Photo: Rebecca DROKE / AFP
Reaction to the attempt on Donald Trump's life shows how "deeply polarised" the US nation is, a New Zealand based US academic says.
Auckland University senior lecturer in history in the Faculty of Arts Dr Paul Taillon says he felt a sense of "dread" when he first heard of it
He referred to previous assassinations or attempted killings of presidents Ronald Reagan and John F Kennedy and others.
In all those incidents the US people broadly rallied around the wounded or slain leaders and the two main parties, Republicans and Democrats, also responded in a similar fashion.
"The current event if anything more deeply polarises an already very polarised nation."
Trump had just begun a campaign speech in Butler, Pennsylvania on Sunday (NZT) when shots rang out, hitting the former president's right ear and streaking his face with blood.
Secret Service agents fatally shot the suspect, 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, who they say fired from the roof of a building 140m from the stage where Trump was speaking.
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