One potshot at US President-elect Donald Trump would tear the fabric of American society asunder and put its system of government by consent in peril

DONALD TRUMP used his election victory speech to single out his secret service guards for special praise.

So he should. He’s going to need them.

If some on the wilder fringes of society have their way, he will be lucky to survive until his inauguration in January.

Freelance journalist Monisha Rajesh stoked the anger spreading across America this week, recklessly tweeting: “It’s about time for a Presidential assassination” – before swiftly deleting her account.

America is a divided nation awash with enough heavy weaponry to fight a small war.  Some of those weapons are in the hands of angry people who feel robbed by Trump’s election and refuse to accept him as their Commander-in-chief.

If history is anything to go by, some will try to do something about it.

Donald Trump has been protected by a ring of steel since becoming Hillary Clinton’s only rival.

Now his bomb-proof convoy includes a hospital on wheels kitted out like a battlefield surgical theatre.

In the White House he and his wife and family will be surrounded 24/7 by an army of highly trained specialists armed to the   teeth.

“They’re tough and they’re smart and they’re sharp and I don’t want to mess around with them,” says Trump.

“When I want to go and wave to a big group of people, they rip me down and put me back down in the seat.”

So they must. More than 20 assassination attempts have been made against sitting American presidents, ex-presidents and presidents-elect.

Abraham Lincoln and John F Kennedy are the most famous casualties. But Theodore Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan were lucky to escape with their lives.

Gun crime is rampant in America, with 31 deaths per million people each year. Britain averages just one.

So far this year, 13,000 have died from bullet wounds. Yet Trump, whose campaign was funded by the hardline National Rifle Association, wants to raise the stakes by loosening America’s already liberal gun laws. He opposes limits on military-style assault weapons and gun silencers.

“Law-abiding people should be allowed to own the firearm of their choice,” he says. “The government has no business dictating what types of firearms good, honest people are allowed to own.”

He opposes Barack Obama’s battle for tighter gun control following incidents of mass slaughter in classrooms and the police shooting of apparently innocent black people.

There may be some who would shed no tears if Trump ended up a target.

But the impact would be catastrophic. It would tear the fabric of American society asunder and put its system of government by consent in peril.

America is already obsessed with demented conspiracy theories. Huge numbers believe the 9/11 Twin Towers disaster was a plot masterminded by almost anyone but Osama bin Laden. Heavily armed militia groups have built strongholds in remote areas to keep government agencies at bay.

One potshot at President Trump would unleash forces that might prove impossible to control.

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