Far-right online communities lit up Saturday night with calls for violence, retaliation and civil war in the wake of the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump.
“I guess they really want war,” one member of the pro-Trump message board known as The Donald wrote Saturday night in a post that has since been deleted.
Many other members of the message board, which played a major role in coordinating activities leading up to the Capitol riot on January 6, agreed in responses to the post.
“Give them the win,” one person wrote. Another added: “I’m ready. This is my last fucking straw.” Another user wrote: “CIVIL. FUCKING. WAR. I’m ready to end this fucking Democrats bullshit.”
Details of these posts were shared with WIRED by researchers at Advance Democracy, a nonprofit that conducts public interest research.
Major online platforms like X and Facebook have also been awash with conspiracies and misinformation in the wake of the shooting, but in far-right communities, much of the conversation has focused on what happens next.
“They’ve been trying to take this guy out since he took office,” one member of Uncle Sam’s Proud Boys Upstate NY Telegram channel wrote in response to an image of Trump being shot with his fist raised and blood on his face. “Too bad for them that they probably lost their only chance in this failed attempt because they’re about to really see what happens when you piss off the bear too much, meaning true American patriots. Fuck the DNC, fuck the RINOs, fuck the feds, and fuck the MSM. They should all be hanged in the streets.”
On a Telegram channel for the Infamous Legend Valley Proud Boys, an Ohio branch of the far-right militia, one member wrote: “Laugh and smile now you leftist motherfuckers, but never forget that you will always reap what you sow.”
On The Donald, users were also calling for all Democrats to be arrested.
“War now,” the user wrote. “They don’t want to live and let live. We need to finish what should have been done after the civil war: eradicate and eliminate all Democrats and anyone who even thinks of being a Democrat.”
Calls for violence and civil war from far-right communities are nothing new. In the wake of the FBI search at Mar-a-Lago in 2022, Trump supporters immediately called for an armed uprisingEarlier this year, similar calls were made when Trump was found guilty of 34 felony counts. While these calls to violence do not always result in actual action in the world, there are numerous examples where online rhetoric has led to offline violence, The most notable was the Capitol riot..
“Unlike the messaging that was spread after the attacks on the FBI office in Cincinnati and Paul Pelosi, there is a concerted effort to portray this as a consequence of left-wing rhetoric around Trump and fascism,” Jon Lewis, a researcher at the Program on Extremism at George Washington University, tells WIRED. “There is a clear and singular message being spread from the top down and bottom up, from members of Congress to right-wing influencers to neo-Nazi Telegram channels: We need to fight back.”
Advance Democracy researchers say it is difficult to assess the scale of the online attacks as the situation is still developing and could escalate.
On Sunday, one of the main topics of conversation on The Donald was what would have happened if Trump had been assassinated, with most saying the response would have been far more lethal and swift.
“I told my neighbor that if Trump had died, I would have gotten my gear out, quit my job, and started working on my bucket list,” one user wrote.
These calls for violence are not limited to online spaces. Minutes after Trump was shot in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Saturday, supporters of the former president quickly attacked media outlets covering the rally.
“Fake news! This is your fault!” they shouted. According to Axios reporter Sophia Cai who was there. “You’re next! Your time is coming!” shouted another. Several of the attendees tried to enter the press area, but were stopped by security guards.
