Trump will speak from behind bulletproof glass at outdoor rallies

vegeta@lemmy.world to politics @lemmy.world – 418 points –
Trump will speak from behind bulletproof glass at outdoor rallies
theguardian.com
136

Why not just have more "good" guys with guns?? Isnt that the cure to violent gun crimes they've been preaching?

Now now, don’t confuse them. You know they won’t be able to figure it out.

People getting covid vaccines and wearing face masks were living in fear. Man standing behind bullet proof glass? Brave. Strong. Manly.

Don't forget that he's so wealthy he doesn't need to host his rallies in stadiums.

I doubt the people who actually go to his rallies will think that. This is going to tank his popularity among a certain crowd

Well, he is the leader of the MAGA religion

Oh, god. Just imagining the full diaper smell inside that tiny, enclosed space is making me glad I skipped breakfast.

My first thought also. The windows would turn yellow.

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As would any red blooded conservative who believes that more guns means more safety.

Idk why he doesn't simply arm himself. All it takes to stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun, right? I thought Trump was supposed to be the God-Emperor of Mankind, is he not a good guy?

Felons arent aloud guns.

Ah shit, you're right. Fuck. But, wait a minute... does that make him a bad guy?! NO!

🌎🧑‍🚀🔫🧑‍🚀✨

You know what's worse than communication with pictograms / hieroglyphs? Using idioms specific to that language. "World Astronaut Gun Astronaut Stars" doesn't make any sense no matter how you twist it, unless you know that it references the "Always has been" meme template. For any hypothetical future historian, deciphering it would be frustrating as hell.

I love it.

"They always look for guns, trump thought. Perhaps I should expose my gross protuberance to shock them. Or get a gun, he thought, a really big gun, with tears in its eyes”

Can it be soundproof too?

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That may be necessary because firearms are still allowed at his events (part of the idiotic MAGA ideology, after all), but tennis balls, for example, are not. Maybe Trump can get a good deal on the bulletproof Pope-mobile. What a moron.

At least he can start getting used to being in a cage.

We definitely need to put a webcam into his cell at ADX Florence. Hell, you could sell access and probably add a nice chunk of change to the Treasury.

Isn't bulletproof glass woke? Should just have more guns there. Then everyone would be too afraid to shoot him

I don’t exactly blame him. That assassination attempt was a massive failure on the organization that should be fail proof.

At the same time, I wonder if this will just be a way to remind people about it. Nobody is talking about it anymore and it was a huge deal for his campaign.

I thought it was interesting that he said he was going to return to the same location in October for a rally. That is a great strategy. So far that is the only thing his campaign has going for it, so might as well lean into it (the strategy…).

I assume that it is no longer being reported on because Trump's campaign planners could'nt even find halfway credible evidence that the assassin was not a conservative. This can hardly be explained in any other way than that Trump is not very popular with his own violent supporters.

I wouldn't say "not very popular" ... it's more like there's a non-zero chance that some of his violent, unhinged followers will, upon realizing he's a fraud and they've been duped all this time, turn their violence towards him. It only takes one.

That is of course quite possible. That's just the way it is when you don't build on a political program, but on hatred and idiocy instead.

This video explained it very well for me: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P55t6eryY3g

TL;DW: The Alt-Right online presence fails in real life; at some point, frothing rageaholic incels pop a gasket and head on out into the world. Mostly, as cowards, they attack innocent civilians, but if one was particularly focused on Saint McRapey they might go that way too.

The video sums it up pretty well. In my opinion, it's all the sadder that all this even works internationally. I'm from Germany and we're dealing with the same problem here, with the same right-wing radical rhetoric on social media and all the bogus arguments that go with it: People who think they are entitled to more because of their nationality (or whatever) than they have achieved on their own in their lives. I'm all the more ashamed because, unlike the USA, we have a reasonably functioning social system (so that can't be an excuse). Just because of that, it should be much more difficult to recruit people for fascist ideas here, but the sad assholes who want to rule the lives of others because it doesn't conform to their narrow-minded ideas seem all the more prevalent here. It's enough to make you cry.

It’s almost like the impetus for these far-right movements is somehow multi-national or something. ;)

Yes, I guess this is due to the friendly support of people like Elon Musk, who are probably less concerned with ideology than with expanding their powerbase in an autocratic system - these people don't care about the "couleur" of any system, the main thing is just even more power. I suppose that's why modern fascism has this strange love affair with pro-forma communist systems like Russia.

Also you'd think people in Germany would remember that time they let a fascist run things and he got tens of millions of people killed killed and the country invaded, occupied, and broken apart.

That assassination attempt was a massive failure on the organization that should be fail proof.

Well, apparently he didn't have time to properly zero his sights or practice with his weapon.

What?

Not sure what you’re getting at, but it was an undeniable massive failure of the secret service. He never should have gotten as close as he did with a gun.

Something I have encountered with protective situations, and which I haven't seen addressed anywhere regarding Trump is why the sightline to the buildings weren't simply blocked.

It is impossible to secure every single location, but if there is a cluster of buildings, you park a semi-truck and trailer in the line of sight (or put up a green fence, or whatever) and then you have the much easier job of securing your blocking.

But I guess that's a really in the weeds.

I wonder if we’ll ever get answered to this. It seemed like such a basic failure that it should never have happened. I’m surprised the house didn’t immediately start hearings and pressing people for answers. Makes me think they would end up finding themselves to blame or something.

There was a House hearing, and the USSS director resigned.

There were no good answers provided in the hearing. Complacency and sloppiness of procedure seem to be the baseline answer, but pinpointing names of who exactly on the ground failed is difficult for the public.

For someone who previously couldn't hit the backstop at a range, he came surprisingly close.

Yeah, yeah, I know, NY Post, but they broke this one:

https://nypost.com/2024/07/14/us-news/would-be-trump-assassin-tried-to-join-high-school-shooting-club-was-rejected-for-being-comically-bad-shot/

"The team at Bethel Park shoots Anschutz single-shot rifles with peep sights and .22-caliber ammunition, Jameson Murphy and another former student explained.

The shooting range at the school is 50 feet long by 21 feet wide, with seven ranges.

Crooks once fired from the seventh lane — the closest to the right wall — and hit the left wall, completely missing every target on the back wall. He missed his target by close to 20 feet, Murphy recalled.

“He tried out … and was such a comically bad shot, he was unable to make the team and left after the first day,” Murphy said."

I'm suspicious about how it's even possible to be that bad of a shot. The muzzle would have to be pointed way to the side, in which case the range safety officer should have tore him a new asshole.

I imagine the fact that he constantly forced the secret service to pay over the odds to stay at properties he owns probably didn't encourage them to assign their best and brightest to protect him.

Impossible to be unsafe around so many good guys with guns. Maybe the glass helps him see them better to know how safe he is.

You mean their solution to violence isn't more guns? Shocked. I can't hold in my surprise.

Yeah, he should dispense with the Secret Service and just pack some heat.

Why doesn't he just carry his own gun? Inst that what they think works

Why? Is there some sort of problem with gunfire in America? I wonder why that might be.

The hilarious part is how security could screen for guns if his 2020 campaign hadn’t run up debts with unpaid bills at indoor venues. Having to do outdoor events was an unforced error.

You forget that he's a "smart businessman"

I think the only people who get paid around him is the secret service (and he probably doesn't pay taxes, so they're not getting paid by him)

You forgot Stormy

I highly doubt Stormy wants to be "around him" at all

True, but I expect there are others 'around' him, who are paid decently to keep quiet

Hopefully it is not transparent glass.

I hope it is really a 2 way mirror. He can look at himself and the crowd will see him.

I'd rather the crowd have to look at themselves as he rambles on, clueless to the whole arrangement.

Is he going to ride around in a PopeMobile now too?

Pope

The worst thing is he is going to start comparing himself to the pope.

Get him a car with a buble around it. We can call it the turdmobile.

dopemobile

Dope could be confused for something cool. Unless I missed it a turd is still a piece of shit by another name.

Coward. I'd prefer if he was brave.

Honestly though, he's making the biggest deal possible about a nothing wound. I've seen people injured when hiking with worse injuries who make less of a deal about it. I also know lots of people who were hit by cars including myself

Apparently the town near Mar-a-Lago is also getting pissed off because they've closed the main road near him inconveniencing everyone at palm beach because he needs to be "protected", whilst he's still out campaigning and seeing thousands of people.

So, the question is being asked given that he is using his golf club for tax breaks whether they should shut it down

Wealthy people whining are going to make more consequences for Donald than the courts are.

I suspect most of us reading this have personally gotten bigger injuries that we made less of a fuss over

Those people injured while hiking, how many inches away were they from death? Trump was less than 6 inches easily. The actual injury is very lame, but if I narrowly escaped death by an inch or two I'd be freaking out too, especially if I had to continue doing what got me into that situation.

He wouldn't have to continue if he hadn't done so many crimes that his only hope to evade justice is pardoning himself.

I know lots of people injured when rock climbing (I operate a indoor rock climbing Meetup too).

And some of the routes we do when hiking actually have fairly regular rescues because they're highly exposed

During self arresting training when mountaineering, I was a bit too far to the side. The snow turned out to be a bit soft on that side, because I mostly went all the way down and only stopped shortly before a large crevasse

Also in nz, had the opportunity to meet Patrick morrow. My instructor (who was another record holder and whose partner is a major badass). They spent a while chatting and joking about all the major f'ups they had jokingly.

You'd never know that both of them were doing this stuff though. Some are affected by these experiences, some aren't

Trump gets the equivalent of a paper cut, and wants people to act like he got shot in a war. This is after boasting what a hard ass he is

He didn't take a Bullet for democracy. He used it to further abuse others

Prediction: he won't do it because it doesn't look good

Prediction: he will because it gives him a chance to remind everyone he was shot after everyone stopped caring. He'll do it and complain about it.

You could be right, but what's the fun in agreeing? Whatever he does, it'll be whatever plays best to his narcissism.

I'll add another:

He does it, not pretends someone else is requiring he do it

It may not look good, but you're forgetting that he's a coward.

He is a coward, but I personally believe he is more of a vain narcissist. It will be curious to see which personality trait wins out!

Second prediction: He does go through with it, but they forget to put the mics inside the glass.

Second prediction: He does go through with it, but they forget to put the mics inside the glass.

They'll have to hire Youtube's Jomboy to read lips and tell us what crazy Trump is spouting.

I'm hoping they use the "technology" (iPhone) that he used for his Musk interview that made him talk like he had a denture malfunction (or that he forgot to put them in).

Sylvester Trump is my new favorite cartoon villain.

So is he going to draw his ear bandage on the glass with a sharpie?

If you were to try a .30-06 or .50 caliber rifle you might still have a chance.

Would that stop a .223 or .30-06?

I feel like whatever they are putting him behind won't actually stop an assassination attempt unless it was like that level X shit they put in the motorcade limo that's really more of a tank than a limo

There are rollable protective glass shields, as an example. In a few minutes I was able to find some rated up to UL 8, which is able to stop 7.62x51, and very easily to stop the lesser 5.56mm. I'm not seriously looking to buy these, so I'm sure I've looked into it much less than the USSS.

UL 8 isn't rated for .30-06, but will block at least a great majority of possible firearms.

Remember, when "rated" it's usually rated at that strength for a certain number of rounds. Not continuous fire. For instance, a vest rated for 5.56 can usually take 1-3 at most before it loses effectiveness.

Man, if you take 3 rounds of 5.56 to the chest that's a bad day

True but 5.56 rounds are... Interesting. Their high velocity/low mass makes them ricochet inside the body sometimes. There's stories of being hit in the shoulder and the round coming out of the toe. I don't know how true it is and I don't intend to find out through personal experience. But that round was explicitly designed to wound over killing.

Yeah, nobody's getting more than a couple shots off anyways

Depends on whether it's one person or 10.

Large groups tend to get caught

Not really anymore than a single person with a bad idea. Diversity of experience/insight means looking at problems from different angles. Have you ever heard of a lone individual pulling off a heist?

How about tossing a grenade inside the glass cage? It would actually protect the bystanders, and improve the grenades' efficiency on the inside.

fuck folgers, they're in the bag for the GOP already. 97% of their donations go to the right.

Be thorough! Surround him with bulletproof glass from all angles, and make sure there's no air holes where bullets could get through. He will be completely impervious to both bullets and oxygen!

Produce my own oxygen. So true. People call me the best oxygenator ever. Did it and will do it again. So true. Best ever.

I always wondered why he had such a big bulletproof cage at the Jan 6 rally but now, in retrospect, it’s more than clear.

I prefer presidents who don't need to cower behind bulletproof glass.....like Harris.

Don't they also line people up behind him at rallies? And along the sides?

🤔

Soon he'll be getting a pope mobile

Oh, what's this??? Another fuck around and find out. It doesn't take a "very stable genius" to figure out if all you do is spew hate and lies that at some point the monster you created is going to eat you.

I thought they did that already, I found Obama used some for his inaugural speech

Just be be completely safe from airborne toxins, they should make it a completely airtight cage of bulletproof glass.