President Donald Trump on Sunday got a reminder of his own rhetoric and that of his allies after he tried to blame “the left” for the current vitriol levels in the nation.
Trump said “leftist” groups are under investigation in the wake of last week’s public murder of conservative activist Charlie Kirk. He was also asked about revoking visas for foreigners who “celebrated” Kirk’s death.
“We don’t like that. That’s not right. We wouldn’t celebrate if something happened on their side and we don’t,” he said. “These are sick people. These are really deranged people.”
Trump also blamed “the left” for the divisions.
“The problem is on the left,” he declared. “It’s not on the right, like some people like to say, the right. The problem we have is on the left, and when you look at the agitators, you look at the scum that speaks so badly of our country, the American flag burnings, all over the place, that’s the left. That’s not the right.”
Trump has decried violence against the right, but offered a muted reaction for victims on the left.
In June, when Minnesota state Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, were shot and killed by a gunman who also sought out other Democratic figures, Trump denounced the “terrible shooting” in a post on social media but said and did little else.
He did not order flags lowered, as he did for Kirk, did not attend the funeral and said he would not call the governor, former campaign rival Tim Walz (D).
“The guy doesn’t have a clue. He’s a mess. I could be nice and call, but why waste time?” Trump said.
Trump likewise had little to say publicly when someone broke into the Pennsylvania governor’s mansion and set it on fire while Gov. Josh Shapiro (D) and his family were asleep inside.
Shapiro said he received a “gracious” private call from Trump about a week later.
Trump also pardoned all of his supporters who attacked the U.S. Capitol in 2021 in an attempt to block the certification of the election, including those charged with and convicted of violent offenses.
In some instances, Trump and his allies have mocked the victims of violence or celebrated violence against figures on the left. Trump last year worked a line into his speeches about how a wall around the home of Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) “didn’t do a very good job” of protecting her husband, Paul Pelosi, who was brutally beaten in a home invasion.
“How’s her husband doing, by the way, anybody know?” he asked, to laughs.
Trump’s own son, Donald Trump Jr., joked about the Pelosi assault on Instagram days after it happened and while he was still in the hospital. Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) made jokes about Hortman’s murder while the suspect was still on the run and reportedly carrying a list of other Democratic targets.
Trump last year also reposted a message on his Truth Social website showing a pickup truck with a graphic on the tailgate showing then-President Joe Biden tied up in the back.
The president’s critics offered some reminders:
