Just two days after the shooting death of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, Donald Trump appeared on Fox News and made an awful situation much worse. The president not only falsely claimed that the left was responsible for much of the nation’s political violence — recent evidence suggests otherwise — he also seemed to excuse violence on the right, insisting that most far-right extremists have good reason to commit acts of violence.
“The radicals on the right oftentimes are radical because they don’t want to see crime,” he said.
Such excuse-making was ridiculous for a variety of reasons, but his latest comments on the subject were every bit as unsettling.
Trump threatens Democrats: "It's gonna get worse, and ultimately it's gonna go back on them. Bad things happen when they play these games. I'll give you a little clue — the right is a lot tougher than the left."
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) 2025-09-25T16:09:13.268Z
After a reporter referenced this week’s shooting at an ICE facility in Dallas and asked about political violence, the president began with predictable nonsense: He said the left is “out of control”; he said Democratic Rep. Jasmine Crockett of Texas has a “low IQ”; etc.
But then he went a bit further:
It’s gonna get worse, and ultimately it’s going to go back on them. I mean bad things happen when they play these games. And, uh, I’ll give you a little clue: The right is a lot tougher than the left. But the right’s not doing this, they’re not doing it. And [the left] better not get [the right] energized, because it won’t be good for the left. Trump concluded that “it’ll be a point where other people won’t take it anymore, and that will not be good for the radical left.” In other words, the sitting American president, who ostensibly represents the whole country, and who famously told Proud Boys radicals to “stand back and stand by” in 2020, warned one side of the political divide not to provoke the other side — because those aligned with him are “tougher.” Brendan Nyhan, a political scientist at Dartmouth College, noted soon after, “Nothing to worry about, just the president openly threatening the left with extrajudicial violence from his allies.” An Axios report added that Trump’s comments “risk inflaming already high tensions.” By all appearances, the Republican didn’t care.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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