Ideologically-motivated violence in the USA is overwhelmingly inspired by President Trump, as Alan Austin reports.
WATCHING U.S. PRESIDENT Donald Trump read stiltedly a script written for him after Charlie Kirk was murdered last Wednesday, some might conclude most assassinations in the USA were perpetrated by “the radical Left”.
Trump said:
“For years, those on the radical Left have compared wonderful Americans like Charlie to Nazis and the world’s worst mass murderers and criminals. This kind of rhetoric is directly responsible for the terrorism that we’re seeing in our country today.”
He concluded that “radical Left political violence has hurt too many innocent people and taken too many lives”.
So, how many of the 24 perpetrators of the 31 targeted political murders or attempted murders since 2018 were from the Left? Let’s count them.
Politics of the villains
In 2018, Cesar Altieri Sayoc was sentenced to 20 years in prison for sending pipe bombs to nine prominent Democrats, including Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden and Maxine Waters. Sayoc was a registered Republican.
In 2020, 13 men attempted to punish Michigan’s Democrat Governor Gretchen Whitmer for enforcing COVID lockdown measures. All were far-right extremists.
Roy Den Hollander murdered human rights lawyer Marc Angelucci in July 2020. He then tried to kill District Judge Esther Salas, but succeeded instead in murdering her son and seriously wounding her husband. Hollander was a far-right Trump supporter.
Quintez Brown attempted to kill Democratic Mayor of Louisville, Kentucky, Craig Greenberg, in February 2022. Brown was motivated by Black nationalism, pan-Africanism and revolutionary socialism.
In October 2022, David DePape seriously injured Paul Pelosi with a hammer while seeking to kill House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi. DePape is a far-right Trump supporter.
In December 2022, Solomon Peña paid gunmen to attack the houses of Democrat state lawmakers in New Mexico. Peña is a registered Republican and a former candidate for state office.
Craig Robertson was shot and killed by FBI agents in August 2023 while being arrested for threats against President Joe Biden and others. Robertson was an army veteran with extreme right-wing views.
Donald Trump himself was targeted at a July 2024 rally in Pennsylvania. The shooter, Thomas Crooks, killed one attendee and injured three others, including Trump, whose ear was cut by a flying fragment. Crooks was a registered Republican.
Another attempt on Trump’s life, thwarted before completion, was made by Trump voter Ryan Routh in September 2024. The trial is continuing.
In April 2025, Cody Balmer attempted to kill Pennsylvania’s Democratic Governor Josh Shapiro in an arson attack, which caused extensive property damage but no injuries. Balmer was a Trump supporter at the time.
The Democrat Speaker of the Minnesota House of Representatives, Melissa Hortman, and her husband, Mark Hortman, were killed by avid Trump supporter and registered Republican Vance Boelter in June 2025.
Boelter then attempted to murder Minnesota Senator John Hoffman and succeeded in seriously injuring the Senator and his wife.
Lastly, right-wing influencer Charlie Kirk was shot last Wednesday by Tyler Robinson, a White student from a gun-loving Republican Mormon family. Robinson has no party links, but has reportedly embraced the extremism of right-wing racist Nick Fuentes.
How many from the radical Left?
These are the known attempts at targeted political murders since 2018. This compilation does not include the pro-Trump protesters who marched on the Capitol in January 2021, chanting “Hang Mike Pence” and set up gallows for that purpose. It excludes all those found guilty of the violent insurrection on that day who had set out specifically to kill Nancy Pelosi, Senator Chuck Schumer, Representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ilhan Omar, and others.
Nor does it include those, like Brett Forsell, gaoled for lesser offences against lawmakers than murder. Most of these, if not all, are from the Right.
So how many of the above 24 offenders are affiliated with the Democratic Party or any other mainstream reformist, progressive or leftist organisation? The answer is none. The only perpetrator arguably from the left is Black nationalist Quintez Brown.
Trump not alone in falsely blaming others for his own evil
Immediately after Kirk’s killing, Elon Musk tweeted:
‘The Left is the party of murder.’
Also, well before Tyler Robinson turned himself in to police, Fox News anchor Sean Hannity declared:
‘The Left has given us ten non-stop years of rage and hatred and vile language and it is undeniable that it is poisoning the minds of many people in our country.’
These hate-filled sentiments – palpably hypocritical in their deflection and projection – were then amplified across the American blogosphere and around the world.
Trump the accelerant
As of July last year, Trump had issued more than 40 calls for physical attacks against political opponents, demonstrating he is the main cause of the recent increase in violence.
This is bolstered by FBI data showing a sudden surge in all categories of violent crime in 2016, after decades of steady decline. See chart below.
The trial courts have also confirmed that Trump propels violence.
In defending Cesar Altieri Sayoc in 2018, his counsel, Ian Marcus-Amelkin, argued:
“We believe that the President’s rhetoric contributed to Mr Sayoc’s actions in this offence.”
We can now add the deranged rant from Trump last Thursday, after Kirk was shot but before the killer gave himself up:
“We have radical left lunatics out there and we just have to beat the hell out of them.”
Yes, he actually said that. Again. This brings his calls for violence close to 50 and guarantees more assaults and assassinations.
Solution staring us in the face
Trump himself unwittingly articulated the way forward in his Oval Office comments after Wednesday’s shooting:
“It’s long past time for all Americans and the media to confront the fact that violence and murder are the tragic consequence of demonising those with whom you disagree day after day, year after year...”
What his followers don’t realise is that Trump is the demoniser-in-chief. The critical step in stopping this wanton bloodshed is his removal.
Alan Austin is an Independent Australia columnist and freelance journalist. You can follow him on Twitter @alanaustin001.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Australia License
Support independent journalism Subscribe to IA.
Related Articles
- America sleepwalks into a dictatorship
- Democrats fight Trump's fire with fire with no end in sight
- Trump, Bibi, Putin: The dying of order and the march into madness
- EDITORIAL: Fallout Diplomacy: Trump, Netanyahu and the death of the World Order
- From Republican to Reich: Trump's authoritarianism continues to rise
