The attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump on Saturday comes after years of violent rhetoric from left-wing Hollywood celebrities who have used their fame to spread fantasies about physical harm being inflicted on the 45th president.
Many have also compared him to Adolf Hitler in an apparent attempt to goad their fanbase into extreme reactions.
From Kathy Griffin holding a fake, bloodied, decapitated head of the then-president; to Robert De Niro declaring he’d like to punch Trump in the face; to Madonna wanting to blow up the White House, Hollywood stars have indulged in dangerously lurid scenarios that have received tacit and sometimes explicit support from Democrats.
Just two months ago, former Disney and DreamWorks boss Jeffrey Katzenberg compared Trump to Hitler at an event in West Hollywood. Katzenberg serves as Joe Biden’s re-election campaign co-chair. De Niro also likened Trump to Nazis in an MSNBC appearance in May, with no pushback from the interviewer.
As Breitbart News reported, Trump was the target of an assassination attempt during a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Saturday, when a gunman fired a bullet that appeared to hit Trump in the ear. Trump was seen with blood streaming down his face as Secret Service first surrounded the former president then rushed him off the stage.
Despite his wound, a defiant Trump was seen shaking his fist in the air and saying, “Fight! Fight!” to the crowd at the rally as the Secret Service moved him away.
On Sunday, Trump provided an update on Truth Social. “Thank you to everyone for your thoughts and prayers yesterday, as it was God alone who prevented the unthinkable from happening,” he wrote.
The shooting was the most serious assassination attempt of a politician in the U.S. since President Ronald Reagan was shot by John Hinckley in 1981.
Since Trump’s political ascendance in 2016, Hollywood stars have aired numerous violent fantasies involving Trump and his supporters. Here are just fifteen of the most notable instances.
1. Snoop Dogg “shoots” Trump in the head in music video.
Perhaps the most literal call to violence against Trump came from Snoop Dogg’s 2017 music video for his single “Lavender.”
The video, which has proven to be prophetic, shows the rapper pointing a mock gun at Trump’s head and pulling the trigger.
2. Kathy Griffin ‘beheads’ Trump in infamous photo.
The anti-Trump comedienne was photographed holding the fake, bloodied, decapitated head of the then-president, which quickly went viral back in 2017. Her publicity stunt prompted a visit from the Secret Service and ended up getting her fired from CNN’s annual New Year’s Eve broadcast.
But Hollywood has largely forgiven Griffin in the intervening years, and she has returned to the comedy circuit. She has also continued to publicly bash Trump.
3. Robert De Niro: “I’d like to punch” Trump “in the face.”
The Raging Bull star has made no secret of his desire to physically assault Trump.
“He’s a punk, he’s a dog, he’s a pig, he’s a con, he’s a bullshit artist, a mutt who doesn’t know what he’s talking about, doesn’t do his homework, doesn’t care, thinks he’s gaming society, doesn’t pay his taxes,” De Niro said back in 2016.
“He’s an embarrassment to this country,” he added. “He talks [about] how he wants to punch people in the face… I’d like to punch him in the face.”
4. Madonna: “I’ve thought a lot about blowing up the White House.”
During an anti-Trump Women’s March on Washington in 2017, Madge expressed her violent fantasy.
“Yes, I’m angry. Yes, I’m outraged. Yes, I have thought an awful lot about blowing up the White House, but I know that this won’t change anything,” she told the crowd, to boisterous applause.
5. Bette Midler openly wished for someone to “shiv” or “stab” Trump. She also fantasized about Trump getting kicked “in the nuts” and being physically “pummeled” in front of the entire country.
In 2020, Bette Midler posted a tweet expressing a wish for Trump to be stabbed. “He actually looks better here! Maybe someone in his camp can gently give him a shiv. I mean, shove,” she wrote in the now-deleted tweet.
The same year, Midler urged then-Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden to kick then-President Donald Trump “in the nuts” during their first debate, adding that Biden should pummel the president on behalf of the 200,000 people she says he “murdered.”
As Breitbart News reported, Saturday’s assassination attempt came one week after Midler suggested President Joe Biden arrest Republicans and allow the FBI to use deadly force in order to regain a Democrat Party majority in the U.S. House of Representatives.
6. Barbra Streisand shared an image showing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) impaling Trump with a pointed heel.
In 2019, Barbra Streisand posted a bloody image to Twitter showing Trump being impaled to death by one of Pelosi’s high heels.
7. Johnny Depp: “When was the last time an actor assassinated a president?”
During an appearance at the Glastonbury Festival in England in 2017, the Hollywood star asked the crowd: “When was the last time an actor assassinated a president?” — a reference to the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln by John Wilkes Booth.
Depp later apologized, saying: “I apologize for the bad joke I attempted last night in poor taste about President Trump. It did not come out as intended, and I intended no malice. I was only trying to amuse, not to harm anyone.”
8. Debra Messing shared her wish that Trump becomes a rape victim.
In a bizarre and violent tweet in 2020, NBC’s Will & Grace star wrote she was hoping for physical violence on Trump — specifically, that he becomes a rape victim.
“Rape is an act of violence. Trump has perpetrated violence on hundreds of millions of people. My hope is (and this is the first time in my life) that the tables are turned and he is the victim of perpetrators,” she wrote.
Messing later deleted the tweet.
The same year, Messing tweeted that she hopes Trump ends up in jail where he will become the “most popular boyfriend” among the inmates. The tweet received online blowback for its homophobic subtext, which the actress denied, saying that she is an “LGBTQIA” ally.
9. Jim Carrey drew Donald Trump burning at the stake.
The Hollywood actor and comedian posted an illustration of then-President Trump burning at the stake back in 2018.
10. Comedian George Lopez shared an illustration of drug lord El Chapo decapitating Trump.
The Mexican-American actor and TV host shared the gruesome graphic, sandwiched by the text “MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN,” in February 2016 as the Republican primary was in full swing.
He has never taken down the post, after eight full years, despite being clearly triggered when an anonymous user replied to his tweet with a parody of the message — a meme showing Trump as the Terminator holding Lopez’s severed head. The celebrity lost his cool and replied, “fuck you.”
11. Former Hollywood studio chief Jeffrey Katzenberg compared Trump to Hitler just two months ago.
The former Disney and DreamWorks boss — who serves as Biden’s campaign co-chair — compared Trump to Hitler at an elite gathering in May in West Hollywood.
“When I was in high school, we were studying Third Reich Germany and the rise of Hitler, and over the holiday, our teacher suggested to the class that, to the degree which we could, please go home and talk to your grandparents,” Katzenberg reportedly said. “Ask them, what did they read? “What did they see? What did they hear? What they do?”
12. Jane Fonda said Trump-era has “parallels” to “Hitler and the Third Reich.”
In 2018, Jane Fonda compared President Donald Trump’s passionate defense against false reportage by the establishment media to Adolf Hitler’s attacks on the German press.
“It has never been more important. Our democracy is fragile and it’s under attack. Civility is under attack,” Fonda said. “We don’t have to take it anymore. Voting is the way to stop it. Everybody has to vote and I think they will.”
She added: “If you have read anything about the rise of the Third Reich and Adolf Hitler you will see the parallels.”
13. Robert De Niro compared Trump’s political rise to Nazi Germany.
The actor appeared on MSNBC’s The 11th Hour in May, where he compared Trump’s political rise to Adolf Hitler’s in 1930s Germany.
“I don’t understand it. I don’t I don’t think they understand how dangerous it will be if he ever, God forbid, becomes president. I don’t think they really understand. And historically, from what I see, even in Nazi Germany, they had it with Hitler. They don’t take him seriously. He looks like a clown. Acts like a clown,” De Niro said.
The MSNBC interviewer didn’t challenge De Niro on his incendiary rhetoric.
14. Rosie O’Donnell: “I want to send the military to the White House to get him.”
The comedienne and longtime Trump nemesis aired her fantasies of a military coup against Trump.
“I want to send the military to the White House to get him,” she sad in a 2018 interview.
“I actually got physically sick that night,” she said of election night 2016. “I thought to myself, this cannot be happening. When he got the nomination, I thought I just have to wait until election day. And then he won. It took a good year to compose myself in public again. I took a year out of the spotlight.”
15. Paul Schrader contemplates giving screenwriting students an assignment about a plot to kill then-President Donald Trump.
The Taxi Driver screenwriter posted a bizarre Facebook message in 2020 in which he pondered the possibility of giving his screenwriting students an assignment about a plot to kill President Donald Trump.
“Would my students be in trouble for doing the assignment? Would my students be in trouble if they researched the assignment? Or am I in already in trouble in Trump’s America for writing this post?” he wrote.
Schrader later publicly revealed that his post prompted a visit from government officials.
16. Actress Carole Cook joked about Trump’s assassination.
In 2018, the stage star joked about the assassination of then-President Trump in September, saying, “Where’s John Wilkes Booth when you need him?”
Post-script: Without a doubt the most graphic depiction of violence against Trump came from New York’s Public Theater, which staged the gruesome stabbing death of the then-president during its infamous 2017 production of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar.
Directed by the Public’s top artistic executive Oskar Eustis, the staging showed Trump being murdered in the Senate in a gory, over-the-top display of knife play.
Follow David Ng on Twitter @HeyItsDavidNg. Have a tip? Contact me at dng@breitbart.com
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.