that the suspect in the assassination attempt was apprehended quickly. This is our principle: the rule of law is paramount and political violence has no place anywhere in the world.”
Hungary’s Viktor Orban is a veteran European right-wing populist and a long-time supporter of President Trump. He was also prompt with remarks on Monday, stating his view in a warning that President Trump’s life would remain in danger “until his victory”, perhaps implying at that point the President could then direct the Secret Service more effectively. One of the very few political leaders in Europe who hasn’t abandoned the language of faith, Prime Minister Orban continued to remark: “We are praying for you, Mr. President!”.
Further afield, Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu expressed his shock at the attempt and relief it had failed but warned political leaders they should “not rely on luck” to prevent the worst from happening. He continued: “We send our best wishes to Donald and Melania along with our hopes that all measures will be taken to ensure that such deadly attacks on a candidate for the US presidency will be foiled in advance.”
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese also affirmed the good news that President Trump had not been harmed this time, and like others also spoke in defence of the democratic process. He said: “Everyone wants the democratic process to be peaceful and to be orderly. This incident in the United States is of concern, again.”
Russia has also responded to the Trump shooting but was apparently more concerned with point-scoring and trouble-stirring than expressing any sort of sympathy. While Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov claimed “It’s not really our business”, close Putin Ally Dmitry Medvedev jumped in with both feet, speculating — without any evidence proffered — the assassin may have been actually an agent of the Ukrainian government.