WASHINGTON: Republicans and Democrats engaged in verbal battles on the party affiliation of the alleged gunman Ryan Routh in the hours after a purported assassination attempt on MAGA supremo Donald Trump amid a deepening political divide.
MAGA activists pointed to his purported Democratic voter registration and political contributions to pro-Democrat groups to allege he is a Democrat.The liberal constituency cited his self-confessed voting for Trump in 2016, and his support for GOP principals Vivek Ramaswamy, Nikki Haley, and Tulsi Gabbard — both expressed on social media — to insist he is Republican.
Taunts, gibes, and slurs flowed over social media as partisan activists sought to make political capital from the episode, with the Trump campaign sending out fund-raising email linked to the assassination attempt and liberal activists mocking it as a “staged event.”
Liberals also raised MAGA hackles by pointing out that the potential assassin was “not an immigrant, not Haitian or Venezuelan, not black,” but a home-grown white malcontent with easy access to guns.
Republicans accused liberals of fomenting an atmosphere that was encouraging violence by posting video clips of various leftist activists calling for resistance to the MAGA movement, a charge that Democrats turned around with videos of Trump condoning violence.
Amid all this, Elon Musk, the world’s wealthiest man with one of the largest social media following, triggered Democratic outrage by tweeting, “And no one is even trying to assassinate Biden/Kamala,” in what he later suggested was a light-hearted response to a user who asked: “Why they want to kill Donald Trump?” Musk later deleted his post saying, “one lesson I’ve learned is that just because I say something to a group and they laugh doesn’t mean it’s going to be all that hilarious as a post on X.”
MAGA Republicans were in turn triggered by a former White House official’s wife snarkily tweeting “No ears were harmed. Carry on with your Sunday afternoon,” moments after the Florida episode, in an apparent reference to the Pennsylvania assassination attempt that nicked Trump’s ear.
Musk himself continued to fuel liberal anger by posting “the incitement to hatred and violence against President Trump by the media and leading Democrats needs to stop” — inviting blowback from the left about instances where Trump had espoused violence.
One exchange went like this.
A prominent Trump supporter: The fact that they keep trying to kill #Trump is reason enough to vote for him.
A prominent Harris supporter: There were 42 assassination attempts on Hitler. It’s hardly a reason to vote for someone.
MAGA activists pointed to his purported Democratic voter registration and political contributions to pro-Democrat groups to allege he is a Democrat.The liberal constituency cited his self-confessed voting for Trump in 2016, and his support for GOP principals Vivek Ramaswamy, Nikki Haley, and Tulsi Gabbard — both expressed on social media — to insist he is Republican.
Taunts, gibes, and slurs flowed over social media as partisan activists sought to make political capital from the episode, with the Trump campaign sending out fund-raising email linked to the assassination attempt and liberal activists mocking it as a “staged event.”
Liberals also raised MAGA hackles by pointing out that the potential assassin was “not an immigrant, not Haitian or Venezuelan, not black,” but a home-grown white malcontent with easy access to guns.
Republicans accused liberals of fomenting an atmosphere that was encouraging violence by posting video clips of various leftist activists calling for resistance to the MAGA movement, a charge that Democrats turned around with videos of Trump condoning violence.
Amid all this, Elon Musk, the world’s wealthiest man with one of the largest social media following, triggered Democratic outrage by tweeting, “And no one is even trying to assassinate Biden/Kamala,” in what he later suggested was a light-hearted response to a user who asked: “Why they want to kill Donald Trump?” Musk later deleted his post saying, “one lesson I’ve learned is that just because I say something to a group and they laugh doesn’t mean it’s going to be all that hilarious as a post on X.”
MAGA Republicans were in turn triggered by a former White House official’s wife snarkily tweeting “No ears were harmed. Carry on with your Sunday afternoon,” moments after the Florida episode, in an apparent reference to the Pennsylvania assassination attempt that nicked Trump’s ear.
Musk himself continued to fuel liberal anger by posting “the incitement to hatred and violence against President Trump by the media and leading Democrats needs to stop” — inviting blowback from the left about instances where Trump had espoused violence.
One exchange went like this.
A prominent Trump supporter: The fact that they keep trying to kill #Trump is reason enough to vote for him.
A prominent Harris supporter: There were 42 assassination attempts on Hitler. It’s hardly a reason to vote for someone.
Source : Times of India
