Trump’s Posts Spur Threats Against Lawmakers On Both Sides of Aisle |
President Donald Trump’s Truth Social rants may be unhinged, but they have serious consequences: His violent rhetoric has spurred threats against nearly two dozen elected officials on both sides of the aisle.
According to a new tally by NBC News, Trump’s posts over the last few weeks have led to threats on a number of Democrats—but even more Republicans, including over a dozen Indiana state lawmakers, who the president was attempting to bully into voting for his gerrymandering scheme.
Democrats who have been threatened include senators Chuck Schumer and Elissa Slotkin, as well as the other five lawmakers who, along with Slotkin, Trump accused of sedition. On the Republican side, soon-to-be-former Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene has been vocal about the threats she’s received since criticizing the president’s agenda, and over a dozen Indiana state senators have also received threats after being named out by Trump on Truth Social.
Meanwhile, Abigail Jackson, a spokesperson for the White House, said that Trump hasn’t done anything wrong.
“As the survivor of two assassination attempts—and recently watching his dear friend Charlie be assassinated—no one understands the dangers of political violence more than President Trump,” Jackson said in a statement to NBC.
“But President Trump, and the entire Administration, will not hesitate to speak the truth and call out Democrats for smearing their opponents as Nazis, encouraging members of the military to ignore lawful orders, and enabling violent criminals to invade our country. Sharing these facts is not inciting violence and the media would be wrong to make such an accusation,” she added.
Who’s going to tell her that the majority of the people receiving threats were Republicans?
President Donald Trump raged against ISIS and said the U.S. would retaliate after an attack in Syria on Saturday, possibly laying the groundwork for more American military involvement in another country in the Middle East.
Earlier in the day, a lone gunman shot and killed two U.S. Army soldiers and a civilian interpreter while they were conducting counterterrorism operations in Palmyra, a city in the central part of the country, various outlets reported. The shooter was killed, and three other members of the U.S. military and two Syrians were injured.
U.S. Central Command called the attack the “result of an ambush by a lone ISIS gunman,” though no group has claimed responsibility for the attack as of yet. More details are still emerging, but Trump took to Truth Social to declare there would be a response.
“This was an ISIS attack against the U.S., and Syria, in a very dangerous part of Syria, that is not fully controlled by them. The President of Syria, Ahmed al-Sharaa, is extremely angry and disturbed by this attack,” he wrote. “There will be very serious retaliation.”
What, exactly, that response might look like is unclear. This is reportedly the first case of U.S. deaths in Syria since Bashar Al-Assad’s regime fell, and the attack is under investigation.
Defense Secretery Pete Hegseth, who has come under intense pressure and criticism for his role in carrying out questionably legal boat strikes in the Caribbean that have killed more than 80 people, also weighed in.
In a Saturday tweet, Hegseth wrote: “If you target Americans—anywhere in the world—you will spend the rest of your brief, anxious life knowing the United States will hunt you, find you, and ruthlessly kill you.”
Though it’s not well publicized, the U.S. military has had an ongoing presence at American bases in different parts of Syria since 2014.
President Donald Trump’s Department of Justice is reportedly trying to come up with a way to bring federal charges against Charlie Kirk’s alleged shooter. One solution? Declare Kirk’s murder an anti-Christian hate crime.
Tyler Robinson, the suspect, is already facing state charges for aggravated murder, and may even face the death penalty. But that’s not enough for the Trump administration, which seems to be trying to get the case taken to the federal level, according to a new report from NBC News.
Some prosecutors are pushing back. They say the crime doesn’t really fall under any federal statutes: Murder, generally, is under state jurisdiction, unless the suspect crossed state lines, or killed an elected official.
As a result, apparently, the DOJ is exploring the option to charge Robinson with an anti-Christian hate crime, three people who are familiar with the investigation told NBC.
It would be an unusual “hate crime” to prosecute, to say the least: The federal case would have to equate anti-trans views with Christianity, in order for the legal logic to work, according to NBC’s sources.
“They are trying to shove a square peg into a round hole,” one said.
In case anyone is unclear what constitutes a federal hate crime: the Hitler-loving white supremacist who killed Heather Heyer at the 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville was charged with a hate crime, as was the white man who