| | | “Can’t you just shoot them? Just shoot them in the legs or something?” A Brief History of Trump’s Violent Remarks
Here are 40 instances in which the former president incited or praised violence against his fellow citizens.
31 October 2024
After the second attempt on his life, Donald Trump accused his political opponents of inspiring the attacks against him with their rhetoric. The reality, however, is that Trump himself has a long record—singular among American presidents of the modern era—of inciting and threatening violence against his fellow citizens, journalists, and anyone he deems his opposition. At a campaign event on October 31, Trump said of former U.S. Representative Liz Cheney, “She’s a radical war hawk. Let’s put her with a rifle standing there with nine barrels shooting at her, okay? Let’s see how she feels about it ... when the guns are trained on her face.”
Below is a partial list of his violent comments, from the 2016 presidential campaign until today.
“Maybe he should have been roughed up, because it was absolutely disgusting what he was doing.”
November 22, 2015, in response to a Fox News host asking about a heckler at Trump’s rally in Alabama the day before.
“If you see somebody getting ready to throw a tomato, knock the crap out of them, would you? Seriously, okay? Just knock the hell—I promise you, I will pay for the legal fees. I promise, I promise.”
February 1, 2016, at a rally in Iowa
“I would bring back waterboarding. And I’d bring back a hell of a lot worse than waterboarding.”
February 6, 2016, at a Republican-primary debate
“I’d like to punch him in the face.”
February 22, 2016, about a protester who disrupted a Las Vegas rally
“They said to me, ‘What do you think of waterboarding?’ I said, ‘I think it’s great, but I don’t think we go far enough.’ It’s true, it’s true—right? We don’t go far enough. We don’t go far enough.”
February 22, 2016, at a rally in Las Vegas
“I think you’d have riots.”
March 16, 2016, on what would happen if he wasn’t nominated at the upcoming Republican National Convention
“You also had people that were very fine people on both sides.”
August 15, 2017, speaking at a press conference about the white-nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia
“Any guy that can do a body slam, he is my guy!”
October 18, 2018, referring to then-Representative Greg Gianforte, who pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge for physically assaulting a reporter
“I have the support of the police, the support of the military, the support of the Bikers for Trump—I have the tough people, but they don’t play it tough until they go to a certain point, and then it would be very bad, very bad.”
March 12, 2019, in an interview with Breitbart News
“When the looting starts, the shooting starts.”
May 29, 2020, posted on Twitter during the protests and riots in Minneapolis after George Floyd was murdered
“Can’t you just shoot them? Just shoot them in the legs or something?”
June 2020, according to former Defense Secretary Mark Esper’s memoir, which described Trump having said this about protesters outside the White House (Trump has denied saying this)
“And I’ll tell you something—that’s the way it has to be. There has to be retribution when you have crime like this.”
September, 12, 2020, in a Fox News interview, praising police for killing the antifa supporter Michael Reinoehl, who was accused of killing a right-wing protester
“Stand back and stand by.”
September 29, 2020, addressing the Proud Boys during a presidential debate
“I don’t fucking care that they have weapons. They’re not here to hurt me.”
January 6, 2021, just minutes before addressing the crowd at the Ellipse, Trump shouted this to his advance team, according to testimony from Cassidy Hutchinson (who served as assistant to White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows during the Trump administration)
“Get smart Republicans. FIGHT!”
January 6, 2021, in a tweet before the election certification took place
“You’ll never take back our country with weakness. You have to show strength, and you have to be strong.”
January 6, 2021, in claiming that the election was stolen and urging supporters to march to the Capitol
“Mike Pence didn’t have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our Country and our Constitution, giving States a chance to certify a corrected set of facts, not the fraudulent or inaccurate ones which they were asked to previously certify. USA demands the truth!”
January 6, 2021, in a tweet, while rioters at the Capitol were chanting “Hang Mike Pence”
“We love you. You’re very special. You’ve seen what happens. You see the way others are treated that are so bad and so evil. I know how you feel. But go home, and go home in peace.”
January 6, 2021, in a video message to the insurrectionists at the Capitol
“People are so angry at what is taking place. Whatever we can do to help, because the temperature has to be brought down in the country. If it isn’t, terrible things are going to happen.”
August 15, 2022, in a Fox News interview about the FBI’s search of his Mar-a-Lago residence, which uncovered boxes containing classified documents
“You take the writer and/or the publisher of the paper … and you say, ‘Who is the leaker? National security.’ And they say, ‘We’re not gonna tell you.’ They say, ‘That’s okay, you’re going to jail.’ And when this person realizes that he is going to be the bride of another prisoner very shortly, he will say, ‘I’d very much like to tell you exactly who that leaker is!’
October 22, 2022, during a Texas rally
“I am your warrior. I am your justice. And for those who have been wronged and betrayed, I am your retribution.”
March 4, 2023, at the Conservative Political Action Committee summit
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