Trump has just survived another assassination attempt – for him it's business as usual

It is fair to say that quiet diplomacy is not associated with Donald Trump, who prefers the shock and awe of a social media outburst to the slow hand of delicate negotiations.

History will remember the US President for many things, but his entertaining, inflammatory, and often outrageous approach to statesmanship will be chief among them.

Unpredictable and verbose, this is a man whose uniqueness is not being afraid to speak as he finds.

To many, Mr Trump is the antithesis of an establishment order blamed for the world’s ills. To others, he is the direct cause.

History is littered with assassinations of world leaders.

In America, Abraham Lincoln, James A. Garfield, William McKinley, and John F. Kennedy were all killed as sitting presidents.

Before the attempt to kill Mr Trump at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, in July 2024, Ronald Reagan was the only US president to have survived an assassination attempt.

Mr Trump is an unashamed braggart, not a modest man.

He recently uploaded a controversial Truth Social post depicting himself as a deity, wearing a white robe and holding a glowing hand on the forehead of a sick man, which critics said was similar to religious paintings depicting Jesus healing the infirm.

He has frequently promised to exact retribution against those who sought to see him behind bars rather than behind the White House Resolute Desk and used his presidency to seek revenge.

Domestically, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE) has made thousands of arrests since Mr Trump returned to the White House in January 2025.

Internationally, interventions in the Middle East – specifically backing Israel in its campaigns against Hamas and its proxy in Iran – “absolutely without question” considering withdrawing the US from NATO, plunging the 77-year-old alliance towards the worst crisis in its history, and inflammatory remarks about Greenland, the Falklands, and any number of world leaders, show Mr Trump is a disruptor rather than collegiate.

At the beginning of this year the White House trumpeted “365 wins in 365 days” marking a new era of success and prosperity under Mr Trump, in an official release that played on his priorities to “secure the border, rebuild American strength, and put the American people first”.

He has no shortage of adversaries or nemeses, but frankly, he cares not one jot.

Mr Trump has survived multiple shootings and threats against his life.

The most serious came during an outdoor campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, in July 2024, when he was shot and wounded in his upper ear by 20-year-old gunman Thomas Matthew Crooks.

A shot of a bloodied but defiant Mr Trump pumping his fist to the crowd after shots rang out has become one of the defining images of this century.

And his thoughts on the man who, it is claimed, tried to shoot and kill him in Washington at the weekend? He’s just a “lone wolf whack job”.

As far as Mr Trump is concerned, this all goes with the territory, and it’s business as usual.