Trump the Brave Part Two.
Ok, I’ll be honest. I am engaging in petty journalism right now. But sometimes, being petty is fun…and still strikes a chord. Enjoy.
President Trump’s assertion that he would have run toward the Parkland, Fla., gunman had he been near the school would have been a bold claim for just about anybody to make.
“I really believe I’d run in, even if I didn’t have a weapon,” he said during a meeting at the White House on Monday.
Trump has no background in law enforcement or the military, and the boastful nature of the statement — the president was nowhere near the shooting when it occurred — immediately raised questions about his intent.
And given Trump’s public track record in the face of proximate danger, his words instead ended up underscoring an conflicting truth: his actions haven’t always matched his tough talk.
The most frightened that Trump has ever seemed in public was perhaps a moment during a campaign rally in Dayton, Ohio, in March 2016.
The then-candidate was in the midst of speaking about manufacturing, when a man hopped the barrier behind him and rushed the stage. Trump stopped speaking, looked nervously behind him and grabbed and started to duck behind his lectern.
He was then swarmed by Secret Service agents, who steadied him.
Trump continued his speech after the disruption, and gave the audience a thumbs up, claiming that he could have handled the attacker himself, despite his first reaction.
“I was ready for him,” Trump said, “but it’s much easier if the cops do it.”
A Secret Service agent suffered a minor injury in the episode and the suspect, who police identified as Thomas Dimassimo, was arrested and charged with two misdemeanors.
The moment was later immortalized in a doctored video in which a seated Bernie Sanders yelling “boo” was edited into the frame the moment before Trump was spooked.
Later that year at another rally, Trump was hustled off a stage in Nevada, after the someone in the audience yelled “gun.” No weapon was found.
