‘Eliminate Him’: a look at the violent rhetoric against Donald Trump

While Goldman later apologized for his choice of words, he is not the only Democrat lawmaker to apparently threaten Trump's life. Michigan State Representative Cynthia Johnson was stripped of her committee assignments in 2020 when she warned Trump and his "trumpers" to "walk lightly," or else her "soldiers" would "make them pay."

Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi used similar rhetoric last week when she declared that the upcoming presidential election "is not a normal election," and that Trump "must be stopped. He cannot be president."

Two weeks before the shooting, BBC reporter David Aaronovitch wrote on X that if he were President "Biden, I'd hurry up and have Trump murdered on the basis that he is a threat to America's security." On Sunday morning, Aaronovitch said that he had deleted the tweet, claiming that his words were "clearly satirical."

A threat to democracy

Biden's response to Saturday's shooting was one of unequivocal condemnation. The US president, who will face off against Trump in this November's election, said that he was "praying for" his political opponent, and that "we must unite as one nation to condemn" political violence.

In a post on social media less than a month earlier, however, Biden's team described Trump as "a genuine threat to this nation."

"He's a threat to our freedom. He's a threat to our democracy. He's literally a threat to everything America stands for," they posted on the president's social media accounts.

While Biden has never explicitly wished physical harm on his opponent, at least one would-be assassin has used similar words to justify his plans to kill Trump. 77-year-old Thomas Welnicki was arrested for phoning US Capitol Police in 2020 threatening to "take down" then-President Trump. His lawyer later told prosecutors in New York that Welnicki was distraught at "the threats to our democracy posed by former President Trump."

Stripped of protection

Had Mississippi Rep. Bennie Thompson got his way, Trump would have had no Secret Service protection at Saturday's rally. Earlier this year, Thompson proposed legislation that would strip this protection from former presidents convicted of felonies, as Trump was in May. The act was explicitly tailored to target Trump, Thompson's office said, explaining that the former president's criminal charges "have created a new exigency that Congress must address."

Immediately following Saturday's shooting, one of Thompson's staffers wrote on Facebook that the shooter should "get some shooting lessons so you don't miss next time." She deleted the post – which Mississippi Republicans called "despicable" – shortly afterwards.