We mean that literally. If a pro-Trump filmmaker at the Daily Wire, Breitbart, or Angel Studios had dreamed up a screenplay about a plot to kill a conservative president and wrote a villain with Routh’s characteristics, even the most charitable critic would’ve thought it was laughably on-the-nose. Minus his inscrutable vote for Trump in 2016, the man is a living caricature of #Resistance liberal hysteria. If you doubt that, just read the open letter he wrote to the world months before attempting to kill Trump. In fact, just try reading this sample of it:
“Everyone across the globe from the youngest to the oldest know that Trump is unfit to be anything, much less as US president. U.S. presidents must at bare minimum embody the moral fabric that is America and be kind, caring and selfless and always stand for humanity.”
Seriously? He even used the “be kind” rhetoric in a letter which calls for killing someone? Even the Babylon Bee would think that was overdoing the self-parody.
Nevertheless, while Routh appears to be a nutjob of Arthur Fleck proportions, he can’t be laughed off. His determination to end President Trump’s life is not only deadly serious; it may even be contagious. In that same letter, Routh makes a chilling offer of $150,000 to “whoever can complete the job,” i.e. whoever can actually manage to end Trump’s life. This has been called a “bounty” by many, and it is. Granted, there’s ample reason to doubt that Routh can actually produce that much money – the man is not exactly known for being financially solvent – but we, at least, don’t want to live in a country where the only thing standing between hired killers and a former president is a failed assassin’s credit rating.
And that is, of course, assuming that Routh is bluffing. Maybe he can actually produce that much money, or maybe he knows a backer from his shady overseas past who could. Routh did, after all, openly solicit Iran to assassinate Trump in a 2023 self-published book. Who’s to say if some Mullah took notice? If so, then someone – like the FBI, who actually are doing their job and trying to get Routh charged with an attempted assassination rather than the ludicrously lax gun charges he currently faces – should find out. But for now, the point is, we don’t know, and if we don’t know, then neither do any potential killers.
And speaking of Iran, let’s not kid ourselves: even if Routh is simply offering money he doesn’t possess, the fact that Iran wants Trump dead is not speculation. According to Time Magazine, at least one Iranian plot on Trump’s life has been foiled this year. Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) has warned that five known “assassination teams,” three of which are backed by foreign governments, are targeting Trump. The Iranians have also not been shy about their desire for Trump to die; in fact, they’ve been threatening to kill him ever since he took out Gen. Qasem Soleimani. It’s not an idle threat, either. Apparently since Soleimani’s death, the Iranian government’s state apparatus dedicated to murdering foreign foes has graduated from trying to murder Iranian dissidents to targeting high-level American politicians, including not just Trump but also former National Security Adviser John Bolton. So far, their attempts have been too clumsy, but again, how long will that last?
All of which is to say, between Routh’s bounty and the Iranian murder machine, it’s virtually a guarantee that President Trump will face future assassination attempts. And while it’s concerning that the US Secret Service has already faced two catastrophic lapses, we hope there’s also room for optimism. Even President Biden has denounced the failures of Trump’s detail and called on Congress to approve funding for better protection. Which they have, unanimously. Meanwhile, the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the aforementioned FBI have taken a break from their politicized anti-Trump posturing and appear to be actually trying to throw the book at Routh. Iranian assassination attempts have been anticipated and foiled by federal informants. In other words, even if the transparently unserious mainstream media has done its level best to downplay, deny, and excuse the attempts on Trump’s life, it appears that those charged with actually preventing such an act are doing something, even (in Biden’s case) for a political opponent.
However, the trouble with would-be assassins is that they only need to be lucky once, while President Trump’s defenders have to be lucky every single time. And unfortunately, there are those – particularly in the progressive camp – who just can’t quit fanning the flames, which make more such attempts not merely likely but practically inevitable. For some, this is clear cynicism, but now that progressivism is beginning to lose its luster, unfortunately, many of those people seem to be saying that because in their heart of hearts, they believe every word about Trump being a fascist threat to the Republic. If you doubt that, just look at Cenk Uygur’s embarrassing, spittle-flecked appearance on Piers Morgan last week, or at the psychopathic response by liberal Twitch streamer Destiny to the first assassination attempt. In other words, even if the powers-that-be do start taking threats on Trump’s life seriously, it’s only after they’ve infected the political bloodstream with pro-assassination rhetoric about Trump for the past eight years.
And bluntly, though we hate to bring this up, that rhetoric will make a thunderous return should Trump win this November. Or at least, it will unless those who spread it in the first place are held responsible for how far they pushed America toward the brink of a historic act of political violence. Which is not surprising, when you consider that the progressive world’s hallucinatory speculation about President Trump’s political allegiances has reached levels of paranoia not seen since the John Birch Society decided (for no convincing reason) that Dwight Eisenhower was a secret communist.
However, while that intemperate, laughable nonsense got the Birchers exiled from the Right and from all serious conversation, the opposite has happened to progressives who indulged in calling Trump the second coming of Adolf Hitler. If there are no consequences for that kind of rhetoric – or, in the case of Ryan Routh, for actually acting on it – then we will get more of both the rhetoric and its consequences. And honestly, though we take no pleasure in this – in fact, we deplore it in the strongest possible terms – our warnings last week that political violence would become bipartisan were unfortunately confirmed yesterday when a Kamala Harris campaign office was damaged by gunfire. Thank God, no one was hurt; we may disagree with Harris’ supporters, but we do not wish death on our fellow participants in the American experiment. “America First” means Americans First. All of them.
Unfortunately, though, our side appears to be far more willing to acknowledge that than the narcissistic rage-afflicted Ukraine-flag-in-bio liberal arts crowd for whom Ryan Routh was a spokesman. Which is the sad reality of globalism which lurks beneath its “COEXIST” bumper sticker exterior: claiming to care about everyone is tantamount to caring about no one. With no loyalty to any nation or creed save their own advancement and amour propre, the globalist Left cannot truly mourn anyone at cross-purposes with their goals. They cannot tolerate pluralism, even in one nation. Until they get over that, and truly live up to their “COEXIST” bumper stickers in the company of people who disagree with them, America’s national security depends on our recognizing their ideas – if not the imperfect people who hold them -- for the accelerants of political violence that they are.
