Welcome to the History Extra podcast, fascinating historical conversations from the makers of BBC History Magazine.

The attempted assassination of Donald Trump in Pennsylvania earlier in July made headlines across the world and of course sent

shockwaves through the United States. But as troubling as a shooting was, it's far from the first

time that a US president has faced the specter of such violence. To explore the longer

history of presidential assassinations and assassination attempts and the ways in which they've shaped the course of US history,

Matt Elton caught up with Adam Smith, Professor of United States Politics and Political History at the University of Oxford,

and director of the Rothermore American Institute.

Adam, thank you for being with us today on the History Extra podcast. We're talking about and Director of the Rothermeir American Institute.

Adam, thank you for being with us today on the History Extra podcast.

We're talking a few days on from the attempted assassination of Donald Trump on the 13th of July,

and while its repercussions are still unfolding,

I thought it would be worth setting what happened back into the longer story of US history. Political assassinations and attempted

assassinations are obviously a phenomenon all around the world. But is there a particularly

American aspect to this longer story that you think we should consider? Yeah, I think there is.

I mean, as you say, Matt, it's hardly unique to the United States to see political violence, sadly.

So we need to be careful about not ascribing some American exceptionalism to what we saw at Donald Trump's rally.

But there are, however, and the way you phrase the question, I think, is a really good way of putting it,

which is there is nevertheless an American political tradition into which this very specific

kind of violence, gun violence, the attempted targeted assassination of leading political figures,

including or especially presidents and presidential candidates, fit.

So I think millions of people hearing the news of Trump's assassination, especially those

who are familiar with American history or have been around for a while and followed American

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