Photo of bloodied, defiant Trump takes on patriotic meaning

There are certain photographs of historical events that live on in our collective memory. Many will remember the images of people in business clothing falling from the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, shortly before the towers collapsed. Or, going further back in US history, the photo of soldiers raising a US flag on the battlefield on the Japanese island of Iwo Jima, during the final stages of World War II in the Pacific.

It looks like there's another image for the history books now: The photo Evan Vucci, a photographer for the Associated Press news agency (AP), took of Donald Trump seconds after Trump was shot in an assassination attempt during a rally on Sunday. You can see it at the top of this article.

"I knew it was a moment in American history and it had to be documented," Vucci himself said shortly after the attempted assassination in Butler, Pennsylvania.

The AP News chief photographer in Washington had been doing the job he'd done hundreds of times at political rallies when shots rang out.

"I looked to the stage and saw the Secret Service agents rushing to President Trump. From that moment I ran to the stage and started photographing," Vucci said. "I'm not sure how long it was from beginning to end, but in my mind it all happened really fast."

Trump image shows defiance and patriotism side by side

Already, people are comparing the photo to the iconic flag raising picture from WWII. A user of social media platform X called it the "Iwo Jima picture of this generation." Renowned The New Yorker magazine pointed to similarities too.

"In its surface details, it carries echoes of the marines at Iwo Jima," New Yorker reporter Benjamin Wallace-Wells wrote.

It's easy to see where the comparison comes from. Trump's raised fist and his facial expression, accentuated by the blood splatters across his cheek, can be read as an declaration of defiance in the face of adversity. And then there's the flag itself, the centerpiece in the Iwo Jima image, and the perfect patriotic background to Trump's "I'm still standing"-gesture.

The flag is extremely important to Americans

The flag with its stars and stripes holds immense importance in US culture. Especially, but not exclusively, among conservative Americans, it's the foremost symbol of national pride and love of country. Driving through the US, one encounters many private homes displaying the red, white and blue flag flying from poles next to front doors or at the end of driveways.

The US national anthem, "The Star-Spangled Banner," is about Americans who "proudly … hailed" the flag during the War of 1812 against the British.

Patriotic US citizens call their country "the land of the free and the home of the brave," referring to lyrics in the national anthem. For Trump supporters, seeing the flag fly behind their president, who has just survived an assassination attempt, is a strong symbol of strength and resilience ― their country's and Trump's.

"America is praying for President Trump," Republican congressman Matt Gaetz wrote on X. "We will overcome and defeat evil!"  

Vucci has won Pulitzer Prize for previous work

It's not the first time photojournalist Evan Vucci has worked under fire. He covered a platoon of American soldiers and their families during a 15-month combat tour in Mosul, Iraq. In 2021, he was part of the AP team that won the Pulitzer Prize, one of the most important awards in journalism, in the category "breaking news photography" for their coverage of the Black Lives Matter protests after the death of George Floyd.

The death of Floyd, a Black man who was killed by white police officers in Minneapolis, reverberated across the US. It remains to be seen what consequences the assassination attempt on Trump will have on the country, and on the presidential elections on November 5. What we do know is that Trump will speak at the Republican National Convention that starts on Monday in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

"I truly love our Country, and love you all, and look forward to speaking to our Great Nation this week from Wisconsin," the former president wrote in a post on social media site Truth Social.

Edited by: Nancy Isenson