What Donald Trump could learn about avoiding assassination

A second attempt on the former president’s life may have him questioning his safety

After two serious attempts to assassinate him within weeks, Donald Trump will be looking for ways to avoid the lethal attention of future would-be assassins in the run up to November’s Presidential election.
Perhaps he should take some tips from a leader who successfully survived more than 30 attempts to kill him, before dying in his Berlin bunker by his own hand: none other than Adolf Hitler.
After one such attempt in November 1939 when a home made bomb destroyed the Burgerbrau Beerhall in Munich, killing half a dozen people only minutes after Hitler had left the building prematurely, the Nazi dictator reflected that it was impossible to prevent a determined assassin from achieving his goal if the killer was ready to sacrifice himself as well.
However, Hitler added, there were certain precautions that leaders could take to make the assassin’s task more difficult. Here are five rules that the Fuhrer laid down to thwart even the most resolute assassin.
RULE 1: Vary routine. Most assassination bids take place after the assassin becomes aware of the time and place when and where he will come into contact with his victim – for example Lee Harvey Oswald was able to kill President Kennedy in Dallas in 1963 with a sniper’s rifle because JFK’s visit to Texas had been well flagged  up in advance, with maps printed of the President’s route through the city. Hitler was apt to change his schedules at the last minute, giving potential killers less chance to plan their deeds in advance.
RULE 2: Limit interaction with the public. Before the Munich bomb exploded, Hitler enjoyed personal contact with crowds of hero worshipping fans. German vacationers would gather outside his Bavarian mountain home, the Berghof, in the hope of meeting their leader. Hitler would frequently emerge from his villa to wade into  the crowds and accept bouquets of flowers and other gifts from them. After the bombing, such one on one interaction was banned, and bouquets had to be presented to Hitler’s SS bodyguards for examination first.
RULE 3: avoid firearms. It may seem an obvious danger, but before November 1939, army officers were allowed to bring their sidearm pistols into their conferences with Hitler. Such weapons were strictly forbidden after the Beerhall bombing. The Fuhrer was right to mistrust his military aides: in July 1944 Colonel Count Claus von Stauffenberg smuggled a bomb concealed in a briefcase into one such conference. It exploded, killing four people, but only slightly injuring the dictator.
RULE 4: Ensure escape routes. Hitler enjoyed flying, but was terrified of being trapped aboard a doomed aircraft. He reputedly kept a parachute under his seat in a bid to avoid such a fate, and the military cap he usually wore was lined with metal as a shield against bullets. During the war a bomb was smuggled aboard his plane on a visit to the Eastern Front. Disguised as two bottles of Benedictine liquor, the device failed to explode.
RULE 5: Trust in Providence. Hitler believed, like Trump’s mission to make America great again, that he was on a divinely inspired path to restore Germany to its place of power in the world. Without mentioning God, he frequently invoked “Providence”, which he believed would protect him from harm until he had fulfilled his mission. Ultimately, Hitler was ready to trust in his devil’s own luck to avoid a premature early demise at the hands of an assassin.
Without making any invidious parallels to such an evil dictator as Hitler, Donald Trump looks ready to emulate the Fuhrer, and trust to the Almighty’s helping hand and his own personal mojo rather than his Secret Service guards to see him safely back to the White House. His luck has held so far, but there are still nearly two months to get through until until polling day.