In two years gunmen have twice come close to killing Donald Trump, a conservative activist and a Democratic state legislator have been shot dead, and threats against judges, election workers and members of Congress have reached numbers the police who count them had not seen before. Americans agree that political violence is rising. They do not agree on where it comes from, and each side holds the other's words responsible.
The wider conflict and each side's full account: America's conflict over presidential power.
Where it stands · September 2026
A man wounded in the 2024 shooting at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, died. U.S. prosecutors charged a Russian software company with duping the Secret Service as part of a plot to infiltrate the agency. Democrats opened a probe into Trump Jr.'s Russian oligarch wedding funding. Trump said the Butler attempt was a Democrat plot, citing new information. Messages calling for violent insurrection rose on Telegram after a Supreme Court crisis.
What the dispute is about
Whose violence. Most attackers act alone and hold views that fit no party. Each side counts the cases that fit its account. Researchers found for years that the far right killed more; in 2025 some of the same researchers found attacks from the left outnumbering those from the right for the first time in decades.
Words and deeds. One side says that calling the president a fascist and a threat to democracy invites someone to act. The other says the same of a president who calls opponents vermin and enemies within.
What the state may do about it. After the killing of a prominent conservative in 2025 the administration ordered investigations of left-wing networks and their funders. Its opponents see the policing of dissent under another name.
