Chunk 32: Title 18, Section 879.

There have been 45 presidents of the United States, who, collectively, have faced in excess of 30 assassination attempts, with four of them successful (Abraham Lincoln, James Abram Garfield, William McKinley and John F. Kennedy).

So they’re something the US government takes pretty seriously.

Accordingly, Title 18 of the US criminal code, Section 879, states it is against the law to make “any threat to take the life, to kidnap, or to inflict bodily harm upon the president of the United States”.

In other words, tell someone you’re going to kill the president, and you’ll find yourself in some serious strife. But I wonder if the reverse should apply as well? What if a president threatens, or attempts, to kill you?

While campaigning for office in 2016, Donald Trump famously said he could stand on New York’s Fifth Avenue “and shoot somebody” and still not lose any voters.

Back then, it was just a theory. No one took it seriously because hardly anyone thought he would actually win.

Now, he’s moved into practice. How else could you justify his super-spreader rallies across the country in the final days of this year’s election campaign? Few of the attendees are masked and almost none are practicing social distancing. How is that not the equivalent of issuing a death sentence?

With his back against the proverbial wall (as opposed to the literal one that Mexico still refuses to pay for), Trump is ignoring science and safety to attempt to regain the enthusiasm that got him across the line in 2016. The difference four years later, of course, is that each event he holds runs the risk of adding to America’s already spiralling Covid 13 tally, with new cases up 32% in the last fortnight, and deaths up 15%.

Of course, Trump won’t acknowledge anything of the sort. “Turn on television, ‘Covid-19, Covid-19, Covid-19, Covid-19, Covid-19, Covid-19.’” he said at a rally in North Carolina this past Saturday. “By the way, on November 4th, you won’t hear about it anymore. It’s true.”

He’s right, of course: it’s medically proven that not talking about an illness makes it go away immediately. Trump has put a whole new spin on the Hippocratic Oath: not only will your doctor promise not to reveal details of your illness to anyone else, they won’t tell you about it either.

The awesome responsibility of being leader of the free world means that sometimes, you have no choice to make life or death decisions. But I’m pretty sure that inviting people to a campaign rally doesn’t qualify.

Trump is betting big that holding these events is a winning strategy. Trump also bet that he could run a casino and Atlantic City, and lost.

Should people know what they risk by turning up in a red hat to see an orange septuagenarian? Yes, of course they should. That they choose to live in the Republican-fuelled Fox News bubble that hides/denies the true scourge of the Coronavirus is no excuse. They’re still citizens; it’s the government’s responsibility - a government led by this President - to protect them. Donald Trump is ultimately threatening their lives: shouldn’t the FBI should arrest him?

You get the feeling that, for one offence or another, one day soon, that very well might happen.