| Charlie Kirk, an influential supporter of President Donald Trump, was shot and killed Wednesday while sharing his political views at a college campus in Utah. Police said it was a “targeted attack” and are still searching for the shooter. Kirk had built a devoted following, particularly among young Republicans, and his death is not the first associated with political violence this year: A Minnesota Democratic lawmaker was killed in her home in June alongside her husband, and another was wounded. “This could happen to anyone,” state Rep. Angela Romero (D), the Utah House minority leader, told The Washington Post. “ … This is not just targeting one person’s ideology.” In the past decade, politicians from both parties have been targets of violence, from lesser-known officials to the president: - Trump was injured during a shooting at his campaign rally last year. Another person was arrested lurking with guns as Trump golfed several months later.
- The Pennsylvania governor’s house was set afire in April.
- Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) was the target of a kidnapping plot that was foiled by law enforcement.
- The husband of former House speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-California) was attacked with a hammer in their home.
- Lawmakers in D.C. have said they face threats to themselves and their families if they don’t vote a certain way.
Experts have been saying for years that political violence is too prevalent in America. “Every time I see a political candidate speaking in open-air events, or at a parade, because the temperature is so high in America right now, I personally feel nervous for them,” said Gina Ligon, who leads a counterterrorism center at the University of Nebraska at Omaha that’s connected to the Department of Homeland Security. Ligon said that politicians at all levels of government last year received the highest number of threats since her organization started tracking them a decade ago, and 2025 is on track to be even higher. “The temperature is boiling across the political spectrum, and lights are blinking red for counterterrorism professionals across a range of threats,” she said. “I don’t know what’s left for us as a country to discuss when even a discussion and a debate over the issues results in violence and leads to the death of a good man in this country,” Fox News host Will Cain, who described himself as “a good friend” of Kirk, said on his show Wednesday. Here’s what experts on terrorism and political violence are discussing in the wake of the latest violent act. People often use violence against politicians to intimidate Police haven’t yet shared a motive for the shooter. But Lilliana Mason, a political scientist at Johns Hopkins University and a co-author of the book “Radical American Partisanship,” told me in June after Minnesota lawmakers were shot that political violence is usually designed to send a message to other authority figures. “Sometimes it is used to simply eliminate a political enemy, but more often it is used to intimidate others from speaking or acting,” she said. “It rejects the premise of democratic governance and instills an atmosphere of fear and distrust.” In that way, it can be corrosive to democracy. Kirk was preparing to speak at what was supposed to be a peaceful — if not rhetorically heated — debate at a college campus in Utah, amid a largely friendly audience. A woman who attended with her toddler told The Washington Post she liked how Kirk was an unabashed White Christian and wanted to hear him speak. Instead, she had to grab her baby’s arm and run when she heard gunshots. Anti-government sentiment is a big driver of political extremism and violence After Kirk’s killing, Trump blamed liberals for the rise in political violence: “This kind of rhetoric is directly responsible for the terrorism that we’re seeing in our country today, and it must stop right now,” he said in an Oval Office video posted on social media that many on the left read as menacing. “My administration will find each and every one of those who contributed to this atrocity and to other political violence.” Ligon says that political violence is often perpetrated by anti-authority extremists. Ideologically, those groups tend to be horseshoe in nature, meaning there are very conservative and very liberal actors. But the overriding commitment extremist groups tend to share is one that attacks the establishment. “It’s hard to classify them into one political party,” she said. “They just hate the government and symbols of authority.” “We are going through what I call an era of violent populism,” Robert Pape, who heads the Project on Security and Threats at the University of Chicago, told The Post’s Naftali Bendavid. “It is a historically high era of assassination, assassination attempts, violent protests, and it is occurring on both the right and the left.” Trump’s rhetoric plays a role in heightened tensions in politics, experts say Not a single expert I’ve talked to over the years blamed Trump directly for any political violence. But they say he stands out among modern-day presidents for embracing dehumanizing rhetoric that can make political violence easier. He often shows little interest in lowering the rhetorical temperature. He’s encouraged violence at his rallies and mocked his opponents (such as Pelosi’s husband) when they have been victims of violence. And he called Jan. 6 defendants “hostages” on the campaign trail, before pardoning virtually all of them when he returned to the White House. During the 2024 campaign, he described some of his political opponents as “vermin,” warned that immigrants are “poisoning the blood of our country” and said there would be a “bloodbath” if he lost. Before Kirk died, Trump spent weeks claiming that Democratic-led cities are crime-ridden and sending troops into D.C. as a testing ground for other cities. Experts say using troops in this manner is a form of intimidation. And it’s not clear how Kirk’s killing will factor into Trump’s drive on crime: This rare but high-profile shooting happened in a deeply conservative part of the country, where Republicans recently loosened already very lax restrictions on firearms on campus. “One thing Trump has not been doing historically is condemning violence, no matter who it targets,” Mason said. | 
