{"id":1507,"date":"2026-05-25T09:35:20","date_gmt":"2026-05-25T09:35:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=1507"},"modified":"2026-05-25T09:35:20","modified_gmt":"2026-05-25T09:35:20","slug":"repeated-violence-puts-spotlight-on-divisive-political-speech","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=1507","title":{"rendered":"Repeated violence puts spotlight on divisive political speech"},"content":{"rendered":"
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President Donald Trump on May 22 in Suffern, New York. (Alex Brandon\/AP Photo\/Alex Brandon)<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n

For years, President Donald Trump has relied on insults, menace and combative political language as central features of his public persona \u2014 portraying opponents as enemies, critics as threats and political fights as existential battles for the country\u2019s survival.<\/p>

Read more Chicoutimi beats host Kelowna 3-2 in OT to improve to 1-1 in the Memorial Cup<\/a><\/p>\n

After multiple assassination attempts against Trump and amid a broader rise in threats against public officials, scholars of political violence are debating whether incendiary rhetoric from political leaders makes real-world violence more likely.<\/p>\n

The debate gained new urgency after a man armed with a handgun was shot and killed by Secret Service officers Saturday night near a White House security checkpoint. A bystander was also injured in the volley of bullets but is expected to survive.<\/p>\n

Investigators identified the shooter as 21-year-old Nasire Best. Best, whose potential motives remain unclear, had prior encounters with law enforcement<\/a> and appeared to be emotionally disturbed, <\/b>investigators have said.<\/p>\n

The incident came less than a month after another armed man allegedly tried to push through a security checkpoint<\/a> during the White House Correspondents\u2019 Association dinner intending to target the president and members of his Cabinet \u2014 at least the third time in two years that a gunman has targeted Trump.<\/p>\n

Presidents and the White House have long been the focus of people driven by political grievances, personal instability or emotional volatility. But scholars who study political rhetoric and extremism say the country\u2019s increasingly aggressive political language can make that more likely, even in cases where the perpetrator lacks an ideological motive.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe tone from the top models expected behavior, \u201csaid Helio Fred Garcia, a professor of leadership at New York University and Columbia University who has written a book on Trump\u2019s political rhetoric. \u201cIf you create conditions where hate and violence become more acceptable, people are going to act on that. Sometimes it will be supporters. Sometimes it will be opponents.\u201d<\/p>\n

Garcia said America\u2019s political discourse has become increasingly combustible and that Trump continues \u201cinjecting this tone into public discourse.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s defenders says Democrats and the media unfairly pin the blame for political violence on the president and overlook the corrosive rhetoric of his political opponents.<\/p>\n

In a statement, a White House spokesperson accused Democrats of smearing their opponents as Nazis and fascists and the media of blaming Trump \u201cfor acts of violence he had nothing to do with.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAs the survivor of multiple assassination attempts \u2014 and watching his dear friend Charlie [Kirk] be assassinated last year \u2014 no one understands the dangers of political violence more than President Trump,\u201c White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said in the statement. \u201dThat\u2019s why the entire Administration has repeatedly condemned political violence, including the Vice President just last week.”<\/p>\n

During the 2024 campaign, Democrats routinely portrayed Trump not simply as a political opponent but as an existential threat to American democracy and a man with authoritarian aims. The party warned that a second Trump term could erode constitutional norms, weaponize federal power and undermine future elections.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis 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,\u201d White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said after the White House correspondents\u2019 dinner shooting.<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s critics point to the president\u2019s own record of harsh and aggressive speech. His no-holds-barred approach <\/b>has been central to Trump\u2019s political identity since he first entered national politics, and it has intensified during his second term. A Washington Post analysis<\/a> found that Trump\u2019s use of vulgar language, personal insults and self-aggrandizing rhetoric has increased markedly since his first term. The analysis also found that the number of vulgar or insulting social media posts published during a comparable period roughly tripled.<\/p>

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Critics have pointed to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol as the clearest example of incendiary political rhetoric with violent, real-world consequences. Trump painted his Democratic opponents as illegitimate usurpers and urged supporters to come to Washington on Jan. 6 for a gathering that \u201cwill be wild.\u201d<\/p>\n

Before the mob stormed the Capitol, Trump encouraged his supporters to \u201cfight like hell\u201d to stop the certification of Joe Biden\u2019s victory.<\/p>\n

Earlier, during campaign rallies, Trump urged supporters to \u201cknock the crap out of\u201d protesters and once offered to pay supporters\u2019 legal fees if they assaulted demonstrators.<\/p>\n

On Friday, at a rally in Suffern, New York, Trump mocked a man as he was escorted out by police in front of a jeering crowd.<\/p>\n

\u201cDon\u2019t hurt him, don\u2019t hurt him, don\u2019t hurt him,\u201d the president said. \u201cI do that for legal reasons. That\u2019s a great thing to say: \u2018Do not hurt him under any circumstances.\u2019 And now I can say \u2018I\u2019m innocent.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump allies argue that the repeated threats and assassination attempts against the president have made Trump, himself, the biggest target of the country\u2019s harsh political climate.<\/p>\n

In July 2024, a gunman opened fire during a rally near Butler, Pennsylvania, grazing Trump\u2019s ear, killing one attendee and critically injuring two others before Secret Service snipers shot the attacker dead.<\/p>\n

That September, a man set up a sniper\u2019s nest outside Trump\u2019s golf course in West Palm Beach, Florida, and was spotted by Secret Service agents; in February, the man was sentenced to life in prison.<\/p>\n

Trump has folded the assassination attempts into the mythology of his political rise \u2014 presenting them not simply as violent acts, but as evidence of the extraordinary stakes, and significance, of his presidency.<\/p>\n

Immediately after the shooting at the correspondents\u2019 dinner, he linked the violence to what he sees as his role in history.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you\u2019re impactful, they go after you. When you\u2019re not impactful, they leave you alone,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

In speeches and interviews, Trump has likened his survival to defining moments in presidential history, invoking leaders such as Abraham Lincoln, John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan \u2014 who survived a 1981 assassination attempt outside the same Washington Hilton hotel where an armed man allegedly sought to target Trump last month.<\/p>\n

Shortly after returning to office, Trump ordered a portrait of Barack Obama removed from a prominent spot in the White House Grand Foyer. In its place now hangs an image from Butler, Pennsylvania: Trump, face streaked with blood after the shooting, pumping his fist defiantly into the air.<\/p>

Read more Cruz Azul rallies past Pumas 2-1 to win the Clausura title on a stoppage-time goal<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Scholars who study rhetoric and extremism say the country\u2019s political language has grown more aggressive and can trigger violent acts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1505,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1507","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting"],"yoast_head":"\nRepeated violence puts spotlight on divisive political speech - Moving Insider USA<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=1507\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Repeated violence puts spotlight on divisive political speech - Moving Insider USA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Scholars who study rhetoric and extremism say the country\u2019s political language has grown more aggressive and can trigger violent acts.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=1507\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Moving Insider USA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-05-25T09:35:20+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/01ed1b71e1add498bd97978f59231d8a-scaled.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2560\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1707\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=1507#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=1507\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/22d40ab81790f6a361021763bb56ef03\"},\"headline\":\"Repeated violence puts spotlight on divisive political speech\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-05-25T09:35:20+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=1507\"},\"wordCount\":1119,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=1507#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/05\\\/07400fbc03bcbb3cb888b2c9210436ab-scaled.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Interesting\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=1507#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=1507\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=1507\",\"name\":\"Repeated violence puts spotlight on divisive political speech - 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