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lite.cnn.com - on gopher - inofficial
ARTICLE VIEW:
The data doesn’t back up Trump’s claims that the left is more
violent
Analysis by Aaron Blake, CNN
Updated:
6:00 AM EDT, Sat September 20, 2025
Source: CNN
has justified his ramped up threats against the American political left
by citing its supposed unusually violent nature.
He has launched an increasingly broad crusade against speech he
doesn’t like, culminating in a successful . And Trump on Thursday
signaled he would label Antifa, a loose collection of far-left
activists, a “major terrorist organization” – which would be an
unprecedented step against a domestic entity.
In other words, the crackdown that Trump last week is looking
increasingly real.
Which means it’s a good time to take a closer look at what he claims
is the entire basis for this effort.
How do the right and left compare when it comes to 1) perpetrating
violence and 2) their support for it?
The data, save for a few polls cherry-picked by the right, doesn’t
generally back up Trump’s claims that this is a bigger problem on the
left. In fact, it usually shows the opposite.
Acts of violence
Let’s take the first part first.
“Most of the violence is on the left,” Trump said Tuesday.
“While our side of the aisle certainly has its crazies,” Vice
President JD Vance said Monday while guest hosting Kirk’s show, “it
is a statistical fact that most of the lunatics in American politics
today are proud members of the far left.”
But this has not been the case with acts of violence, according to
high-profile studies.
A this year tracked about 3,600 murders from politically motivated
attacks over the past 50 years. The vast majority of them (about 3,000)
came on one day: September 11, 2001.
Cato found right-wing ideology accounted for 391 of the 618 non-9/11
political. murders, a clear majority. Left-wing ideology accounted for
65, with other motivations, like foreign nationalism, Islamism, and
separatism, accounting for the rest.
In the last five years alone, the proportions are similar: 44 people
died at the hands of those with right-wing ideology – a majority for
all politically motivated attacks in this span – compared to 18 at
the hands of those with left-wing ideology, according to the study.
The data echo a study from the — the DOJ’s research agency – last
year. It found that since 1990, far-right extremists killed more than
six times as many people in ideologically motivated attacks (520
people) as far-left extremists (78).
The Department of Justice appeared to from its website this week. (The
DOJ said the page was removed as it was “reviewing its websites and
materials in accordance with recent executive orders.”)
There is always some subjectivity in such studies. It can be difficult
to place a killer’s ideology on the left-right political continuum.
But the data suggests it’s not terribly close between right and left.
Trump and allies have often , and gone well beyond the evidence in
trying to attach high-profile violence to the left. The fuller, more
quantitative picture tells a different story.
Support for ‘justified’ violence
The data on whether political violence can ever be justified is more
mixed, but most of it has shown the GOP leaning toward more accepting
of it.
Trump and his allies have often pointed to random people (and
occasionally more high-profile people) celebrating Kirk’s
assassination or otherwise making light of it.
“People on the left are much likelier to defend and celebrate
political violence,” Vance claimed on Kirk’s show. “This is not a
both-sides problem.”
Liberals celebrating Kirk’s death has been a very real phenomenon –
just like it was after the murder of UnitedHealthcare chief executive
Brian Thompson late last year. A back then showed 31% of Democrats
said it was acceptable to react positively to the news, compared to
19% of Republicans.
The right has frequently pointed to a study last year that suggests
support for assassination of prominent figures is higher on the left.
The survey was from a group called the , an independent group that
tracks misinformation and hate, in association with Rutgers University.
It asked people to rate the justification for the murder of Trump and
Elon Musk on a sliding scale from 1 (“not at all justified”) up to
7.
Among those on the left, about half picked an option other than 1 for
both Trump (55%) and Musk (48%). That means they felt there could be
some justification for these actions.
The poll didn’t test prominent Democrats. But it did ask the same
question more broadly about an unnamed “political leader.” In that
case, 41% of Democrats picked an option other than 1, compared to 29%
of Republicans.
Those are striking findings.
But they also came in the aftermath of last July’s high-profile
assassination attempt against Trump and the 2024 election. The study
itself said its findings should be treated with caution, given
elections can lead to “heightened polarization for months” and
“sentiments may be prone to change.”
And indeed, most other data in recent years has shown Republicans are
more open to political violence they see as justified:
The same poll found similar numbers of Republicans and Democrats
expected violence from the losing side in future elections. When those
who expected such violence were asked whether they would be in favor of
it, very few from either party said “yes.”
But Republicans who expected violence were less likely to say they
would oppose it (67%) than Democrats (82%) if it was their side that
lost.
To the extent these findings reflect reality, they’re always subject
to change. It’s possible, for example, the left could become more
open to political violence they see as justified now that they’re out
of power.
But for years, the data has suggested it’s the right that’s been
more open to political violence – and more likely to perpetrate it.
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