Dear Editor:
The political assassinations in Minnesota last weekend were shocking, but not surprising. Donald Trump’s rally cry on January 6, 2020, fired up a mob turned loose on the Capitol. He tried to hide the violence for history by pardoning the convicted criminals who attacked, destroyed, injured, and killed.
Since Inauguration Day 2025, the talk and tactics of the Trump administration, its supporters in Congress, and right-leaning news, podcasters, and influencers have been a steady drumbeat for destroying, demeaning, and dehumanizing. Think about wholesale elimination of federal agencies (much of it illegal), broadside attacks on universities, cultural institutions, and law firms (also mostly illegal), and brutal treatment of immigrants and protesters, including use of force against members of Congress and local officials in New Jersey and against a U.S. Senator in California. Trump’s objectives are revenge and retribution. Anyone who disagrees with him is an “enemy” who, he says, should be impeached, jailed, investigated, or deported (even if they are U.S. citizens). Trump’s moral compass is stuck on HATE.
Last week, Speaker Mike Johnson, who holds himself out as a person of deep Christian faith, called for California Gov. Gavin Newsome to be tarred and feathered, a gruesome form of vigilante punishment meted out in this country into the 20th century. Johnson’s moral compass is not lined up with Christian teaching.
Trump called the assassinations “terrible,” and Johnson condemned them. That’s not enough. They need to take responsibility for their role in fomenting the violence. They tossed the match and have been fueling the fire every day for six months.
The legacy of Donald Trump and Mike Johnson is political assassination by domestic terrorists. How can anyone think they have this country heading in the right direction?
Candace Jones
