Former Representative Rahm Emanuel once said, “You never want a serious crisis to go to waste.” He meant that moments of crisis provide political opportunities. After the violent assassination of right-wing podcaster Charlie Kirk, the Trump movement wasted no time turning tragedy into strategy, using it to inflame division and accelerate the country’s drift toward authoritarianism.
Democrats, from Barack Obama on down, quickly condemned the shooting. But their denouncements didn’t matter to Republicans intent on weaponizing grief. Within hours, right-wing commentators, lawmakers, and Trump himself blamed “the radical left.” On the House floor, Rep. Anna Paulina Luna shouted at Democrats, “Y’all caused this.” Rep. Nancy Mace piled on: “Democrats own what happened today.” At the time of this writing, no one has been arrested, and no motive has been established.
The Trump family quickly joined in. Eric Trump went on television claiming bullets were “only going one way.” On Truth Social, his father declared that the left’s rhetoric was directly responsible for Kirk’s murder: “This kind of rhetoric is directly responsible for the terrorism that we’re seeing in our country today, and it must stop right now.”
Trump then recounted examples of violence against conservatives: Rep. Steve Scalise’s shooting, an alleged assassination attempt against himself, and Kirk’s killing. Conveniently missing from his list were the shooting of former Rep. Gabby Giffords, the January 6th insurrection he incited, the hammer attack on Paul Pelosi, the attempted kidnapping of Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, and the arson attack on Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro’s home. Selective outrage is the point: violence is intolerable only when it targets his side.
The truth is, Trump has long seen political violence as a tool, not a threat. From January 6th to his recent fantasies about invading Chicago “Apocalypse Now” style, he has encouraged violence when it benefits him. Kirk’s death is not being used to heal or unify it is being exploited to rally his base, silence dissent, and advance authoritarian goals.
But this is bigger than Trump. America has always been a violent nation—founded on stolen land, built on slavery, expanded through conquest, and sustained by force. At home, we tolerate mass shootings as routine; abroad, we use military might to advance our interests. Violence, in many ways, is as American as apple pie.
The country now faces a choice: keep walking the path of division and bloodshed, or elect leaders willing to lower the temperature, build bridges, and bring people together. History suggests which road America usually takes. The question now is whether it has the courage to choose differently.
Democrats, from Barack Obama on down, quickly condemned the shooting. But their denouncements didn’t matter to Republicans intent on weaponizing grief. Within hours, right-wing commentators, lawmakers, and Trump himself blamed “the radical left.” On the House floor, Rep. Anna Paulina Luna shouted at Democrats, “Y’all caused this.” Rep. Nancy Mace piled on: “Democrats own what happened today.” At the time of this writing, no one has been arrested, and no motive has been established.
The Trump family quickly joined in. Eric Trump went on television claiming bullets were “only going one way.” On Truth Social, his father declared that the left’s rhetoric was directly responsible for Kirk’s murder: “This kind of rhetoric is directly responsible for the terrorism that we’re seeing in our country today, and it must stop right now.”
Trump then recounted examples of violence against conservatives: Rep. Steve Scalise’s shooting, an alleged assassination attempt against himself, and Kirk’s killing. Conveniently missing from his list were the shooting of former Rep. Gabby Giffords, the January 6th insurrection he incited, the hammer attack on Paul Pelosi, the attempted kidnapping of Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, and the arson attack on Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro’s home. Selective outrage is the point: violence is intolerable only when it targets his side.
The truth is, Trump has long seen political violence as a tool, not a threat. From January 6th to his recent fantasies about invading Chicago “Apocalypse Now” style, he has encouraged violence when it benefits him. Kirk’s death is not being used to heal or unify it is being exploited to rally his base, silence dissent, and advance authoritarian goals.
But this is bigger than Trump. America has always been a violent nation—founded on stolen land, built on slavery, expanded through conquest, and sustained by force. At home, we tolerate mass shootings as routine; abroad, we use military might to advance our interests. Violence, in many ways, is as American as apple pie.
The country now faces a choice: keep walking the path of division and bloodshed, or elect leaders willing to lower the temperature, build bridges, and bring people together. History suggests which road America usually takes. The question now is whether it has the courage to choose differently.
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