The Dangerous Escalation No One Will Admit

Victor Davis Hanson: They Said ‘Punch Him’—Now It’s Bullets: The Dangerous Escalation No One Will Admit

No president in U.S. history has been the target of three assassination attempts in which shots were fired by either law enforcement or the shooter himself.

And yet this is… pic.twitter.com/fMGVVqguQ5

— The Daily Signal (@DailySignal) April 27, 2026

...No president in U.S. history has been the target of three assassination attempts in which shots were fired by either law enforcement or the shooter himself.

And yet this is Trump’s third time.

Political violence doesn’t happen overnight.

For almost a decade now, the Left has reified the idea that 1. Trump is “literally Hitler” and 2. that harming him is justified—Gavin Newsom and Robert De Niro talked about hitting Trump in the mouth. Shakespeare in the Park substituted Caesar for a Trump look-alike. Anthony Bourdain said he’d poison him.

And that lowers the bar.