Donald Trump shooting: PM Modi condemns attack, says ‘violence has no place in politics’

World leaders including British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, French President Emmanuel Macron, Canadian PM Justin Trudeau, Japanese PM Fumio Kishida, Italian PM Giorgia Meloni and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz condemned the attack, all of them underlining that political violence in democracies was unacceptable.

Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi said that he was “deeply concerned” by the assassination attempt. “Such acts must be condemned in the strongest possible terms. Wishing him a swift and complete recovery,” the Congress leader said on X.

Congress chief and Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge said he was “deeply appalled” by the attack on Trump. “I strongly condemn this heinous act. Such violence has no place in any Democracy and civilised society. As India stands with the American people, we offer our deepest condolences to the family of the deceased,” he said in a post on X.

The shooting left one rally attendee and the suspected gunman dead and two other spectators critically injured. Trump was escorted off the stage bleeding from around his ear, and he later said in a post on Truth Social, his social media platform, that he had been “shot with a bullet that pierced the upper part of my right ear”.

US President Joe Biden gave a brief televised statement after the incident, condemning the violence as “sick.” The White House later said the president had spoken to Trump. Authorities have recovered an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle from the scene.