As disgraced former President Donald Trump seeks to capitalize on his second assassination attempt, he is saying things that could easily be interpreted by his cult followers as a call for retaliation against Democrats.
Trump and his allies are blaming his partisan political adversaries for the apparent second attempt to assassinate him in less than 10 weeks by a suspect who was once among his fans.
Secret Service agents assigned to guard Trump thwarted what seems to have been a potential shooting by a former supporter who soured on the Republican demagogue over his betrayal of American allies and his assault on democracy in the United States.
Immigrant billionaire Elon Musk openly expressed wonder on social media why “no one is even trying to assassinate” President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, as if evening the score was a rational suggestion.
Trump accused Biden and Harris of taking “politics in our Country to a whole new level of Hatred.”
The Republican candidate said the Democrats’ rhetoric is responsible for threats and violence against him, even though they routinely denounce political violence and did so after a gunman stalked Trump near his Florida golf resort.
“Their rhetoric is causing me to be shot at, when I am the one who is going to save the country, and they are the ones that are destroying the country — both from the inside and out,” said Trump.
Trump — who previously warned of “potential death & destruction” if he were indicted for his criminal conduct, and has said that there will be a “bloodbath for the country” if he is not elected in November — reiterated those claims Monday on his social media platform.
Trump is considered threat to democracy because of his continued refusal to accept his defeat in the 2020 election and for inciting a rioting mob of his supporters to attack the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, in an unsuccessful attempted coup d’etat intended to overturn Biden’s victory.
Two of his pending criminal indictments are directly linked to his efforts to overthrow the majority of voters
Gun enthusiast Thomas Crooks, 20, shot Trump’s ear in a sniper attack on a rally in July, killing one spectator and injuring two others
Pro-Ukraine militant Ryan Routh was arrested for firearms possession after he was spotted aiming an AK47 rifle at Trump while the 2020 election loser was golfing.
Routh acknowledged that he supported Trump in 2016 but he grew disillusioned by the Republican’s abandoning forces defending Ukraine against the Russian invasion.
Biden and Harris said Sunday that they were relieved Trump was safe and condemned any kind of political violence.
Biden, talking to reporters Monday morning outside the White House, said “thank God” Trump was okay and urged “more help” for the Secret Service.
That didn’t stop Rep Thomas Massie and others from saying that Biden was responsible for encouraging people to use violence against Trump.
After Trump criticized Biden and Harris in an effort to cast blame on the Democrats, several of his critics noted that he has long spread hateful rhetoric against his political opponents.
“Vice-President Harris and Governor Walz obviously have had nothing to do with that kind of incitement. They do not talk about bloodbaths, American carnage, overturning the rule of law or the Constitution, or imprisoning and exacting revenge against their opponents” s Rep. Jamie Raskin. “Only one candidate in this race has been impeached in a bipartisan vote for inciting a violent insurrection against our government.”
Former Republican Congressman Adam Kinzinger said Trump’s political rhetoric was what instigated the deadly Jan. 6 riot,
“Look violent rhetoric is wrong, and has no place,” Kinzinger said. “But MAGA pretending they didn’t light this fire is gaslighting to the 100th power. Since Trump showed up our politics has gone to crap.”
“Literally just accused a group of people of eating our pets,” said Kinzinger, referencing Trump’s lies about Haitian migrants eating their neighbors’ cats in Springfield, Ohio.
Former Rep. Joe Walsh, another GOP official who is also now a Trump critic, said that, “There is no politician in America today who spews as much hate or incites as much violence with reckless/dangerous rhetoric as Donald Trump does.”
Walsh also called the “assassination attempt on Donald Trump is horrible” and he said such violence “should be strongly condemned by ALL of us.”
Rep. Brendan Boyle responded to Donald Trump Jr.’s social media post by asking if he has apologized to the grandchildren of former House speaker Nancy Pelosi for mocking the hammer attack on her husband.
Trump has repeatedly promised to weaponize the federal government during a second administration by pursuing revenge, retaliation and retribution against his political enemies.
He also has egged on violent supporters in public on numerous occasions, telling crowds that he would pay their legal fees for assaulting protesters and critics.
CREW analyzed over 13,000 of Trump’s Truth Social posts from January 1, 2023 to April 1, 2024, and found that while Trump has recently backed off some of his more violent rhetoric, threatening political opponents has been a consistent fixation for Trump.
Since the start of last year, Trump has issued direct or implied threats on Truth Social to use the powers of the federal government to target Joe Biden during a second Trump administration 25 times. Specifically, Trump has threatened him with FBI raids, investigations, indictments and even jail time.
Trump has amplified others’ posts about Biden that are even more threatening, and sometimes violent.
In June he reposted a clip from Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene where she asserted, “Joe Biden shouldn’t just be impeached, he should be handcuffed and hauled out of the White House for his crimes.”
Trump posted a screenshot of a different post saying the FBI should “raid all of [Biden’s] residences and seize anything they want, including his passports.”