“Fight! Fight! Fight!” 160 years of Assassinations of Presidents and Candidates

He didn’t take a salary when he was president. He took a bullet as a presidential candidate. What more can this man do to prove that he wants to Make America Great Again?

The failed assassination attempt on President Donald Trump this weekend marks the second attempt on his life. This latest attempt is reminiscent of one of President Trump’s heroes, Theodore Roosevelt, who, while running for reelection in 1912, was shot in the chest. Roosevelt famously finished his speech before going to the hospital. Another Trump hero is Andrew Jackson, who, at the age of 67, was attacked by an assassin. Jackson beat the attacker to the ground and subdued him until law enforcement could take him into custody.

Theodore Roosevelt and Andrew Jackson left us with a powerful picture of what manhood should be. Trump gave us an incredible meme, with blood dripping down his face, the American flag in the background, and the defiant motto “Fight! Fight! Fight.”

Over the past 160 years, four sitting U.S. presidents have been assassinated. There have been attempted assassinations on six U.S. presidents, one successful assassination of a presidential candidate, and four failed assassination attempts on presidential candidates.

Successful Assassinations of Sitting US Presidents:

1. Abraham Lincoln (16th President, Republican) – Assassinated by John Wilkes Booth on April 14, 1865, at Ford’s Theatre in Washington, D.C. Lincoln died the following day, April 15, 1865.
2. James A. Garfield (20th President, Republican) – Shot by Charles J. Guiteau on July 2, 1881, at the Baltimore and Potomac Railroad Station in Washington, D.C. Garfield survived the initial shooting but died from infections related to his wounds on September 19, 1881.
3. William McKinley (25th President, Republican) – Shot by Leon Czolgosz on September 6, 1901, at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York. McKinley died from gangrene caused by his wounds on September 14, 1901.
4. John F. Kennedy (35th President, Democrat) – Assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald on November 22, 1963, in Dallas, Texas. Kennedy died shortly after being shot.

Failed Attempted Assassinations on US Presidents:

1. Andrew Jackson (7th President, Democratic) – Attempted assassination by Richard Lawrence on January 30, 1835. Both of Lawrence’s pistols misfired, and Jackson was unharmed.
2. Franklin D. Roosevelt (32nd President, Democrat) – Attempted assassination by Giuseppe Zangara on February 15, 1933. Roosevelt was unharmed, but Chicago Mayor Anton Cermak was fatally wounded.
3. Harry S. Truman (33rd President, Democrat) – Attempted assassination by Puerto Rican nationalists Oscar Collazo and Griselio Torresola on November 1, 1950. Truman was unharmed.
4. Richard Nixon (37th President, Republican) – Attempted assassination by Samuel Byck in 1974. Byck tried to hijack a plane intending to crash it into the White House but was unsuccessful.
5. Gerald Ford (38th President, Republican) – Two assassination attempts in September 1975: one by Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme on September 5, and another by Sara Jane Moore on September 22. Ford was unharmed in both attempts.
6. Ronald Reagan (40th President, Republican) – Assassination attempt by John Hinckley Jr. on March 30, 1981. Reagan was shot but survived.

Presidential Candidates:

There has only been one successful assassination of a presidential candidate. Robert F. Kennedy (1968, Democrat) was assassinated during his presidential campaign. On June 5, 1968, after winning the California Democratic primary, Kennedy was shot by Sirhan Sirhan at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles. He succumbed to his injuries the following day, June 6, 1968.

Attempted Assassinations of Presidential Candidates:

1. Theodore Roosevelt (1912, Bull Moose Party) – Roosevelt was shot in the chest by John Flammang Schrank on October 14, 1912, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He delivered a 90-minute speech with the bullet still in his body before seeking medical attention. He survived the assassination attempt and continued his campaign.
2. George Wallace (1972, Democrat) – Former governor of Alabama, Wallace was shot and paralyzed by Arthur Bremer on May 15, 1972, during a campaign rally in Laurel, Maryland. Wallace survived the attack but was left permanently paralyzed from the waist down.
3. Donald Trump (2016, Republican) – Assassination attempt by Michael Sandford on June 18, 2016, at a rally in Las Vegas, Nevada. Sandford attempted to grab a police officer’s gun to shoot Trump but was quickly subdued. Trump was unharmed.
4. Donald Trump (2024, Republican) – Shot and injured in an assassination attempt during his campaign on July 13, 2024. The details of the incident, including the identity of the perpetrator and the circumstances of the shooting, are still under investigation.

Not only does Trump now join the exclusive club of men who were nearly killed because they ran for president, but he represents half of the total attempted assassinations on U.S. presidential candidates. At this point, Biden can walk across the stage with a minder as often as he wishes, but he will not be able to convince anyone that he is physically fitter or tougher than Trump. Russia, China, North Korea, and Iran are watching the U.S. presidential elections and while they lampoon America’s divisiveness, they fear Trump, who they always saw as tougher than Biden and now, even more so.

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