Media Shrug At Another Apparent Assassination Plot Against Trump

Authorities arrested 38-year-old Jeanine John Taele on Sunday after he was found allegedly scoping out the location of President Trump’s impending arrival with ammunition in his pocket and a loaded firearm in his car.

Taele was allegedly seen with an earpiece, photographing agents and taking videos of the grounds as agents performed security assessments. Taele reportedly left and returned, later telling federal agents he was a State Department employee and doing a security detail.

Authorities found that Taele was carrying ammunition in his pocket, and also had a loaded pistol with a round chambered and additional loaded magazines in his car. Law enforcement also discovered he had binoculars and a badge that said “security protection agent,” along with notebooks that had “concerning statements,” though no other details are available yet.

While Taele has not been formally accused of plotting to kill the president, an armed man allegedly monitoring security preparations for the president days before his arrival should be major news, especially given the fact that Trump has already survived so many assassination attempts.

It could be argued that America has become so used to people trying to kill the president that another apparent attempted assassination won’t draw many eyes, but the corporate media reality is that drawing attention to rising anti-conservative violence might damage their political aims.

The front page of The Washington Post did report about Trump and “threats” — but not in the way one might expect less than 24 hours after reports revealed what appears to have been yet another attempted assassination in the making. Instead, the story is headlined: “Trump keeps making threats. World leaders aren’t blinking.”

The New York Times similarly had nothing on its front page about the assassination attempt.

Both outlets ultimately had pieces on the arrest, though the Times appeared to diminish the significance of the attempted assassination, assuring readers in the third paragraph that Taele “has not been accused of targeting Mr. Trump, and officials have not shared any evidence that his presence was tied to the president’s visit.” The Disclaimer is technically true, but it also leaves out context: namely, that Taele was allegedly photographing agents who were prepping for Trump’s arrival, returned to the property two days later, and pretended to be part of a government detail for security purposes.

The Times also notably waited until the very end of its piece to mention the numerous attempted assassinations against the president.

The Post did acknowledge rather early on in its piece that “Trump has been the target of multiple assassination attempts in the last two years.” The Post is right — but that context strengthens the argument that the attempted assassination plot deserved a front cover slot.

Trump was shot in the head at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. A would-be assassin waited in the bushes with a rifle at his Florida golf course weeks later. Nasire Best was killed in May after he opened fire near a White House security checkpoint while Trump was inside (Secret Service returned fire, killing him). Cole Tomas Allen was charged in May for attempting to assassinate Trump at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner. Austin Tucker Martin was killed by agents in February after he breached the security perimeter of Mar-a-Lago while armed with a shotgun and a gasoline can and refused commands to drop his weapons.

Each new apparent attempt should make the press more vigilant in covering leftist political violence in order to raise awareness of the very real threat environment we are living in. Yet instead, it feels as though the left-wing press wants people to care less — which is exactly how political violence is normalized. As Trump (thankfully) survives assassination attempt after assassination attempt, the public has slowly become desensitized.

But that’s where the media’s role becomes important — they should be treating each threat or apparent threat with the same gravity as the Butler attempt. But muted coverage makes each new attempt seem less significant and drives us further into this self-perpetuating cycle. As the media treats each attempt as backpage news, it teaches Americans to regard them as ordinary and obscures the growing threat of left-wing violence.

But media also help fuel this dangerous cycle by stripping the arrest of its context.

Axios’ Rebecca Falconer headlined her piece “Man arrested near Trump golf course after gun found in car.” Falconer mentioned the information that “Trump is visiting California this week to attend a Republican National Committee fundraising dinner” but not the fact that Trump has been the victim of several assassination attempts.

Just because Trump keeps surviving attempted assassinations or apparent attempted assassinations doesn’t mean they should become less newsworthy. If anything, the escalation of left-wing political violence makes each attempt or plot more deserving of coverage. The problem for the propaganda press is that covering the left’s murderous tendencies damages its political interests.

Brianna Lyman is an elections correspondent at The Federalist. Brianna graduated from Fordham University with a degree in International Political Economy. Her work has been featured on Newsmax, Fox News, Fox Business and RealClearPolitics. Follow Brianna on X: @briannalyman2