{"id":346683,"date":"2025-12-13T16:35:16","date_gmt":"2025-12-13T16:35:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/346683\/"},"modified":"2025-12-13T16:35:16","modified_gmt":"2025-12-13T16:35:16","slug":"trump-attacks-on-political-opponents-spur-a-surge-of-threats-nbc-news-review-finds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/346683\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump attacks on political opponents spur a surge of threats, NBC News review finds"},"content":{"rendered":"

They also come as threats have been on the rise against federal lawmakers. The Capitol Police said in an assessment in February<\/a> that threats against lawmakers, their families and staff increased in 2024 for the second year in a row, going from about 8,000 concerning statements and direct threats in 2023 to nearly 9,500 last year.<\/p>\n

Criminally charged threats and attacks against members of Congress jumped more than 600% during Trump\u2019s first term compared to President Barack Obama\u2019s second term \u2014 148 in the Trump years compared to 21 during the later Obama years, according to a study <\/a>by the Chicago Project on Security and Threats (CPOST), a nonpartisan research center at the University of Chicago.<\/p>\n

The number of charged threats remained relatively unchanged during President Joe Biden\u2019s four years in office, with 140 people charged, the study found.<\/p>\n

While the bulk of the legislators threatened from 2000 to 2012 were Democrats, the survey found the victims have been split nearly 50-50 from 2013 to the end of last year.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are in a new era of political violence,\u201d the study\u2019s author, University of Chicago professor Robert Pape, told NBC News, pointing to the assassination attempts<\/a> on Trump, the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk<\/a>, the assassination of Democratic Minnesota state Rep. Melissa Hortman<\/a> and the firebombing <\/a>of the home of Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, a Democrat.<\/p>\n

Americans are broadly trending toward<\/a> seeing overheated rhetoric as a factor in episodes of political violence, as opposed to just seeing those incidents as the acts of individual disturbed perpetrators, according to NBC News polling on five instances of political violence in the last 15 years, the most recent being Kirk\u2019s murder in September. Sixty-one percent of respondents in a poll earlier this year said that extreme political rhetoric was a significant factor in Kirk\u2019s death, compared to just 24% who said rhetoric was to blame for the 2011 shooting of then-Rep. Gabby Giffords.<\/p>\n

Law enforcement has not identified the sources of the new wave of threats, but many of Trump\u2019s targets say the president provoked them with over-the-top accusations of criminality on the part of Democrats and betrayal on the part of his fellow Republicans.<\/p>\n

A spokeswoman for the White House, Abigail Jackson, said the president is concerned about political violence and hasn\u2019t done anything wrong.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs the survivor of two assassination attempts \u2014 and recently watching his dear friend Charlie be assassinated \u2014 no one understands the dangers of political violence more than President Trump,\u201d Jackson said in a statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut President Trump, and the entire Administration, will not hesitate to speak the truth and call out Democrats for smearing their opponents as Nazis, encouraging members of the military to ignore lawful orders, and enabling violent criminals to invade our country. Sharing these facts is not inciting violence and the media would be wrong to make such an accusation,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

Trump accuses Democrats of sedition<\/p>\n

The video <\/a>that led Trump to accuse the six Democrats of sedition encouraged members of the military and intelligence agencies to \u201crefuse illegal orders,\u201d not lawful ones.<\/p>\n

The lawmakers, Sens. Mark Kelly of Arizona and Elissa Slotkin of Michigan, and Reps. Jason Crow of Colorado, Chrissy Houlahan and Chris Deluzio of Pennsylvania and Maggie Goodlander of New Hampshire, are all veterans of military or intelligence agencies.<\/p>\n

\u201cLike us, you all swore an oath to protect and defend this Constitution. Right now, the threats coming to our Constitution aren\u2019t just coming from abroad but from right here at home. Our laws are clear. You can refuse illegal orders. You must refuse illegal orders,\u201d they said in their Nov. 18 video.<\/p>\n

Two days later, on Nov. 20, Trump responded with a barrage of attacks on Truth Social, accusing the six of \u201cseditious behavior at the highest level.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cEach one of these traitors to our Country should be ARRESTED AND PUT ON TRIAL. Their words cannot be allowed to stand \u2014 We won\u2019t have a Country anymore!!! An example MUST BE SET,\u201d the president wrote<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In another, he wrote: \u201cSEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR<\/a>, punishable by DEATH!\u201d<\/p>\n

Most of the lawmakers said their offices were immediately inundated with death threats.<\/p>\n

Slotkin told reporters that day that \u201cthe shift was immediate.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve had hundreds and hundreds, if not, you know, closer to 1,000 threats come in to our phones, our emails \u2014 all our Senate systems,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

Houlahan said in a Nov. 20 phone interview with NBC News, \u201cThe president of the United States threatened a member of Congress with their life and now I have to worry about my life and about those around me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump told Fox News the next day, \u201cI\u2019m not threatening death, but I think they\u2019re in serious trouble. In the old days, it was death.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another Democrat and frequent Trump target appeared to get caught in the crosshairs as well. Schumer said on Dec. 1 that \u201cmultiple bomb threats<\/a>\u201d had been sent to his offices around New York with \u201cthe email subject line \u2018MAGA\u2019 and from an email address alleging the \u20182020 election was rigged.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump feuds with Marjorie Taylor Greene<\/p>\n

Trump also used fiery language about Greene,<\/a> a Republican and a longtime ally, in the same time period, calling her a \u201ctraitor\u201d and a \u201cdisgrace\u201d after she said Trump should spend less time on foreign affairs and broke with the administration on issues like health care, Israel and the release of the Justice Department\u2019s Jeffrey Epstein records.<\/p>\n

Trump announced he was withdrawing his support<\/a> for Greene in mid-November, calling her a \u201cranting lunatic\u201d who has \u201cgone far left\u201d in the first of several posts about her on the weekend of Nov. 14.<\/p>\n

Greene said on X<\/a> that weekend that she\u2019d been bombarded by threats that \u201care being fueled and egged on by the most powerful man in the world. The man I supported and helped get elected.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump was unmoved and kept posting about her, saying she was \u201cworking overtime to try and portray herself as a victim when, in actuality, she is the cause of all of her own problems. The fact is, nobody cares about this Traitor to our Country!\u201d<\/p>\n

Greene said the continued remarks led to a pipe bomb threat at her business and death threats against her son.<\/p>\n

\u201cPresident Trump\u2019s unwarranted and vicious attacks against me were a dog whistle to dangerous radicals that could lead to serious attacks on me and my family,\u201d she wrote on X<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Trump shrugged off her claim.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think her life is in danger. I don\u2019t think, frankly, I don\u2019t think anybody cares about her,\u201d he said at the time.<\/p>\n

Pape said that it\u2019s \u201cto be expected\u201d that the type of language Trump uses could encourage violence.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe routinely uses metaphors and characterizations that we know from decades of studies encourages support for political violence. That\u2019s been true for years now<\/a>,\u201d he said. \u201cDehumanizing people with the word garbage or the word traitor \u2014 with the idea of \u2018they deserve death,\u2019 it lowers the threshold for supporting violence against the target.\u201d<\/p>\n

What makes his \u201ccontinuing pervasive use of morally disengaging metaphors\u201d even more dangerous, Pape said, is his \u201cextreme popularity.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump takes aim at Indiana Republicans<\/p>\n

In recent weeks, Trump has used social media to publicly pressure lawmakers in Indiana <\/a>to support a midcycle redistricting measure aimed at giving Republicans more seats in the U.S. House.<\/p>\n

On Nov. 16, two days after Indiana Senate Leader Rodric Bray announced that the chamber did not have enough support <\/a>to pass the measure, Trump said he was \u201cvery disappointed in Indiana State Senate Republicans,\u201d and called out two by name: Bray and Greg Goode.<\/p>\n

The same post also criticized Gov. Mike Braun, describing him as a friend who \u201cperhaps, is not working the way he should to get the necessary Votes. Considering that Mike wouldn\u2019t be Governor without me (Not even close!), is disappointing!\u201d<\/p>\n

Hours later, Goode was the victim of a swatting incident<\/a> at his home, when someone claiming to be him called the police and said he\u2019d murdered his wife and child.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy front door was kicked in. I had weapons pointed directly at me. I am so grateful that I was home. My wife and son were in the basement getting Christmas decorations,\u201d he said Thursday.<\/p>\n

In the following weeks,<\/a> a total of at least 12 Republican state senators \u2014 in addition to Braun and a member of the state House \u2014 were targeted with threats and swatting attacks. Trump continued posting about Indiana and suggesting any Republican who voted against the redistricting bill should be voted out of office.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for the Indiana State Police, Capt. Ron Galaviz, said that in total there had been \u201ca few dozen threats\u201d made against state senators and representatives in recent weeks.<\/p>\n

The redistricting measure passed in the state House<\/a> on Dec. 5 but failed <\/a>in the state Senate on Thursday.<\/p>\n

State Rep. Tim Yocum, one of a handful of Republican legislators who voted against the redistricting measure in the House, received a bomb threat at his house on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese kinds of threats of violence are never acceptable, and I wholeheartedly condemn them,\u201d Yocum said in a statement.<\/p>\n

Indiana state Senate Whip Mike Crider \u2014 who also voted against the measure \u2014 told NBC affiliate <\/a>13WTHR that he has received three threats this week alone. He cited the threats he received among the reasons he was voting against the redistricting bill.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you get kind of bullied and threatened, if that tactic works, then you can expect to deal with that for the rest of your political career,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd so I\u2019m a kind of guy that, if you start pushing on me, you\u2019re going to get a reaction.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"They also come as threats have been on the rise against federal lawmakers. The Capitol Police said in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":346684,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,3,21,19,22,20,25,24],"class_list":["post-346683","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-america","tag-news","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/346683","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=346683"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/346683\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/346684"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=346683"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=346683"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=346683"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}