It's usually quite clear what Trump is up to, but my response to this dramatic foreshadowing was so extreme, I can't believe I'm actually thinking this.

Here it is: Is Trump desperate enough to stage his own assassination attempt?

I wish I could say no. Are things so bad that I'm imagining things?

In case you never saw "Bob Roberts," it's about a millionaire businessman and right-wing folk singer who runs for the Senate from Pennsylvania. From Wikipedia:

The campaign is boosted by public support following the assassination attempt, and Roberts wins the election with 52 percent of the vote. Although Roberts claims that his wounds have left him paralyzed from the waist down, he is seen tapping his feet at a celebration party. While Terry Manchester is interviewing Roberts' supporters outside the new senator's hotel, a boy runs up shouting, "He's dead, he's dead, they got him!" When Manchester asks him what he is talking about, the boy shouts, "Bugs Raplin! He's dead! They got him!" A joyful celebration breaks out among Roberts' supporters, the shot changes to an image of his hotel room, and an upright walking shadow suggesting Roberts' profile passes the window before the lights go out. The film ends with a radio news report about Raplin's death at the hands of a right-wing fanatic and a shot of Manchester standing in the Jefferson Memorial, looking at the words, "I have sworn upon the altar of God eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man", inscribed there.