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When Charlie Kirk was shot on Wednesday, I made some predictions. In a text-message exchange with a friend, I said that the weapon used was probably a bolt-action rifle. I was typing another text message to say that it was likely a .30-06 or 7.62mm rifle, but my thumbs were too slow to compose that response before my friend’s more nimble thumbs had moved on to the next subtopic. I also told my wife that Donald Trump would say something divisive and make things worse, but that prediction required no special prescience.
So, I had some hot takes on the event, and they were correct, but I purposely did not put them out on social media. I didn’t want to add to the on-line noise. It was already making my wife anxious. Even the well-intentioned messages were stirring her emotions, and that was making our cats anxious, which noticeably affected their digestion. Do not worry, they made it from the easy-to-clean flooring to a rug or other fabric before puking.
The video of the shooting and the flare up of anger from the right and the reminders from people on the left that political violence was unacceptable turned my stomach as well. Especially aggravating was the both-sides equivocation and the sudden insistence that Charlie Kirk was someone who valued the free exchange of ideas and good-faith arguments. Political violence and incitement to violence in the United States have come far, far more Often from the political right, and any of us can quite easily find video of Charlie kirk saying reprehensible things and purposely misrepresenting his opponents’ positions in straw-man arguments.
Instead of posting my early takes, I watched things unfold, and they unfolded like a pile of damp socks snatched up by a fitted sheet in the dryer. The President played hospital spokesperson, the first to announce Kirk’s death on social media. FBI Director Kash Patel twice announced on X that a subject was in custody only to walk back those announcements.
It is not the President or FBI Director’s job to announce breaking news as information comes across their desk, and it’s a sin that so much of our government now exclusively uses Elon Musk’s X for public announcements. The President’s use of his own social media platform and the things he says on it are an abomination, but one that has become accepted as normal. At least their day at the breaking-news desk gave Trump and Patel something relatively nondestructive to do for a while. Patel seized the opportunity to prove himself as unfit as we expected for the job.
Musk’s X is always a swamp, but it was a special kind of untended cesspool on Wednesday. Musk tweeted (or x’d, or whatever) in his usual careless and thoughtless way, saying, “The Left is the party of murder”—a pretty typical statement for Musk. He is a reportedly smart guy who regularly says really brain-dead things. Unlike the President or Director of the FBI, he is not a person we expect to demonstrate leadership, self-control, or good judgment. We wouldn’t be too surprised to see him throw a tantrum on the floor at airport security or in a grocery store.
The MAGA faithful on X were rending their garments and shouting, “This means war!” Their collective boxer shorts were instantly twisted into abrasive butt floss. They worked themselves into such a froth that most of them will never believe the shooter wasn’t Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on a Soros-funded Mission Impossible. Today, Musk and MAGA are still fuming about supposed violent left-wing rhetoric. For them, any suggestion that people should not be snatched off the street by masked government agents and stuffed into unmarked vehicles is a call to violence. Even if “fascist” or “authoritarian” are the best adjectives to describe the government’s behavior, it is wrong to point it out. The Emperor is definitely wearing clothes, and it’s both impolite and violent to point.
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Later in the day, Trump issued a prepared statement. It was a once-in-a-presidency chance to rise to the occasion and demonstrate real leadership. It was an opportunity to lower the heat under MAGA’s ass and move the country toward healing, but the President did none of that. He did, however, demonstrate an astounding lack of self-awareness:
“It's long past time for all Americans and the media to confront the fact that violence and murder are the tragic consequence of demonizing those with whom you disagree day after day, year after year, in the most hateful and despicable way possible.”
I laughed out loud.
Remember, these were prepared remarks read from the teleprompter. Trump and his White House chose the words, and they definitely didn’t choose to lower the heat or unify the country. Trump continued:
“For years, those on the radical left have compared wonderful Americans like Charlie to Nazis and the world's worst mass murderers and criminals. This kind of rhetoric is directly responsible for the terrorism that we're seeing in our country today, and it must stop right now. My administration will find each and every one of those who contributed to this atrocity, and to other political violence, including the organizations that fund it and support it, as well as those who go after our judges, law enforcement officials, and everyone else who brings order to our country.
“From the attack on my life in Butler, Pennsylvania last year, which killed a husband and father, to the attacks on ICE agents, to the vicious murder of a healthcare executive in the streets of New York, to the shooting of House Majority Leader Steve Scalise and three others, radical left political violence has hurt too many innocent people and taken too many lives.”
Trump cast blame and issued threats. He did not have a unifying message because he has no desire to be everyone’s president. There has been no transition from political campaigning to governance, and he is not interested making things better for everyone. He would rather reward loyalists and punish any person or institution that dares to disagree with him.
The overly dramatic response to the shooting from the right was not surprising to those who watch or listen to their preferred media. Right-wing media serves up a steady dose of Trump’s messaging, which is now inseparable from Republican messaging. They amplify the anecdotal that fits their narrative and dismiss any inconvenient data that doesn’t.
That’s why my daughter didn’t know who Charlie Kirk was until he was killed, but she had heard of Laken Riley and had frequently seen the video of a black man murdering a white woman on the subway. On Fox News and other conservative outlets, our cities are crime-ridden hellholes, radical left-wing Democrats want to destroy our country, and trans people are the source of gun violence.
That steady dose of messaging contains a steady dose of outrage and trauma. Republicans in Congress and conservative talking heads repeat it. They are keeping the kindling dry, and Wednesday showed how ready it is to ignite. Don’t count on the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives under the Trump Administration to prevent that explosion. Someone at that agency leaked a memo saying that ammunition recovered following the shooting was engraved with expressions of “transgender and anti-fascist ideology."
That information leaked because it fit the narrative, which is more important than the truth. A week earlier, we learned that the Justice Department was considering proposals to limit transgender people's right to possess firearms.
We cannot expect this administration to rise to the occasion in a crisis. We, as they say, are the calvalry—and the fire department.
In his recorded remarks, Donald Trump asked all Americans to “commit themselves to the American values for which Charlie Kirk lived and died.” We can do better.

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