Is it true that being president of the United States is one of the riskiest jobs in the world?

July 14, 2024 Donald Trumprecently elected the 47th president of the United States of America, survived a attack while holding an election rally in Pennsylvaniaduring which he was shot in the ear by a sniper. Subsequently, again during the electoral campaign for the presidential elections, he risked suffering a further attackstopped before it could be put into practice. Episodes of this kind in Italy seem incredible to us, yet in the USA these are not isolated cases: of the 45 Presidents in office so far (for 47 presidencies), 14 they were victims of attacksof which at least 4 fatal (A. Lincoln, J. Garfield, W. McKinley and JF Kennedy). Hence the oft-repeated assertion that the job of President of the United States of America (i.e. head of the US government and holder of executive power at the federal level) is, in fact, one of the tasks riskiest in the world.

Who protects the President of the United States: security

There USSS (United States Secret Serviceor for short Secret Services) is the federal agency responsible for safety and protection of the figure of President of the United States and his family. It is under the control of the Department of Homeland Security and in close contact with the intelligence and police services. It was right after the assassination of President McKinley in 1901 than to the USSS, which previously opposed the counterfeiting of currencywas also entrusted with the task of protection of the President and his family.

Currently the USSS also deals with the protection of former Presidents and gods foreign heads of state visiting the country. The escort of the President of the United States, particularly during trips abroad, is made up of a long procession of vehicles and the presidential car itself, the Cadillac Oneis equipped with the most sophisticated technologies to resist even bombs or attacks by heavy weapons, and is even equipped with oxygen and food reserves in case of emergency. Over the years there have been numerous cases of criticism of the USSS, for cases of negligence which also occurred recently following the attack on Donald Trump or episodes such as the assault on Capitol Hill in January 2021.

Despite the importance of security forces in protecting the person of the President of the United States, the role itself is exposed to great risks, as a consequence of the public function that Presidents hold and the global influence that the United States they also practice within international organizations, such as the United Nations, or defense organizations such as NATO.

The cases of killed US Presidents

Abraham Lincoln he was the first President of the United States to lose his life in an attack. Following the Civil War, in fact, in 1865 was killed by John Wilkes Bootha theater actor southerner dissatisfied with the outcome of the American Civil War, which he said was a demonstrative act to avenge the defeated South. He killed President Lincoln during a play at the Ford’s Theatre Of Washington.

A second attack was carried out against James Garfieldwhose mandate lasted only a few months, from March 4, 1881 to July 2 of the same year. Charles Guiteau, lawyer who wanted to hold the position of United States consul first in Vienna and then in Paris, when he encountered resistance from Washington to fill the role, he thought that the problem was President Garfield and therefore decided to kill him, preferring instead the deputy President Chester Arthur. Wounded by a gunshot at Washington Station, Garfield in fact he died a few months later. He could have been saved but the use of unsterilized instruments by doctors exacerbated his infection, leading to his death.

William McKinleyelected president in 1896based his foreign policy onexpansionismin a century marked by the Monroe Doctrine, and that internal to a fort protectionism. Under his tenure the United States conquered the Philippines, Cuba, Guam and Puerto Rico. He was re-elected after his first term in 1900 and, perhaps due to his popularity, decided not to use the escort and security service. In the 1901 he was killed in Buffalo by the anarchist Leon Czolgosz.

One of the most sadly known is undoubtedly the killing of the President John Fitzgerald Kennedykilled in 1963 and that of his brother Robert a few years later, in 1968. The November 22, 1963while in Dallas, Texas, John was shot and killed while crossing Dealey Plaza with Lee Harvey Oswald’s presidential motorcade. Various hypotheses have been formulated around his killing, transforming it into an unsolved mystery and it was an event of great media impact because it occurred in live television. A few years later, the June 5, 1968also his brother Robert Francis Kennedy he was killed during the presidential campaign, at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles.

Assassination attempt on President Abraham Lincoln, 1865. Source: Wikimedia commons

Non-fatal attacks on US Presidents

There were numerous attacks – non-fatal – e attempted murders against US Presidents. Particularly known are that a Gerald Ford in September 1975, California, by a follower of the sect of Charles Mansonwho apparently wanted to gain visibility ahead of the trial of Manson who had been convicted six years earlier for the murder of nine people in California.

Previously, the attack on Theodore Roosevelt In the 1912, during the election campaign a Milwaukeein Wisconsin, from which he emerged unharmed. President Roosevelt survived the attack but lived his entire life with the bullet lodged in the chest: having failed to reach the lung and not having affected vital organs, the doctors considered it less dangerous not to intervene and for this reason the US President lived his entire life with the bullet in his chest.

The March 30, 1981shortly after the start of the presidential mandate, even the President Ronald Reagan he was the victim of an attempted murder, shot after a meeting with a union in Washington. Even the Presidents Bill Clinton And George Bush were the victims of attempted murder, the first in 1994 while he was inside the White House, at which a gunshot was fired and the second in 2005 to Tbilisiin Georgia, against which one was launched grenade which ultimately did not explode.

Trump attack 3D reconstruction