Anti-Trump author and New York University history professor Ruth Ben-Ghiat argued that the assassination attempt on former President Trump speaks “to how autocrats can use adversity to strengthen their power,” linking Trump’s situation to an attempt on the life of Italian dictator Benito Mussolini.
In a column for Politico Magazine, the author noted how both attempts solidified their strongman appeals. She mentioned that both used photos of them surviving shootings to work the crowd for more sympathy.
“With that gesture, Trump tended to his personality cult, reassuring millions of his devoted followers that he had survived and was unbeaten — just as Mussolini did with his photo almost 100 years before,” Ben-Ghiat wrote, adding, “The danger is what comes next.”
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She began the column by detailing the third assassination attempt against the dictator, which was performed by an Irish-born British pacifist named Violet Gibson, who “stepped out of the crowd and shot him” while he was walking the streets of Rome following a speech in 1926.
Explaining how Mussolini used this incident for his own political gain, Ben-Ghiat wrote, “That is why Mussolini, a journalist by training who attended to every detail of his image, posed for pictures after the attack, the bandage becoming a kind of badge of honor. And it is why each failed attempt became fodder for his personality cult by seeming to prove his macho toughness, resilience and invincibility.”
Then came the direct comparison to Trump, who, after he was shot in the ear in Butler, Pennsylvania last month by a round from an AR-15 that barely missed his skull, stood up from cover and told his rally goers to “Fight, fight, fight!” The moment was captured in vivid photographs.
Though Ben-Ghiat acknowledged that Trump can’t use the moment to bolster his literal power, as he’s not in office, she insisted “that the assassination attempt has made Trump’s personality cult more robust and more powerful for his followers. His claims of being a victim targeted on their behalf are now more credible and his persona cemented as an indomitable fighter. And he knows it.”
“Familiarity with the behavior of strongmen gives Trump’s actions in the dramatic minutes after he was shot a crucial frame of reference. Most people in that situation would have had the instinct to flee to safety. Not Trump,” she added.
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The author went on, noting that Mussolini was able to leverage the attack on his life to consolidate more power in Italy and make him immune from governmental checks and balances. She said this is the danger following an attack on a strongman, that it “often boosts the leader’s personality cult, and it lends credence to narratives about his omnipotence and the need for his repressive laws to keep the country safe from crime.”
Ben-Ghiat added, “This has been the case so far with Trump, whose supporters have seized on the shooting and even cited divine intervention in saving his life. The shooting also comes in an atmosphere of heightened political violence that Trump has helped bring into the mainstream.”
She also said that “This awful assassination attempt will validate” Trump’s rhetoric that his enemies are also targeting his supporters, thereby strengthening their bond and volatility. “Followers of authoritarian personality cults who are bonded to the leader can become volatile when he is in distress.”
The author concluded, “In this light, Mussolini’s bandaged nose and Trump’s bandaged ear both speak to how autocrats can use adversity to strengthen their power at democracy’s expense.”
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