Republicans outraged over possible assassination attempt: ‘They are going to keep trying to kill Trump’

Republicans two months ago turned the first assassination attempt against Donald Trump into a rallying cry. Now they’re responding to what could have been a second attempt with a mixture of defiance, outrage and unsubstantiated blame.

While the suspect’s motive remained unclear on Sunday night, some Republicans immediately seized on the incident — in which the Secret Service opened fire on a suspect who officials said appeared with an AK-47-style rifle near Trump’s golf course in southern Florida — to again accuse Democrats of endangering Trump by casting the GOP nominee as a threat to democracy.

“This rhetoric against President Trump, this narrative that he will be the next dictator, that he is the next Hitler coming, it has got to stop. Enough is enough,” Rep. Mike Waltz (R-Fla.) said in an interview with Fox News on Sunday. “And when you have this narrative coming from the left, from [the] media, from elected officials, even, that Trump has to be stopped by any means necessary, it shouldn’t surprise anyone that these people are being radicalized and taking action like this.”

Some of the former president’s allies struck even more ominous tones.

“They are going to keep trying to kill Trump. This is only beginning,” wrote Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk on X. “This stops only when we win in November.”

Trump’s campaign did not suggest a motive in its own statement about the incident. In other campaign messages on Sunday, Trump called for “unity” and “peace.”

Trump, who was not injured on Sunday, became the target of a potential second shooter under markedly different circumstances than when a gunman opened fire in July at his rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, injuring the former president and two others and killing an attendee. There, a blood-splattered Trump rose from the ground with a fist in the air, the image of defiance cemented by his “fight, fight, fight” battle cry that echoed through his nominating convention the following week. Republicans, often so deeply fractured, nearly uniformly rallied to his side. Some even predicted that the assassination attempt had just sealed the election for Trump. And for a brief period, partisan bickering — and the presidential campaign itself — ground nearly to a halt before quickly returning to form.

The former president emerged from Sunday’s incident similarly defiant, his campaign sending messages reading “MY RESOLVE IS STRONGER AFTER ANOTHER ATTEMPT ON MY LIFE” and “I WILL NEVER SURRENDER.”

Republicans swiftly echoed him. After visiting Trump at his Mar-a-Lago estate later on Sunday, House Speaker Mike Johnson wrote on X: “No leader in American history has endured more attacks and remained so strong and resilient. He is unstoppable.”

But this time, there is no image of Trump as a near-martyr with which to rally the troops — just a photo posted to social media of Johnson and the former president both striking his signature thumbs-up pose. Trump has been politically weakened against a new opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris. And while Harris and President Joe Biden were briefed on the situation and expressed gratitude that Trump was safe, Democrats did not pause their campaign activities.

And within hours of the incident on Sunday, broad denunciations of political violence from across the political spectrum quickly gave way to partisan finger-pointing.

Rep. Brian Mast (R-Fla.) called Democrats’ rhetoric “beyond evil” in a post singling out MSNBC and House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, who earlier in the day had posted about “Extreme MAGA Republicans” restricting abortion access. (After the incident, Jeffries posted on social media: “Political violence has no place in a democratic society.”) Another Florida Republican, Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, also blamed “the radical left” for promoting “irresponsible rhetoric” that is “causing people to get hurt.”

Republicans had a similar reaction after the first assassination attempt against the former president, including Ohio Sen. JD Vance — who was not yet Trump’s running mate — baselessly connecting the rally shooting to the Biden campaign. (Vance offered a more measured response to Sunday’s incident, writing on X that Trump was “in good spirits” and that the senator would be “hugging my kids extra tight tonight and saying a prayer of gratitude.”)

But unlike in July, this incident is “supercharged,” said Matthew Bartlett, a GOP strategist and former Trump administration appointee. “The right seems to be even further aggrieved — or believes that this election they’re running against something that will do anything to stop a political agenda.”

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, Trump’s onetime rival for the GOP presidential nomination who has since endorsed him, said Sunday that the state was opening its own probe into the incident.

Meanwhile, Republican lawmakers and allies of Trump called to again increase security for the former president. Trump’s Secret Service protection was beefed up after the shooting in Butler. But Ric Bradshaw, the Palm Beach County sheriff, acknowledged on Sunday during a news conference that security around Trump is not as strict as it would be if we were still the sitting president.

“This must change,” House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.), himself the victim of a shooting during a congressional baseball practice, posted on X in response. “Secret Service must up their level of protection of him to their FULL capabilities.”

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said that “it is time to increase resources” for the Secret Service and called for the agency to return under the umbrella of the Treasury Department rather than the Department of Homeland security, where it currently resides. Waltz, the Florida representative who is a member of the congressional task force probing the Butler assassination attempt, said he expects the Secret Service to brief lawmakers “this week.”

Biden, in a statement Sunday night, said he has “directed my team to continue to ensure that Secret Service has every resource, capability and protective measure necessary to ensure the former President’s continued safety.”