Ruth Benguiat, an anti-Trump author and professor of history at New York University, argued that the assassination attempt on former President Trump illustrates “how dictators use adversity to consolidate their power,” and compared the Trump situation to the assassination attempt on Italian dictator Benito Mussolini.
In the column A Politico reporter noted how both candidates reinforced their strongman appeal: Both used photos of themselves surviving gunfights to garner sympathy from the crowd, she said.
“With this act, Trump has engaged in a cult of personality, reassuring millions of his fervent supporters that he is alive and undefeated, just as Mussolini did with Trump’s photo nearly 100 years ago,” Ben-Ghiat wrote, adding that “what happens next is the dangerous thing.”
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Ruth Benguiat, a liberal author and professor of history at New York University, said the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump made him even more like Italian dictator Benito Mussolini. (Archive photo/Correspondent | Brandon Bell/Staff)
She begins her column by detailing a third assassination attempt on the dictator, this one carried out by Violet Gibson, an Irish-born British pacifist who “jumped out of the crowd and shot” the dictator as he walked through the streets of Rome in 1926 after a speech.
Ben Ghiat writes about how Mussolini exploited the incident for his own political gain: “That is why Mussolini, a former journalist with a keen eye for image detail, took photographs after the attack, and why the bandage became a kind of badge of honour. And that is why the failed attempt became fodder for his personality cult, seen as proof of his macho toughness, tenacity and invincibility.”
Then came the direct comparison to Trump, who last month rose from the shadows and yelled at rally attendees to “Fight, fight, fight!” after an AR-15 bullet narrowly missed his skull and struck him in the ear in Butler, Pennsylvania, a moment vividly captured in photographs.
While Ben-Ghiat acknowledged that Trump is not in office and therefore cannot use the opportunity to literally consolidate his power, he argued that “the assassination attempt has made Trump’s personality cult even more solid and powerful among his supporters. His claim that he was a victim targeted on behalf of his supporters is now more credible and his persona as a tough warrior is cemented. And Trump knows it.”
“We are all too familiar with how strong-willed people behave, so Trump’s actions in those dramatic minutes after the shooting are an important learning experience. For most people in that situation, the instinct would have been to flee to safety. Trump did not do that,” she added.
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Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler watch a Nazi parade held to mark the Italian dictators’ visit to Germany (Getty Images) (Getty Images)
The author further noted that Mussolini used his assassination to consolidate power in Italy and escape the government’s checks and balances – a danger that follows any attack on a dictator, “often fuelling the leader’s cult of personality, lending credence to a narrative that he was omnipotent and that repressive laws were necessary to protect the country from crime,” she said.
“So far, that’s what’s happened with Trump – his supporters have seized on the shootings, even going so far as to say it was divine intervention that saved lives. This shooting comes at a time of rising political violence that Trump has brought into the mainstream,” Ben-Ghiat added.
“This horrific assassination attempt will reinforce Mr Trump’s claim that his enemies also target their supporters, strengthening the bonds and instability among his supporters,” she said. “Followers of authoritarian personality cults who are deeply connected to their leaders can become unstable when their leaders find themselves in trouble.”
“From this perspective,” the authors conclude, “both Mussolini’s bandaged nose and Trump’s bandaged ears speak to the way dictators can exploit adversity to consolidate their power at the expense of democracy.”
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