Trump Threatens Perceived Enemies in Wake of Assassination Attempt

Donald Trump’s campaign published a list Monday of people that it appears to blame for the recent assassination attempt against the former president. The list did not include the actual assassin, but rather a slate of statements from journalists and Democratic politicians.

“Make no mistake—this psycho was egged on by the rhetoric and lies that have flowed from Kamala Harris, Democrats, and their Fake News allies for years,” read the campaign’s statement.

Trump—who has been accused of interfering with the 2020 presidential election, called his political enemies “vermin,” promised to imprison his opponents, vowed to begin the largest deportations in the history of the United States, and spread racist lies about Haitian immigrants eating cats and dogs—is now accusing the other side of going too far by … pointing out that he did any of these things.

Statements from Harris appeared on the list three times, and President Joe Biden six times. The campaign wrote that Harris had repeatedly called Trump “a threat to our democracy and fundamental freedoms.”

The list also included statements from politicians such as Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, with a link to him speaking about “weird” MAGA Republicans. “Are they a threat to democracy? Yes,” said Walz. “Are they going to take our rights away? Yes. Are they going to put people’s lives in danger? Yes.”

It also inexplicably listed Walz’s wife, Gwen, who had simply said, “Buh-bye, Donald Trump,” during a rally—not quite the threat Trump’s team are pretending it is. But the kind of magical thinking on display in this list is certainly in line with Trump’s victim complex, which predated any failed attempt on his life.

Representatives Nancy Pelosi, Adam Schiff, and “Top Harris surrogate Liz Cheney” were among more than two dozen other Democrats who had, at one point or another, called Trump a threat.

Trump’s campaign also claimed that any journalist who honestly reported on his blatant use of extremist rhetoric—which has incited violence time and time again—was actually guilty of inciting violence against him.

The campaign included snippets of “deplorable commentary“ from journalists and news outlets covering Trump’s second attempted assassination. The campaign’s decision to identify journalists by name shifted the purpose of its list, not to a round-up of statements but a list of political targets.

The campaign included NBC’s Lester Holt, who said that the “apparent assassination attempt comes amid increasingly fierce rhetoric on the campaign trail” and cited the “baseless claims” of the Republican ticket. It’s unclear what Trump’s team found objectionable about this particular phrasing of facts.

The campaign listed MSNBC’s Alex Witt, who merely questioned whether the Trump campaign might consider toning down its rhetoric in response to the near violence.

The list included several other journalists by name, from The Bulwark, The Washington Post, Meidas Touch News, The Atlantic, and New York magazine. Each observation by an outlet seemed more self-evident than the last. At one point, the campaign seemed to take issue with NBC News referring to the assassination attempt as the “golf course incident.”

“Democrats and the Fake News must immediately cease their inflammatory, violent rhetoric against President Trump—which was mimicked by yesterday’s would-be [assassin],” wrote the campaign. “President Trump said it best: ‘Because of this Communist Left Rhetoric, the bullets are flying, and it will only get worse!’”

If what’s happened in Springfield, Ohio, is anything to go by, attacks from the former president’s mouth seem to sprout bomb threats. It’s clear that Trump doesn’t care about any of that (he said as much on Friday). Instead, the former president is taking the opportunity to continue painting targets on the back of anyone who says something he doesn’t like—and the repercussions could be dangerous.

A local Ohio sheriff has thrown himself into electoral politics, suggesting in a social media post last week that his constituents send him the personal addresses of locals with Kamala Harris’s campaign signs in their yards.

Portage County Sheriff Bruce Zuchowski issued the missive on Facebook Friday, referring to the vice president as a “Flip-Flopping, Laughing Hyena.”

“I say … write down all the addresses of the people who had her signs in their yards!” Zuchowski wrote. “Sooo … when the Illegal human ‘Locust’ (which she supports!) Need places to live … We’ll already have the addresses of their New families … who supported their arrival!”

The post was seemingly made in reference to a virulent conspiracy theory spread by top Republicans, including Donald Trump and J.D. Vance, about Haitian migrants eating other residents’ pets in Springfield, Ohio—roughly 200 miles away from Zuchowski’s district.

People in the area were infuriated by Zuchowski’s post, including local Republican leadership, one of whom—Portage County Commissioner Tony Badalamenti—resigned in protest from the county’s Republican Central Committee. Badalamenti said in a Facebook video that “this is not the leadership I want to be part of.”

“[Zuchowski] posted that we should all copy down the addresses of the people that display political signs which are different from our beliefs,” Badalamenti said. “It scares people. It’s called bullying, from the highest law enforcement official in Portage County.”

Springfield shut down two of its elementary schools Monday, while two local colleges switched to all-virtual classes and activities. The city also canceled its annual CultureFest due to safety concerns.

The city saw even more closures last week. Springfield evacuated two elementary schools and closed a middle school on Friday after receiving information from the Springfield Police Division. The day before, several other schools and a significant portion of Springfield’s government facilities—including City Hall, the Bureau of Motor Vehicles, the Ohio License Bureau, the Springfield Academy of Excellence, and Fulton Elementary School—were shut down due to bomb threats.

Multiple city officials and Ohio Governor Mike DeWine have stated in no uncertain terms that the conspiracy is false.

Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts knows that Justice Samuel Alito’s antics and ideology are getting out of hand—and that’s why he’s taking care to protect him from the public eye.

The New York Times reports that Roberts had initially assigned Alito to write the majority opinion in a case ruling that prosecutors overreached by charging some January 6 rioters with obstruction of justice in April. But in May, Roberts took over the opinion himself, only four days after revelations that an upside-down U.S. flag, a symbol of the “Stop the Steal” movement, was displayed outside Alito’s home soon after the January 6 attack.

Switching authors on a Supreme Court opinion is unusual, the Times reported, citing court experts, and furthermore, Roberts had already written majority opinions in seven of the high court’s opinions during the term. It’s unclear whether Roberts’s decision was related to the flag incident, and none of the nine Supreme Court justices responded to the newspaper for comment.

Such an unusual occurrence on the court will raise suspicions, though, especially as Roberts keeps rejecting efforts on Supreme Court ethics reform. Despite Roberts’s conservatism, he has been a more moderate voice compared to his right-wing peers, and has voiced concerns about the legacy and image of the Supreme Court. But that didn’t stop him from ruling in favor of Donald Trump on the issue of presidential immunity, dramatically expanding the privileges of the presidency and limiting its accountability.

In the Times’ writing, Roberts perhaps thought that his immunity ruling would be seen as persuasive and nonpartisan. But the backlash to the decision demonstrated the opposite effect, with criticism over the Supreme Court essentially preventing Trump from experiencing any consequences for his actions.

Roberts’s move could indicate that there are cracks in the solidarity among the Supreme Court’s six conservative justices. Or it could just be the chief justice scrambling to protect the court’s public image, which has taken massive hits thanks to various ethics scandals as well as unpopular rulings, such as the presidential immunity case and the overturning of Roe v. Wade. Either way, on some level, even the chief justice has to know that the Supreme Court is not functioning as it should, and changes need to be made.

Donald Trump’s and J.D. Vance’s lies about Haitian immigrants have continued to create chaos in the city of Springfield, Ohio.

Two elementary schools in Springfield were evacuated Monday morning in response to bomb threats. Simon Kenton Elementary School and Kenwood Elementary School became the fifth and sixth Springfield buildings to be targeted by bomb threats in the last week.

On Friday, Perrin Woods and Snowhill Elementary were evacuated and Roosevelt Middle School was closed altogether.

The continued threats are a direct response to the right-wing hysteria around claims of immigrants eating their neighbors’ pets that are being churned out by the Republican ticket. There have been no credible reports of immigrants eating pets, and the racist rumors have been dispelled by Springfield City Manager Bryan Heck, Springfield Mayor Rob Rue, and Ohio Governor Mike DeWine.

The city announced Monday that it would cancel its annual CultureFest for the safety of its residents and visitors.

The FBI is investigating threats of a shooting and a bombing that were sent to Wittenberg University in Springfield over the weekend, which were specifically in response to Republicans’ outlandish claims about the immigrant population. On Monday, the university announced that classes would be held remotely and that all activities and sports were canceled for the day.

“Both messages targeted members of our local Haitian community,” said a statement from the university. “Wittenberg Police are cooperating with the Springfield Police Division and the FBI as they continue to investigate these threats, which follow similar threats made toward city offices, healthcare establishments, local schools, and other locations in the area.”

Clark State College, a nearby community college, also took “proactive measures” to keep its students safe and announced it would be going remote for the week.

The FBI’s Cincinnati field office said in a statement Sunday that they are “working in coordination with the Springfield police department and Wittenberg University to determine the credibility of recent threats, share information, and take appropriate investigative action.”

Over the weekend, two hospitals in Springfield went into lockdown after receiving bomb threats. Vance, who is an Ohio senator, had previously claimed that the city’s health facilities were “overwhelmed” by the city’s population of migrants and that the spread of communicable diseases such as tuberculosis and HIV were on the rise. This was after Ohio’s Department of Health director Bruce Vanderhoff said last Tuesday that Springfield has “not seen a measurable, discernible increase in vaccine-preventable illness.”

Despite the fact Vance admitted that he was using claims about migrants eating pets to raise the profile of his and Trump’s favorite bogeyman, undocumented immigration, to a national level, Vance balked at the idea that he was responsible for inciting the bomb threats against his own constituents, calling the suggestion “disgusting.”

In Donald Trump’s first interview following the apparent attempt on his life on Sunday, he blamed the incident on his political rivals, telling Fox News that the would-be assassin “believed” and “acted on” the rhetoric of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.

“Their rhetoric is causing me to be shot at, when I am the one who is going to save the country, and they are the ones that are destroying the country—both from the inside and out,” Trump told Fox. “They do it with a combination of rhetoric and lawsuits they wrap me up in.… These are the things that dangerous fools, like the shooter, listen to—that is the rhetoric they listen to, and the same with the first one.”

Trump assigned particular blame to Biden and Harris for characterizing him as a “threat to democracy,” while painting themselves as “unity” leaders. “They are the opposite,” he said, calling them “people that want to destroy our country.”

Trump went on to accuse his opponents of using “highly inflammatory language.” “I can use it too—far better than they can—but I don’t,” he added.

Critics were quick to note the irony in Trump’s comments, given his history of extreme, incendiary rhetoric. This past week, for instance, Trump said that Haitian residents of Springfield, Ohio, are abducting and eating pets, amplifying a baseless rumor that has resulted in threats against local schools, hospitals, and municipal buildings.

Even while urging Democrats to tamp down their rhetoric, Trump demonstrated his penchant for the inflammatory, describing his political opponents as forces of evil: “These are people who want to destroy our country,” Trump told Fox. “It is called the enemy from within. They are the real threat.”

In a post on Truth Social Monday morning, Trump wrote “FIGHT, FIGHT, FIGHT!!!!!” and linked to a statement about the attempt that says “there are people in this world who will do whatever it takes to stop us.”

Postdebate polling has signaled that Vice President Kamala Harris has gained an advantage over Donald Trump in the 2024 presidential race—but the shifting dynamic hasn’t thwarted Trump’s campaign, which apparently has zero interest in attracting new voters.

On Sunday, the Republican presidential nominee lashed out online, insisting that Americans who support Harris are “stupid.”

“All rich, job creating people, that support Comrade Kamala Harris, you are STUPID,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “She is seeking an UNREALIZED TAX ON CAPITAL GAINS. If this tax actually gets enacted, it guarantees that we will have a 1929 style Depression. Perhaps even the thought of it would lead to calamity—But at least appraisers and accountants would do well!”

The day before, Trump practically threw away Republican voters who had decided to hop on the Harris bandwagon, suggesting to KTNV-TV that those individuals were “taken care of” by foreign entities such as China.

“If there was a Republican for Harris here in the room with us, what would you tell that person in terms of persuading them to vote for you as opposed to voting for Harris?” asked the reporter.

“I probably wouldn’t tell them anything, because usually it would be maybe a personality problem, maybe they don’t like the way I was tough on China,” Trump said. “You know a lot of them don’t want me to be tough on China. A lot of them don’t want me to be tough on anybody because they’re taken care of by people.”

“But for every one they have, I have many, I have so many that have left the Democrats and they’ve come here,” Trump continued, referring to West Virginia Governor Jim Justice, who switched to the GOP in 2017 after being elected as a Democrat.

Rudy Giuliani just struck out again in court.

The former attorney for Donald Trump, ex-mayor of New York City, and conservative gadfly tried to sue President Joe Biden in October last year for defamation for calling him a “Russian pawn” in a 2020 presidential debate against Trump. On Monday morning, a judge dismissed the lawsuit, saying Giuliani “utterly failed” to carry his burden.

At the time, Giuliani claimed that he lost clients and podcast listeners after Biden said in the 2020 debate to Trump, “Buddy, Rudy Giuliani, he is being used as a Russian pawn, he is being fed information that is Russian that is not true.”

“Four, five former heads of the CIA say that what [Trump] is saying” about the laptop “is a bunch of garbage,” Biden said later in the debate, referring to Giuliani’s purported proof that Hunter Biden was involved in corrupt business dealings in Ukraine. “Nobody believes it except … his good friend Rudy Giuliani.”

Giuliani filed the lawsuit in New Hampshire to take advantage of the state’s defamation laws, and that was why the case was dismissed without prejudice, Judge Paul J. Barbadoro wrote. This means that the former New York mayor can refile the lawsuit in a different court.

But where would he get the money for another frivolous lawsuit? Giuliani was successfully sued for defamation himself by two Georgia election workers last year after he accused them of manipulating ballots, and owes them $148 million as result. He then unsuccessfully filed for bankruptcy, leading to the poll workers suing him again to seize control of his assets, including his real estate holdings.

Giuliani’s financial difficulties are almost too massive to be believed. He lost his accountant over his mismanaged debts, tried and failed to persuade Trump to help settle his seven-figure legal fees (Trump refused), had his WABC radio show canceled for spewing 2020 election lies, and started his own coffee brand, “Rudy Coffee,” in an effort to funnel in some extra cash.

The man simply can’t stop spending money he doesn’t have. His creditors in May called out the disbarred attorney for his “extravagant lifestyle” and “gross mismanagement,” saying Giulani had “accomplished almost nothing” in his bankruptcy case. He still owes money to his former attorneys, who say he only paid them $214,000 of nearly $1.6 million in legal expenses.

Giuliani also has pending criminal cases against him in Georgia and Arizona for election interference and is facing a pending sexual harassment lawsuit from one of his former assistants. Once dubbed “America’s mayor” after the September 11 attacks, Giuliani has ruined his reputation and can’t stop embarrassing himself.

Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene escalated a conspiracy theory about the presidential debate so blatantly baseless that even she couldn’t back it up.

In the wake of Donald Trump’s disastrous debate performance last week, during which he falsely claimed that immigrants were eating their neighbors’ pets, Republicans have scrambled to create a narrative that might explain away their candidate’s flailing.

Conservatives have begun claiming that there was a so-called “whistleblower” at ABC News who could prove that Kamala Harris had received the questions in advance and had an agreement with the moderators that she would not be fact-checked. Such claims appeared to originate from a few far-right accounts, including someone who participated in the January 6 riot, with absolutely no evidence to support them.

The MAGA Republican representative from Georgia took the outlandish claims a step further Sunday.

“The ABC whistleblower who claimed Kamala Harris was given debate questions ahead of the debate has died in a car crash according to news reports,” Greene wrote in a post on X.

Four hours later, Greene tried to walk back her claim, without retracting the actual misinformation.

“This story appears to be false, and I’m glad to hear it,” Greene wrote, referring to reports that the so-called “whistleblower” had died. “We need a serious investigation into the whistleblower’s report that Kamala Harris was given debate questions ahead of time from ABC!”

Greene did not delete her original post, but a lengthy community note appeared beneath it, which clarified that the unverified story had come from a random WordPress blog.

J.D. Vance would apparently rather protect Donald Trump’s decision to pal around with self-described “proud Islamophobe” and 9/11 conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer than stand up for his own wife.

Trump has been seen with Loomer several times over the last couple of weeks, with the pair getting eyebrow-raisingly close (Trump’s hand has been spotted in the small of Loomer’s back) while Melania Trump has largely remained out of the limelight. Loomer attended a 9/11 memorial service with Trump and also accompanied him to the presidential debate.

In an interview Sunday with NBC News, Vance was asked directly about his and his wife Usha Vance’s opinions on some of Loomer’s overt racism, including her claim that Vice President Kamala Harris’s ascendency to the Oval Office would make the White House “smell like curry.” But Vance wouldn’t take a stand against the alt-right ally.

“Senator, you are married to an Indian American woman. What was your reaction to hearing those comments specifically?” asked Meet the Press’s Kristen Welker.

Vance refused to immediately speak on the topic, sidestepping instead to briefly elaborate on his conspiracy that Haitian migrants are eating people’s pets in Springfield, Ohio.

“You asked about Laura Loomer. Look, Laura Loomer is not affiliated with the Trump campaign. She said something about curry in the White House that I first read about this morning because I knew you would ask me about it,” Vance said. “Look, Kristen, I make a mean chicken curry. I don’t think it’s insulting for anyone to talk about their dietary preferences or what they want to do in the White House.

“Do I agree with what Laura Loomer said about Kamala Harris? No, I don’t,” Vance continued. “I also don’t think that this is actually an issue of national import. Is Laura Loomer running for president? No. Kamala Harris is running for president, and whether you’re eating curry at your dinner table or fried chicken, things have gotten more expensive thanks to her policies.”

It’s worth noting that not only is Vance’s response pathetic, but he also manages to incorporate racist stereotypes about the food eaten by both of Harris’s cultures: Indian people and Black people.

But even when given a second chance to disavow Loomer’s comments, Vance couldn’t give it up. Instead, the vice presidential pick blamed the drama on chronically online behavior before continuing to attack Harris’s economic policies and jabbing fingers at the media for covering the far-right conspiracy theorist’s influence on the Republican presidential nominee.

Appearing on Fox News Sunday, Lara Trump, the Republican National Committee co-chair and daughter-in-law of Donald Trump, defended the Trump campaign’s lies about Haitian immigrants abducting and eating pets in Springfield, Ohio.

Given that the rumors amplified last week by the Trump-Vance campaign have been repeatedly discredited by Springfield police and local government officials, Fox News’s Howard Kurtz asked, “Do you now accept, based on what local officials say, that this is untrue?”

“It’s not up to me to decide that,” Lara Trump replied. “This information came directly from the people of Springfield. No one at our campaign—Donald Trump didn’t make this up himself. You heard from people at a city council meeting, I believe, that they were very concerned about what’s going on,” she continued, referring back to rumors roundly debunked by those on the ground in Springfield.

“I think it’s a shame that people are trying to discredit the impact that the illegal immigration in this country has had on towns like Springfield, Ohio,” she added—a sentiment that runs against remarks made by Ohio’s Trump-supporting Republican Governor, Mike DeWine, that same day. DeWine called the smears against the Haitian Springfield residents “garbage,” adding, “They’re here legally, and they want to work, and they are, in fact, working.”

Lara Trump was not the only member of Team Trump asked to answer for the campaign’s lies this weekend. J.D. Vance told CNN’s Dana Bash, “If I have to create stories so that the American media actually pays attention to the suffering of the American people, then that’s what I’m going to do.”

The demonization of the Haitian residents in Springfield has given rise to threats against government offices, public schools, and hospitals.