In the aftermath of political violence against two Democratic lawmakers over the weekend, it’s unfortunately no surprise that MAGA activists are scrambling to distract the nation with anti-trans rhetoric. Donald Trump Jr led the charge to bring up trans people out of nowhere, calling the trans rights movement “the most violent domestic terror threat in America.”
On Monday, Don Jr appeared on right wing outlet Newsnation to discuss the recent assassination of a Democratic politician. The accused shooter, Vance Boelter, has been arrested for allegedly assassinating Minnesota State Rep Melissa Hortman and her husband and wounding State Senator John Hoffman and his wife Yvette last Saturday.
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“No court can erase us, and no law can silence the truth that trans people belong and deserve care.”
Details about Boelter’s personal history and potential motives are still forthcoming. What we do know is that he allegedly had a hit list of several Democrat lawmakers, including Sen Tim Walz and Rep Ilhan Omar. His roommate has called him a “strong Trump supporter,” and as a former missionary, he was recorded giving a sermon in which he expressed anti-LGBTQ+ views.
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But in apparent willful ignorance of these facts, Don Jr has decided the true culprits are “the left” in general and trans people in particular. “In leftist states and in blue states, they don’t want to enforce [the law] because they understand that’s their voter base, no different than immigration, so rather than follow the law, they’d rather let them get away with it so they vote for more Democrats again,” Don Jr said.
“Just like the radical transgender movement is per capita the most violent domestic terror threat in America, probably the entire world, because you have all these shooters or murders or attempted murderers in such a tiny population of a country, yet they’re beyond reproach.”
Like many on the right, Don Jr is obsessed with imagining an epidemic of trans mass shooters—so much so that he’s been fact checked on that claim before. Not only are cisgender men overwhelmingly the most common perpetrators of shootings, trans people are disproportionately more likely to be the victims of violence rather than the perpetrators.
Don Jr’s claims were evidently so unhinged that even Newsnation’s Connell McShane was forced to fact check him. “[Leftists] talk a lot about the rhetoric and the violence and yet it seems to be mostly caused by them,” he baselessly asserted. “Everyone talks about Minnesota but they don’t talk about—the guy seems to be a leftist.”
“I’m not sure about that, by the way,” McShane said. “From my understanding, he voted for your dad.”
“I’ll believe it when I see it,” Don Jr replied. It’s a safe bet that chances are, he won’t.
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