In August of 2018, Donald Trump stepped to the podium to deliver a message in the wake of two recent mass casualty events: one in TX and the other OH. His demeanor was as serious as any time during his 45th American presidency.

After summarizing the incidents and issuing a reminder that the U.S. is a caring nation where children are entitled to grow up in a just, peaceful and loving society, he vowed to act with urgent resolve:

”We must stop the glorification of violence in our society which includes the gruesome and grisly video games that are now commonplace.  It is too easy today for troubled youth to surround themselves with a culture that celebrates violence.  We must stop or substantially reduce this and it has to begin immediately.  Cultural change is hard, but each of us can choose to build a culture that celebrates the inherent worth and dignity of every human life.  That's what we have to do.”

Fast forward to July 13, 2024 at a Butler, PA Rally

Four years out of the presidency and a half dozen since his remarks on the social ill of violence inspired by video gaming, Trump stands to deliver campaign remarks for the several hundredth time. Suddenly, from out of nowhere, the rally takes a frightening turn when several firecracker like pops can be heard.

As a bullets whiz by him, Trump swipes at his ear as if to shoo an annoying pest away. But the objects are well past him, traveling into a crowd of rallygoers who try to fend for their lives.

Six months have passed since the shooting, yet the FBI-led investigation has not turned up a motive behind the perpetrator’s actions, who died during the incident.

What is known: the shooter was believed politically neutral for having lightly supported both major parties at some point prior to the incident. And according to FBI reports, he had looked up events where both major party candidates would be appearing in the near future— further suggesting the scale of the venue chosen might be more important than its purpose.

A closely related detail is that the perpetrator could well have been politically agnostic. As the NY Times highlighted in an article titled “When War Becomes an Aesthetic, Nobody Wins”— it is typical for popular first-person shooter games to refrain from including a political backstory or angle, even when the settings they depict reveal well- known international figures. Why ruin all the fun? goes one line of thinking.

One place where the suspect did show fervor and intent was on a popular video gaming platform through a message that foretold: “July 13 will be my grand premiere” (presumably of a gaming-rehearsed act of violence he would go on to commit).

Of course, the implication that random videogame activity of a young man partly explains an attempted assassination would be roundly dismissed by “consensus expert opinion.” (This same echo chamber digitally-shouted down President Trump shortly after the August 2018 remarks above.)

But lacking any other plausible explanations for the attempted assassination last July, maybe it’s time to put all possibilities back on the table as American society tries to ward off similar incidents from occurring in the future.

President Trump -45- was right when he called out the glorification of violence within interactive video gaming that can drastically impact players’ behavior.

Time will tell if President Trump -47- has the where-with-all to revisit a social ill that nearly cost him his own life.