Behind the Curtain: Four ominous trends
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Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios
Four concurrent trends suggest America's volatile politics, culture and security could worsen in the months ahead:
- With Charlie Kirk's slaying, we've witnessed more high-profile assassinations or assassination attempts in the past 14 months — including two assassination attempts on President Trump, the killing of a Democratic Minnesota lawmaker and an arson attack on the residence of Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro (D) — than at any point since 1968, when the nation lost the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., then Robert F. Kennedy just two months later.
- School shootings — including one near Denver about the same time that Kirk was shot — continue to surge, from fewer than a dozen annually 20 years ago to 80+ annually for the past three years.
- Calls for violence and civil war are spreading across social media, amplifying the worst of humanity as Americans demonize each other for their political beliefs.
- An unprecedented online hunt is underway on conservative social media to name, shame and contact the employers of people who mocked or celebrated Kirk's slaying.
Why it matters: It's hard to see how people cheering Kirk's killing, and others threatening retribution, ends well.
The big picture: Five days after the assassination in Utah, the temperature in the country is still rising, Axios' Zachary Basu reports.
- A few Republicans — like the mild-mannered House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.) — have called for unity and de-escalation.
But many MAGA influencers have rejected that approach as weak and naive — declaring "war" on the political left, even as elected Democrats overwhelmingly have condemned Kirk's assassination.
- "They" killed Charlie, many conservatives allege, seeking to tie the gunman's actions to an amorphous enemy bloc of Democrats, the media and progressive activists.
- Utah Gov. Spencer Cox told NBC's "Meet the Press" that the suspect has shown a clearly "leftist ideology." Cox added: "I believe that social media has played a direct role in every single assassination and assassination attempt that we have seen over the last five, six years. There is no question in my mind. 'Cancer' probably isn't a strong enough word."
Trump has done little to dial down the tension. "I'd like to see [the nation] heal," Trump told NBC News in a phone interview. "But we're dealing with a radical left group of lunatics, and they don't play fair and they never did."
- Trump and his allies have downplayed political violence against Democrats, including this summer's shootings of two Minnesota lawmakers and their spouses, which left a former state House speaker and her husband dead.
- Kari Lake, a MAGA hero and Trump administration official, said Sunday night at a huge prayer vigil for Kirk at the Kennedy Center: "This violence has gotta stop. [Applause.] It's got to stop. And I'm not gonna say our side is perfect. But dammit, this is coming from the other side."
What to watch: The White House, which has requested $58 million for additional security for the executive and judicial branches, is laying the groundwork for a potential crackdown on left-wing groups.
- Trump last month vowed to prosecute liberal philanthropist George Soros for alleged racketeering, accusing him, without citing evidence, of funding violent protests.
- White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller told Fox News that in his last conversation with Kirk, the MAGA activist urged the administration to dismantle "radical left" organizations involved in "fomenting violence."
- FBI agents are examining leftist groups in Utah to see if they played a role in Kirk's assassination or in protecting the shooter, Axios' Marc Caputo reported Saturday. Investigators suspect the shooter might have targeted Kirk out of a belief that he was transphobic, sources tell Caputo.
Prominent right-wing influencers are amplifying screenshots of anti-Kirk social posts along with names and employers, tagging companies directly and urging their followers to demand firings. Numerous employees have been fired or suspended.
- An anonymous website claims to be building a searchable database with more than 50,000 submissions — at one point branding it the "largest firing operation in history."
Participants in the massive grassroots campaign dismiss accusations of right-wing "cancel culture," framing it as a moral test: If you cheer an assassination, your employer should know.
- Trump officials have embraced the effort: Several members of the military have already been fired after Secretary of War Pete Hegseth directed Pentagon staff to monitor social media posts.
- "These are radicalized people," Miller furiously declared on Fox News, citing examples of teachers, nurses and federal workers celebrating Kirk's death. "There is a domestic terrorist movement in this country."
The backstory: After a decade of calling Trump and his supporters Hitler, Nazis and anti-democratic authoritarians bent on destroying America, Democrats now face questions about the degree to which their superheated rhetoric poisoned political discourse.
- "How did our nation get to a place where Charlie Kirk's assassin was writing, 'Hey fascist! Catch!' on a bullet?" conservative consultant Steven Guest wrote on X. "For years, Democrats have been calling President Donald Trump, Republicans, and conservatives 'fascists.'" Guest included a 3½-minute supercut video of Democrats saying just that.
- Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) said in an interview he posted on X the day before Kirk's murder: "We're in a war right now to save this country. And so you have to be willing to do whatever is necessary to save the country."
Between the lines: Beneath the partisan hostilities lies a deeper — and potentially graver — long-term threat to U.S. stability: the online radicalization of young men.
- Kirk's suspected killer, like many school shooters over the past several years, appears to have been steeped in online forums where extremist rhetoric and violent memes thrive.
Many Gen Z men — who spend more time online than any generation before them — are battling a toxic blend of isolation, social and economic grievance, and constant exposure to extremist content.
- Last week, they were served nonstop graphic video showing the killings of Kirk and Iryna Zarutska, the Ukrainian refugee senselessly stabbed to death on a light-rail train in Charlotte, North Carolina.
The bottom line: America's politicians, fixated on blaming the other side, appear blind to a generational crisis in the making.
