You have to believe it has come to this, for it has. (Though, yes, I understand the phrase an idiom.)
For me, it is difficult to believe that it hasn't happened sooner.
Trump has thrived on stirring up division, on making abusive attacks on those who don't agree with him, on encouraging violence and even attempting to subvert 'democracy' by praising those who made an assault on the Capitol - which did result in deaths of innocent people - and by doing nothing to prevent or at least discourage it. Whether he was directly behind it is hard to tell - I don't know but I wouldn't be surprised if that was the case.
Trump has openly claimed that he will pursue those who opposed his attempts to subvert the election results and those engaged in court actions against him.
Trump has publicly claimed that he could walk down a main thoroughfare and shoot someone with impunity and no loss of support.
Trump has openly given support to Russia's President Putin to to whatever suits Putin and also as good as attempted to ridicule and divorce America from NATO.
Trump's rallies are sensationalism and have included statements, sometimes thinly veiled and sometimes quite clear, to support and praise groups with violent agendas.
In a nation replete with gun toting civilians, even owning and using assault weapons and where school shootings have become common, Trump has only exacerbated an ethos of violence.
Now, he has been a target and only narrowly missed a much more serious injury or death.
Will this change Trump? No, I think not. Even after being shot he raised his fist and called to his audience to 'fight'.
The saddest aspect of this is not that Trump's ear was damaged but that pundits and more particularly, national 'leaders' around the World have claimed that "there is no place for violence in a democracy" or words to that effect.
None of them have I heard or seen any report of them denouncing the obnoxious ideas that Trump has voiced and supported. None of them have condemned his past illegal actions, abuse of women, abuse of workers or what ought to be defamatory comments, nor his turning on many of those who supported him before it became clear how parlous is his character.
I fully expect that, instead of improving restrictions on behaviours for which Trump is ubiquitous, the very opposite will be the result. I feel it inevitable that this incident will make him even more of a martyr to his supporters. Indeed, it is a harbinger of political and civil conflict on a horrific scale unless the hypocrisy stops and strong messages are delivered by Americans and others, of all social strata, that Trump brought this upon himself and has set the scene for repeated incidents of this type, just as the fascination and preoccupation with guns has killed many school children.
We need honest leaders who don't lie about the nature of such events as this assault on Trump. Not platitudinous and even flawed assertions about violence having no place in our democracies, for though I understand what is meant, i.e. that it ought to have no place, the reality is that it always has had and the signs are that it is only increasing.
