President Donald Trump keeps attracting potential assassins. His latest wannabe killer went to a good school, had a steady job, and touted remarkably mainstream politics. You probably have a relative or a friend with the same exact politics as Cole Allen. The difference is that Allen tried to kill the president.
There’s a lot of talk about “radical left terrorism” in the wake of the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner shooting. But the shooter wasn’t an antifa type or a communist. He’s the kind of guy who backs the most establishment Democrat to lead the party and keep things moderate. Allen’s mainstream politics made him think violence was the only answer to Trumpian tyranny.
It’s better seen as “moderate lib terrorism,” and it’s becoming surprisingly common. At least one of Trump’s previous wannabe assassins would count in this category, as well as Luigi Mangione. It’s a curious yet dangerous phenomenon egged on by reckless rhetoric that imagines Trump is a dictator overturning American democracy and the only way to stop him is through violence. One can have the politics of Chuck Schumer and be a terrorist.
Cole Allen was a standard Democrat. He donated to Kamala Harris’s campaign. He had a Bluesky account where he primarily retweeted mainstream liberals such as Jamelle Bouie and J.B. Pritzker. He was excited that Taylor Swift endorsed Kamala for president. He complained about the administration not supporting Ukraine. He apparently supported gun rights through his own actions and through posts calling for transgender people to buy firearms in response to Trump’s policies. Hilariously, he believed that Trump staged the Butler assassination attempt, which is something now believed by nearly half of Democratic voters.
Allen was no fan of the far left. He reposted numerous criticisms of Hasan Piker and pro-Palestinian protesters for allegedly helping Republicans. The shooter was not the kind of guy to have anything to do with antifa or the DSA.
His Bluesky posts are what you’d expect from your obnoxious aunt who loves going to No Kings protests. Even the violent rhetoric isn’t that uncommon, as seen in the flood of Bluesky posts that celebrated Charlie Kirk’s murder and fantasized about killing the president.
Unlike the vast majority of No Kings demonstrators, Allen tried to put his words into practice. But, unlike pretty much every other terrorist, Allen spent most of his manifesto apologizing in advance for his actions. There’s no better expression of moderate lib terrorism than that.
Allen isn’t the first of his kind.
James Hodgkinson, Ryan Routh, and Luigi Mangione had similar, establishment-friendly politics.
Hodgkinson was a fairly normal Middle American until he got deep into liberal politics in the 2010s. He began lashing out at Republicans’ low-tax agenda and Trump. Unlike most establishment liberals, he backed Bernie Sanders in the 2016 primary. But his views were still typical of that of the average Democrat, maybe just a little bit more angry. Hodgkinson was far too old to be in antifa or be aware of the latest in radical Left politics. He appeared to get his views from Rachel Maddow and other mainstream sources.
Regardless of how common his politics were, they still drove him to try to kill Republican lawmakers as they practiced baseball in 2017. He nearly killed Steve Scalise and possibly many others. He was fortunately taken out by law enforcement before he racked up a high death toll.
Routh was one of Trump’s potential assassins in 2024 (the one who didn’t shoot him and was taken alive). Routh’s primary issue was Ukraine, which apparently caused him to go from voting for Trump to supporting Democrats. He donated to ActBlue and supported establishment Democratic politicians. His motivation for assassinating Trump appeared to be to try to stop the real estate mogul from ending the Ukraine War, a position shared by many powerful people in America and throughout the world. This was not someone motivated by the promise of a communist revolution or fringe politics. Routh had the same priorities as that of the foreign policy blob and Democratic leaders.
Mangione was a bit different in that his politics were less traditionally liberal and more centrist. His X account expressed even some conservative viewpoints that could be placed on the “tech right” or “intellectual Dark Web.” He was a big fan of Tim Urban and Jonathan Haidt, thinkers far removed from the radical left. His centrist ideology, which still inspired him to kill United Healthcare’s CEO, left many of his leftist fans confused. They could recognize that this was someone not one of their own. Mangione earnestly believed that killing Brian Thompson would make American healthcare better. Rather than believing that government should step in and take over the industry, Mangione felt they just needed to receive a strong message. It was a violent but strangely moderate idea.
There is of course a violence problem with radical leftists. Tyler Robinson, Charlie Kirk’s killer, was no moderate. Nor is antifa, which still plans violent acts against ICE and other government authorities. But they’re not the only ones who will engage in this. Moderate libs are just as likely, if not more so, to try to carry out terrorism.
It appears strange that this is now our reality. These are the people who trust the system and the experts the most. Why would they take up terrorism here?
A lot of it is due to their genuine belief that Trump is a tyrant and he deserves to be stopped by any means necessary. This is a view conveyed by many mainstream liberal commentators and news outlets. You can find out Trump is a fascist from reading the opinion pages of the Washington Post. If you think the president is actually threatening the republic, why wouldn’t you take matters into your own hands? If Trump stays in power, these people literally believe democracy is over. Radical means are justified.
Popular movies and TV shows celebrate such resistance fighters. Just look at Star Wars and other big-name franchises. Libs don’t see Trump assassins as terrorists—they see them as freedom fighters.
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Liberals are also more approving of political violence than ever before. Nearly 30 percent of Democrats believe it may be necessary to resort to violence to “get the country back.” Cole Allen would find himself in that demographic.
America is a bizarre place where just about anyone could become a mass shooter or terrorist. It doesn’t matter whether your politics are far out on the fringes or expressed by the most powerful lawmakers in the country. It doesn’t even matter if you’re a complete loser or someone with a degree from a good school. You could still end up trying to kill the president.
Allen will not be the last of the moderate lib terrorists. We will see more during the Trump presidency. The hyperbolic rhetoric from mainstream sources virtually guarantees it.
