On Friday, President Donald Trump downplayed the seriousness of violence from right-wing extremists, saying that their violence is okay because it is well intentioned.
Trump made the comment in an interview with “Fox & Friends,” after host Ainsley Earhardt correctly pointed out that there are “radicals on the right as well” and asked Trump “how do we fix this country?” following the murder of right-wing activist Charlie Kirk.
That’s when Trump made his vile comment.
“I’ll tell you something that’s gonna get me in trouble but I couldn’t care less. The radicals on the right oftentimes are radical because they don’t want to see crime. They don’t want to see crime. They’re saying, ‘We don’t want these people coming in. We don’t want you burning our shopping centers. We don’t want you shooting our people in the middle of the street.’ The radicals on the left are the problem,” Trump said.
Of course, right-wing extremists are a massive problem in the United States.
According to a report from the Center for Strategic and International Studies: “Far-right terrorism has significantly outpaced terrorism from other types of perpetrators, including from far-left networks and individuals inspired by the Islamic State and al-Qaeda. Right-wing attacks and plots account for the majority of all terrorist incidents in the United States since 1994, and the total number of right-wing attacks and plots has grown significantly during the past six years.”
Meanwhile, the Brookings Institution reported in 2023 that, “Since the 9/11 terrorist attacks, far-right extremists have killed 130 people in the United States, more than any other political cause, including jihadists.”
Indeed, right-wing radicals have carried out some of the most disturbing acts of violence in this country.
A Trump-supporting lunatic shot and killed Democratic former Minnesota state House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband, and shot Democratic state Sen. John Hoffman, who miraculously survived.
In 2019, a right-wing radical killed 23 people in a Walmart in El Paso, Texas. The attacker, Patrick Crusius, targeted Hispanic people because said he was motivated by Trump’s call to stop the “invasion” of immigrants into the U.S.
And who can forget the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the Capitol, where hundreds of Trump supporters violently attacked law enforcement officers as they broke into the building to stop the transfer of power from Trump to then-President-elect Joe Biden.
Trump, however, is fine with violence when it benefits him. It’s why he pardoned the Jan. 6 insurrectionistsmany of them violent offendersbecause he was okay with violence being committed if it benefitted him. And why he’s now using Kirk’s assassination to justify going after Democrats—who he’s been targeting for retribution since he reentered office.
It’s not only vile, but it’s dangerous.
