Trump Blames ‘Communist Left’ for Assassination Attempts: “They Are the Real Threat"

Former president Donald Trump escaped a second (alleged) assassination attempt while playing golf at his West Palm Beach course on Sunday afternoon. The lone gunman, Ryan Wesley Routh, 58, was shot at by the Secret Service; Routh ran away and was soon taken into custody by the authorities. A visibly shaken and angered Trump later unleashed a tirade on Truth Social and also during an interview with Fox News Digital.

He held the Democratic Party, particularly current Vice President Kamala Harris and President Joe Biden, accountable for the botched attempt on his life. “He believed the rhetoric of Biden and Harris, and he acted on it,” Trump said of the gunman, Fox News reported. “Their rhetoric is causing me to be shot at, when I am the one who is going to save the country, and they are the ones that are destroying the country—both from the inside and out," the ex-president added.

“These are people that want to destroy our country,” Trump said while accusing his Democratic counterparts. “It is called the enemy from within. They are the real threat.”  According to the New York Post, Trump further asserted, “The rhetoric, lies, as exemplified by the false statements made by Comrade Kamala Harris during the rigged and highly partisan ABC Debate, and all of the ridiculous lawsuits specifically designed to inflict damage on Joe’s, then Kamala’s, political opponent, ME, has taken politics in our country to a whole new level of hatred, abuse, and distrust.”

He continued, "Because of this Communist Left rhetoric, the bullets are flying, and it will only get worse! Allowing millions of people, from places unknown, to invade and take over our country, is an unpardonable sin...Our borders must be closed, and the terrorists, criminals, and mentally insane, immediately removed from American cities and towns; deported back to their countries of origin...Make America great again!"

Meanwhile, both Biden and Harris condemned the attack. “I commend the Secret Service for the expert handling of the situation,” Biden said during a speech to Black college leaders in Philadelphia. “America has suffered too many times the tragedy of an assassin’s bullet,” he added. “It solves nothing. It just tears the country apart. We must do everything we can to prevent it and never give it any oxygen.”

The suspect is alleged to have shared a range of political remarks on social media. In April, Routh commented that “Democracy is on the ballot and we cannot lose.” Before ending his candidacy for a second term on July 21 and backing Harris as his successor, Biden had made the same statement several times. Additionally, Harris too had reiterated the same. "Our fundamental freedoms are on the ballot and so is our democracy," she said on July 31. In Philadelphia during the ABC News debate, she stressed, “Donald Trump left us the worst attack on our democracy since the Civil War."