The good thing about Trump obsessing over the "need" for the ballroom is that it steps on the main right-wing propaganda message, which is that the shooting is our fault because we criticize Trump.
— Steve M. (@stevemnomoremister.bsky.social) April 25, 2026 at 10:55 PM
That was before we'd read the shooter's manifesto or seen his Bluesky posts. So now political speech is terrorism, if it's critical of Republicans.
— Andy Ngo (@MrAndyNgo) April 27, 2026
Headline of a Byron York column in the Washington Examiner: "Gunman’s Manifesto Is Anti-Trump Social Media Come to Life." And a New York Post editorial describes ordinary political speech as incitement to violence:
... sane, democracy-loving Americans are beginning to wonder: What will it take to get lefty pols and media to quit their sick, dangerous accusations about Trump, which are surely fueling the hostility and deadly violence?What remedy would the Post's editorial board propose? Depriving people on the left, and only people on the left, of First Amendment rights?
“I am no longer willing to permit a pedophile, rapist, and traitor to coat my hands with his crimes,” ranted suspected would-be assassin Cole Allen in his manifesto — with its clear reference to Trump.
Where did Allen get such ideas about Trump and the need to remove him, via murder? Almost certainly from the left, including from Democrats in positions of power.
Barely a day goes by without some Dem calling Trump an autocrat, a king, a dictator, Hitler. They claim he’s ended democracy in America.
They cheer the “No Kings” rallies, as if Trump actually had royal power.
Notably, Allen attended a No Kings protest in California, according to his social-media accounts.
Dems have also repeatedly linked Trump to Jeffrey Epstein’s crimes, despite the lack of evidence.
Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.) endlessly promotes the charge that the president raped kids, again with no evidence whatsoever.
They’ve also portrayed ICE agents as Nazi brownshirts under Trump’s command.
Victor Davis Hanson suggests that it's terrorism to call Trump a Nazi:
Do we remember the New Republic cover where Trump was photoshopped as Adolf Hitler?Hanson, to the best of my knowledge, never had a problem with any of this:
When called out, The New Republic doubled down, offering no apologies for its sick messaging.
“Today, we at The New Republic think we can spend this election year in one of two ways. We can spend it debating whether Trump meets the nine or 17 points that define fascism. Or we can spend it saying, ‘He’s damn close enough, and we’d better fight.’”
And so you encourage fellow leftist comrades like Cole Tomas Allen, Ryan Wesley Routh, and Thomas Matthew Crooks to “fight”—to eliminate your Trump-Hitler, allegedly another mass murderer of six million.
The now media-orphaned Joy Reid repeatedly and ad nauseam invoked Trump-Hitler memes: “Then let me know who I got to vote for to keep Hitler out of the White House.” Rachel Maddow sermonized that she was studying Hitler in order to understand Trump.
Those who tried to kill Trump—and murdered Charlie Kirk—likely assumed they would eventually be canonized for ending the “Nazi” threat.
They insist we're inspiring violence because we joke about Trump's death. The Post's Miranda Devine harrumphs:
Wishing for Trump’s assassination is not even a fringe phenomenon, with late-night host Jimmy Kimmel thinking it was funny to perform a fake White House Correspondents’ dinner skit last week, fantasizing about the first lady becoming a widow to an appreciative studio audience.I think that's an age joke, not as assassination joke, but maybe that's just me. Hanson is on somewhat firmer ground when he writes:
“So beautiful. Mrs. Trump, you have a glow like an expectant widow.” Boom boom.
So, how many ways have our elite leftists dreamed of beating up or murdering Trump?Of course, MAGA has been talking like this since 2016:
Gavin Newsom, Nancy Pelosi, and Robert De Niro all preferred punching him out. The now-infamous Kathy Griffin opted for beheading. So did Marilyn Manson.
The New York actors of Shakespeare in the Park turned Julius Caesar into Trump and staged his mass stabbing.
Mickey Rourke fancied clubbing; Snoop Dogg, shooting.
The late celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain’s choice, predictably, was poisoning.
In May, the Secret Service investigated Donald Trump’s butler over a Facebook post saying that President Barack Obama “should be shot as an enemy agent.”And since then:
Secret Service agents also interviewed a Trump campaign adviser last month, after he said that Hillary Clinton “should be put in the firing line and shot for treason.”
... Trump only mildly rebuked Al Baldasaro, a New Hampshire state representative and informal campaign adviser, after he said on a radio show last month that Clinton should be shot for treason related to the lethal September 2012 attack on a U.S. compound in Benghazi, Libya. Baldasaro advises Trump on veterans’ issues and has appeared next to Trump at campaign rallies.
After Baldasaro’s statement circulated nationally, Trump’s spokesman Hope Hicks said only that the Trump campaign was “incredibly grateful for his support, but we don’t agree with his comments.” Trump did not sever ties with Baldasaro, whom he called out by name at a rally in New Hampshire on Saturday. “Al has been so great,” Trump said. “Where’s Al? Where’s my vet?”
... Calls for violence against Clinton are not hard to detect at Trump events. At an event in Ashburn, Virginia, last week, a pre-teen boy in the press area shouted “take the bitch down!” with his nearby mother’s approval. On Tuesday, a reporter at a Trump rally in North Carolina tweeted that someone had shouted, “Kill her! Kill her!” — a refrain that has been heard at more than one Trump campaign events in recent weeks, along with calls for Clinton’s hanging.
Here’s Trump threatening violence, calling for his political enemies’ executions, celebrating the deaths of people he didn’t like, and otherwise casually promoting political violence. There was also the small matter of Jan. 6 and subsequent pardons for violent felons.
— Sarah Longwell (@sarahlongwell25.bsky.social) April 26, 2026 at 8:30 PM
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I think our side should denounce violence more frequently -- denounce it explicitly and proactively -- so it's clear to Republicans and to the mentally shaky figures who engage in political violence that what we want are political and legal remedies for Trumpism and Republican misrule. It might be enjoyable to joke about Trump's death, but we get no political benefit from it, and the jokes are easily weaponized by the right.
At the same time, we should double down on political speech, even harsh political speech. Questions like this are un-American, and we should say so:
BASH: You and your fellow Democrats have used some heated rhetoric against the president. Do you think twice about that when something like that happens? RASKIN: What rhetoric do you have in mind? BASH: That he's terrible for this country and so on and so forth
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) April 26, 2026 at 9:55 AM
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If we're saying that some political speech is unacceptably "heated," who gets to draw the line? The government? That's not our system. Our system allows criticism, even harsh criticism, of elected officials. If "harshness" isn't allowed, then tear the First Amendment off the parchment and flush it, because free speech is no longer a fundamental right in America.
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