Far-right communities online lit up on Saturday night with calls for violence, retribution, and civil war in the wake of the assassination attempt on former president Donald Trump.
“I guess they really do want war,” a member of the pro-Trump message board known as The Donald wrote on Saturday evening in a post that has since been deleted.
Many other members of the message board, which played a significant role in coordinating activities leading up to the Capitol riot on January 6, agreed in responses to the post.
“Let’s give it to them,” one person wrote. Another added: “I’m ready. This is my last damn straw.” One other user wrote: “CIVIL.FUCKING.WAR. I’m ready to be done with this fucking shit from Democrats.”
The details of these posts were shared with WIRED by researchers from Advance Democracy, a nonprofit organization that conducts public interest research.
Mainstream online platforms like X and Facebook have also been flooded with conspiracies and disinformation in the wake of the shooting, but in far-right communities, much of the talk focused on what happens next.
“They’ve been trying to take this guy out since he’s been in office,” a member of Uncle Sam’s Proud Boys Upstate NY Telegram channel wrote in response to a picture from the shooting of Trump with a raised fist and blood on his face. “Too bad for them they missed probably their only shot at this failed attempt because they are about to really see what happens when you poke the bear for too long ie true American patriots. Fuck the DNC, Fuck the RINOs, fuck the FEDs and fuck the MSM. They should all be hung in the streets.”
In a Telegram channel for the Infamous Legend Valley Proud Boys, an Ohio branch of the far-right militia, one member wrote: “Laugh and smirk now you Leftist cunts, But never fucking forget you will always reap what you sow.”
On The Donald, users were also calling for all Democrats to be rounded up.
“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 is nothing new. In the wake of the FBI’s search of Mar-a-Lago in 2022, Trump supporters immediately called for an armed uprising. Earlier this year, similar calls were made when Trump was found guilty on 34 felony charges. While these calls for violence do not always result in real-world action, there are numerous examples where online rhetoric has led to offline violence, most notably the Capitol riot.
“Unlike the messaging in the aftermath of the attacks at the Cincinnati FBI field office and on Paul Pelosi, there is a concerted effort to present this as the consequence of left-wing rhetoric around Trump and fascism,” Jon Lewis, a research fellow at George Washington University’s Program on Extremism, tells WIRED. “A singular clear message is being spread from the top down and the bottom up, from members of Congress to right-wing influencers to neo-Nazi Telegram channels: We need to fight back.”
Researchers at Advance Democracy 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 killed, with most claiming that the response would have been much deadlier and much swifter.
“I told my neighbor that if Trump had been killed I would have pulled my kit out, quit my job, and started working on my wish list,” one user wrote.
These calls for violence are not limited to online spaces. Minutes after Trump was shot in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Saturday, the former president’s supporters quickly turned on the media covering the rally.
“Fake news! This is your fault!” they yelled, according to Axios reporter Sophia Cai, who was there. “You’re next! Your time is coming,” another shouted. A number of the attendees tried to break into the media area, but were stopped by security guards.