Jeff Sharlet on Trump Assassination Attempt, Authoritarian Violence & Project 2025

In the aftermath of the assassination attempt on Donald Trump at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, we speak to writer Jeff Sharlet, author of The Undertow: Scenes from a Slow Civil War. Sharlet says, “The Trump campaign and this kind of authoritarianism is driven by not just the use of violence, not just the invocation of violence, but a kind of reverence of violence, a redemption through violence.” Sharlet, who researches the rise of far-right extremism in the United States, also responds to Project 2025, the far-right policy platform that is expected to guide Trump’s potential second term in office.