{"id":1210,"date":"2025-07-13T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-07-13T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/logicalware.net\/?p=1210"},"modified":"2025-07-15T19:24:21","modified_gmt":"2025-07-15T19:24:21","slug":"threats-against-public-officials-persist-in-year-after-trump-assassination-attempt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/logicalware.net\/index.php\/2025\/07\/13\/threats-against-public-officials-persist-in-year-after-trump-assassination-attempt\/","title":{"rendered":"Threats against public officials persist in year after Trump assassination attempt"},"content":{"rendered":"

Threats against public officials have persisted in the year since the first assassination attempt<\/a> of President Trump, as experts in political violence<\/a> warn the upward trend shows no sign of fizzling out.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The failed attack \u2014 one of two attempts on Trump\u2019s life as he sought a second term in the White House \u2014 yielded sharp condemnations of violence and ample calls to turn down the heat<\/a> on political rhetoric.  <\/p>\n

But since then, high-profile attacks have continued to mount, from the assassination<\/a> of a Democratic lawmaker in Minnesota to Monday’s shootout<\/a> at a U.S. Border Patrol facility in Texas. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe continue to see a normalizing of political violence, a very casual acceptance that some elected officials may be legitimate targets for violence \u2014 based on conspiracies, based on disinformation \u2014 and unfortunately and tragically, we’ve seen that that has real world consequences,\u201d said Jon Lewis, a research fellow at the Program on Extremism at the George Washington University. <\/p>\n

“When there is so much rhetoric…it’s only a matter of time before someone with a grievance and a gun finds that justification,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

In 2024, there were 180 federal arrests for threatening a public official \u2014 the highest number in the last 12 years, said Seamus Hughes, a researcher at University of Nebraska Omaha\u2019s National Counterterrorism Innovation, Technology, and Education Center (NCITE). <\/p>\n

Hughes said toward the end of the Biden administration, several incidents that would typically go to a local district attorney or be met with a warning from the FBI resulted in federal arrests. It\u2019s clear, he said, that law enforcement and prosecutors want to \u201cput their finger on the scale\u201d on such threats, taking cases that they wouldn\u2019t have five years ago.<\/p>\n

Despite those efforts, it\u2019s particularly challenging to disrupt lone actor plots, Lewis said, \u201ceven if you are doing everything else perfectly.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cThey’re taking it seriously, without a doubt, but how much can they do?\u201d Lewis said.  <\/p>\n

Threats against the judiciary have also rocketed, especially as adverse rulings to Trump\u2019s far-reaching agenda have put targets on the backs of individual judges. <\/p>\n

U.S. District Judge Esther Salas, whose son was killed<\/a> in 2020 by a misogynistic lawyer who had once appeared before her, spurring her advocacy for better protections for judges, said at a legal forum<\/a> last month that she\u2019s tracked 408 threats against judges this year. <\/p>\n

“We’re going to break records, people, and not in a good way,” the judge said. <\/p>\n

High-profile attacks have put a spotlight on the warming threat climate in the U.S., but local officials have also faced rising threats and harassment, often without the greater protection of heavy security or a national profile. <\/p>\n

\u201cI’m more concerned about the city council member who gets a threat and doesn’t have that apparatus behind them,\u201d Hughes said. \u201cThey don’t know who to call…they don’t know if they need to move their family out in the middle of the night to a hotel, they don’t know what to do when they’re doxxed, and maybe they don’t raise their hand next time to run for office, because it’s not worth the hassle and trouble and threats.  <\/p>\n

\u201cThat has a chilling effect on democracy,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

More than 200 reported threat and harassment incidents against local officials have occurred this year, according to Princeton University\u2019s Bridging Divides Initiative (BDI)<\/a>. Those incidents were largely driven by community-specific disputes and national issues like immigration policy and LGBTQ rights.<\/p>\n

Last year, roughly 600 incidents were recorded around the country \u2014 about a 14% increase from 2023 and an even larger jump from 2022, said Shannon Hiller, BDI\u2019s executive director. <\/p>\n

Hiller said a third of surveyed local officials fear experiencing hostility in the future, and two-thirds say they\u2019re less likely to engage in activities \u201cessential for a healthy democracy,\u201d such as running for re-election or participating in public events.  <\/p>\n

Additionally, three-quarters of those surveyed said they believe the hostility is connected somehow to their policy positions, leaving many more wary of taking on complex or controversial issues in their work, she said.  <\/p>\n

\u201cThis \u2018all-at-once’ dynamic is part of what we hear local officials describing as this… \u2018fire hose\u2019 or \u2018the worst it’s ever been,\u2019\u201d Hiller said.  <\/p>\n

Threats against public officials were already on the rise when the attempt on Trump\u2019s life occurred.  <\/p>\n

The U.S. Capitol Police said in February<\/a> that threats against members of Congress more than doubled from 2017 to 2024. Last year, USCP\u2019s threat assessment team investigated more than 9,400 \u201cconcerning statements and direct threats\u201d against lawmakers, their families and staff.  <\/p>\n

In its annual assessment of threats<\/a>, published in October, the Department of Homeland Security named politically motivated violence among its top concerns for 2025.  <\/p>\n

The report noted that online users in forums frequented by some domestic violent extremists were increasingly calling for violence linked to the 2024 election and \u201csocially divisive topics,\u201d including immigration, abortion rights and LGBTQ issues. It predicted that extremists would continue to rely on those issues to \u201cjustify violence and promote their causes\u201d into 2025.<\/p>\n

The motive for Trump\u2019s first attempted assassin in Butler, Pa., has still not been revealed<\/a> a year later. But his second alleged would-be-assassin’s federal criminal case in Florida is ongoing and could yield new answers soon.  <\/p>\n

The defendant, Ryan Routh, faces five counts including attempted assassination of a major presidential candidate over allegations he pushed the muzzle of a rifle through the perimeter of Trump\u2019s West Palm Beach golf course while the former president was a hole away, prompting a Secret Service agent to fire.  <\/p>\n

\u201cDear world, this was an assassination attempt on Donald Trump but I am so sorry I failed you,\u201d he allegedly wrote in a letter detailing his plans months before the attempted attack. \u201cI tried my best and gave it all the gumption I could muster.”  <\/p>\n

He\u2019s set to go to trial on Sept. 8<\/a>, but this week, asked a federal judge to let him terminate his public defender and represent himself. <\/p>\n

U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, who also oversaw Trump\u2019s criminal case in Florida before it was dismissed, said she\u2019ll hold arguments on the matter later this month.  <\/p>\n

The experts agreed that, without intervention, it\u2019s unlikely threats against public officials will taper off. However, it shouldn\u2019t be seen as destiny.  <\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t have to accept this climate of hostility as inevitable or a new normal that we just have to live with now,” Hiller said. “Whether it’s the assassination attempts on the current president when he was campaigning, or the assassination in Minnesota, these can be inflection points where we decide to say this is unacceptable.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Threats against public officials have persisted in the year since the first assassination attempt of President Trump, as experts in political violence warn the upward trend shows no sign of<\/p>\n

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