A month ago, President Donald Trump unabashedly celebrated the death of former FBI Director Robert Mueller. “Good, I’m glad he’s dead,” Trump said. “He can no longer hurt innocent people!”

On Monday, Trump and his White House responded to a shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner this weekend by decrying Democrats’ supposedly beyond-the-pale rhetoric and labeling them a “cult of hatred.”

Their chief example of this kind of rhetoric? ABC comedian Jimmy Kimmel telling a joke that made light of Trump’s potential demise. Days before this weekend’s shooting, Kimmel joked that first lady Melania Trump had “a glow like an expectant widow.”

Apparently, it’s OK for Trump to celebrate a public servant’s death; it is not OK for Jimmy Kimmel to joke about Trump’s.

The shooting at this weekend’s dinner has yet again led Trump and his White House to focus on Democrats’ rhetoric, despite Trump’s own demonstrated history of extremely ugly rhetoric. Republicans are largely repeating a blame game they waged after Charlie Kirk’s assassination last year.

Thus far, the strategy hasn’t appeared to work. Polls show Americans generally view the right’s rhetoric as more violent and dangerous.

But the water is getting muddier.

Episodes of political violence have almost become a choose-your-own-adventure in which many people — on both sides — seem to embrace attractive-but-false narratives about the motivations behind political violence.

And that’s liable to lead to ugly places.

Trump long ago ceded the moral high ground
“This political violence stems from a systemic demonization of [Trump] and his supporters by commentators, yes, by elected members of the Democrat Party, and even some in the media,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Monday. “This hateful and constant and violent rhetoric directed at President Trump, day after day after day for 11 years, has helped to legitimize this violence and bring us to this dark moment.”

The first thing to note is that definitive statements about alleged shooter motivations this early are generally speculative, at best. Often, reports surface that suggest the perpetrators had mental health issues.

The accused attacker, Cole Tomas Allen, apparently left a paper trail that provides clues about his potential motivation, including social media posts that compared Trump to Adolf Hitler and encouraged others critical of his presidency to purchase guns.

But as with Charlie Kirk’s assassin, it’s difficult to draw such a direct line until you know more.

Secondly, while it’s completely valid to think it was a terrible idea for Kimmel to joke about Trump’s death, the president long ago ceded the moral high ground on such things. Pearl clutching over Kimmel’s jokes or Democrats’ rhetoric without addressing Trump’s own rhetoric is a remarkable exercise in selective outrage.

Trump has, quite simply, crossed the line both more forcefully and more often. There’s the prominent example of the January 6, 2021, Capitol attack, when he encouraged his supporters to protest and stayed silent for hours as violence broke out, resulting in multiple deaths, but there’s plenty of other examples, too.

To wit:

* He celebrated Mueller’s death.
* He responded in remarkably callous fashion to the murders of Rob Reiner and his wife in December.
* Despite complaining about the left making Nazi comparisons, he in 2017 compared the intelligence community to “Nazi Germany,” and in 2024 called former President Joe Biden’s team a “Gestapo administration.”
* Despite complaining about the left calling him a “fascist,” he spent years using that word against his foes.
* He made light of a hammer attack on Nancy Pelosi’s husband that left him with a fractured skull and other serious injuries.
* He mused about “Second Amendment people” blocking Hillary Clinton from appointing judges.
* He reposted video of a supporter saying, “The only good Democrat is a dead Democrat.”
* He reposted a message from a supporter warning about people rising up to “physically fight” for Trump.
* He praised a convoy of supporters who dangerously surrounded Biden’s campaign bus in 2020.
* He praised Montana’s governor for assaulting a reporter.
* He has repeatedly raised hypotheticals in which his supporters rise up in justified violence.

That last one is a particularly important theme. Even as Trump’s White House was assailing Democrats’ rhetoric after Kirk’s death, Trump suggested right-wingers who get politically violent do so for valid reasons, while left-wingers do not.

Trump’s comments on Mueller’s death were in a similar vein. Maybe it’s gauche to celebrate death, he seemed to be saying, but just think about how much damage this guy did.

It’s the kind of calculus that plenty of others have used to justify political violence.

https://edition.cnn.com/2026/04/27/politics/trump-violent-rhetoric-analysis

Armchair_Politician wrote on Apr 28^th, 2026 at 12:05pm:


But of course. DL is perfectly entitled to celebrate the untimely death of his Republican colleagues. They all do it, Armchair.

Most common, it happens all the time.

They're all as bad as each other, no?

Bobby. wrote on Apr 28^th, 2026 at 1:48pm:


He also called American WWII prisoners of war “suckers and losers”. That coming from a coward too scared to serve.

Bobby. wrote on Apr 28^th, 2026 at 1:48pm:


What do you think, Bobby?

He also called the 60 Minutes journalist sick for raising the gunman's manifesto.

He said rapist pervs should be taken out, she said. What do you think about that, sir?

How very dare you, you disgusting sick faker, he said. I've been totally exonerated - for everything.

Oh? She said. You thought he was talking about you?

Frank wrote on Apr 28^th, 2026 at 4:50pm:


That's right, they aren't suckers and losers.

But Trump lies all the time, so it was no surprise when he told that lie.

greggerypeccary wrote on Apr 28^th, 2026 at 4:57pm:


No no, he was making a point, Greggery.

Should we not consider those who evaded the draft heroes too? He said. Or those who might have had a minor bone spur problem that appears to have healed with time?

I think we can. Remember, blessed are the peacemakers, no? DL is the only one to have started no new wars, remember.

Then, anyway. Miriam Adelson slung him a few mil to invade Iran, so he had to change plans.

Ah, the Superior Man, he upon the "narrow road". I think you'll find the old boy concurs, Greggery.

He bounces out of bed with a plan too, no?

DESPICABLE LYING CREEP !!!

https://edition.cnn.com/2026/04/27/politics/trump-violent-rhetoric-analysis

28th April 2026

Trump’s hypocritical crusade on violent rhetoric — and the country’s emerging split reality.

A recent Public Religion Research Institute poll showed 72% of Republicans said
Democrats were responsible for most political violence,
while 73% of Democrats said Republicans were most responsible.

Frank wrote on Apr 28^th, 2026 at 4:50pm:


armchair believes it though so to armchair its true.