Donald Trump is, sadly, inviting personal danger with his incendiary rhetoric on the campaign trail.
Trump is a “loose cannon”. who makes statements without thinking of their implications, and while many people see him as entertainment, he is dangerously treading a line that could lead to the danger of threats against his life.
That is the last thing this nation needs, and yet Trump has his own protective forces, but history tells us that no matter how much protection one might have, all that a potential assassin needs is one “lucky break”.
Historically, we have had two Presidential candidates who stirred up emotions in people in such a divisive way that they faced assassination.
Chapter 7 of my forthcoming book, on August 15, “Assassinations, Threats, and the American Presidency: From Andrew Jackson to Barack Obama” (Rowman Littlefield), deals with the assassination of Senator Huey Long of Louisiana, gunned down on September 8, 1935.
Chapter 11 of the book details the attempted assassination of Governor George C. Wallace of Alabama on May 15, 1972. Wallace survived, but was paralyzed for life, and had annual surgeries to attempt to relieve unremitting pain for the last 26 years of his life.
One would hope that Trump would lower the rhetoric level, so as to cut down the change of danger to his personal security, no matter what one thinks of Trump and his views!