The Stack: Trump Assassination Attempts, Media Rhetoric, and Political Violence
A third attempted assassination of Donald Trump has intensified concerns about political violence and the role rhetoric plays in shaping public behavior. Todd Huff examines Trump’s response to Peter Doocy, where he suggests that historically impactful leaders are often targeted. The episode also highlights Karoline Leavitt’s forceful remarks blaming Democrat rhetoric for contributing to a climate that may inspire unstable individuals to act.
Todd pushes deeper, exploring the philosophical roots of power, human nature, and government, arguing that misunderstanding these forces leads to dangerous outcomes. He also critiques media narratives, including comments from SE Cupp, and analyzes excerpts from the alleged attacker’s manifesto.
At its core, this episode challenges listeners to consider how language, ideology, and cultural division intersect—and whether America’s current political climate is escalating beyond healthy disagreement into something far more dangerous.
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📰 Stack Links
Karoline Leavitt blames Democrat rhetoric for assassination culture
Trump Asked If Assassins Will Keep Trying to Kill Him, Gives Blunt Answer
CNN Commentator Said Trump ‘Wants Us Dead’ Minutes Before WH Dinner Shooting Scare
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📝 Transcript: Trump Assassination Attempts, Media Rhetoric, and Political Violence
The Todd Huff Show – April 28, 2026
Host: Todd Huff
Todd Huff: My oh my friends so much to get to today things we didn't get to yesterday talking here about this third attempted assassination of President Donald Trump we've got Caroline Levitt out there telling folks that the Democrat party is to blame she brings the receipts and at least her version of the people who are well her version of what caused this her belief about what caused us was she's not entirely wrong on this certainly there is rhetoric out there that the left has been celebrating I don't know if all the examples are accurate but her point is well taken we'll talk about that I there were some things yesterday that I couldn't get to including Trump's response to a question from Peter Doocy he asked why this keeps happening why Donald Trump's life is continually being at risk here we'll talk about that gee there's just a lot to get to my friends we've got SE Cupp I mentioned that yesterday I didn't have time to get to that I'm gonna do my level best here to get to everything that I can today in my stack of stuff and by the way you can get the stack of stuff so you can dive deeper into what we're talking about here and you can see get all the exclusive bonus content that we talk about in the inner circle email the newsletter if you will simply by texting the word truth it's a 3177851030 again text truth to 317 7851030 friends ever notice how some families seem to have a plan that lasts for generations that is not by accident full suite wealth works with people who want their wealth to make a difference for years to come their team brings together high level investment strategies like private equity private credit option strategies coupled with legal guidance as well it's all about making sure your vision becomes a reality for the people you love today tomorrow and well into the future if you're looking to do more than just manage money if you want to leave your mark if you want to build something lasting take a look at full suite wealth visit their website now at fullsweetwealth.com that's fullsweetwealth.com build your legacy secure your future I don't know how to do this today other than just other than just get into this and go through this and try to cover as much as as I can and that's what we're going to do on let's see here on what is today the Tuesday so on Saturday late Saturday night after the shooting if you remember the well after the attempted assassination I know just what happened there we won't go through all the details but the attempt at assassination on Saturday at the White House correspondence dinner in Washington DC at the what the Hilton there the initial plan was to go back and complete the event and Trump wanted to do that that was eventually stopped there ended up being a press conference late that night and Peter Doocy asked the president a question why does this keep happening to you I want to play what Trump said in response and talk about this briefly I want to get through as much of this as I can because there's a lot of stuff and it's going to continue you know it's going to continue it's going to be like drinking from a from a fire hydrant as they say a lot of information that's going to be coming a lot of developments
Todd Huff: a lot of argument here we are in an election year in fact its primary season here in my state final days to to go vote you can go early vote or you can go on election day but we only have a short time remaining here before primary season in Indiana is is over your state may have had a primary have one coming up but the general election the midterm election is here in November this is an important election we got things that are happening with redistricting and all that stuff just all this stuff in the background and now we've got political violence political violence coming out the wazoo here with again we talked about this a little bit yesterday but just political violence from people who I dare say are not this is not about mental illness if you're in the business of mental health I'm not trying to knock on your profession there certainly are people who need help with the struggles they have psychological whatever however you want to frame these that's certainly the case but what I believe is even a bigger problem in this country is the spiritual health of our nation maybe not you personally you may be have a strong spiritual health because you are tightly connected to almighty God to Yahweh through his son Jesus but there's a lot of spiritual illness out here and that I think is what we are witnessing what we're watching by the way we got the manifesto supposedly the manifesto of this shooter alleged shooter which I time permitting will get to that thing as well I'll tell you I yesterday I'd mentioned that there was reports that this was an anti Christian bias from the shooter I didn't maybe I didn't you know as I was reading what's been reported I I don't know if it's is this really it I mean I who knows I don't know but I didn't catch that from the manifesto and F in fact it seems like the shooter was claiming he was a Christian which is not this is not Christian behavior I can assure you of that and that's something that pastors you know pastors there are some pastors who are willing to address these things head on what's happening in our culture and there are others who are not and dare I say that that is that is not a good idea so the job of you're shepherding your flock and listen I understand you don't want your sermon to be come political but that's not what's happened what's happened I guess it can happen but that's not what I'm calling for what I'm calling for are for pastors to stand up and to preach the truth even if the left has hijacked it and made it into a political issue that's what I'm calling for anyway again a lot to unpack here let's start with Peter Doocy asking president Trump Saturday night after the 10th at assassination the third one by the way why these things keep happening to him
Todd Huff: respectfully why do you think this keeps happening team well you know I've studied assassinations and I must tell you the most impactful people the people that do the most you take a look at the people Abraham Lincoln I mean you go through the people that have gone through this where they got them but the people that do the most the people that make the biggest impact they're the ones that they go after and that's not in that's there's a lot of truth there right I mean if you are I think sometimes we need to maybe take a step back and just think about think about these things and think about the forces and the ideas the personalities the people in the world here and and what we have is a perfect storm and Caroline Levitt which I'll play a clip from her as well calling out some of these Democrats for their violent rhetoric what you have you have a system and I'm not saying this is the only way that this can happen but I think it's a common way that this happens so in our nation our nation was founded to be a nation where you and I and all of it's all of our citizens all of our fellow Americans our government was was unique I've gone through this before when when we won the American Revolution the founders had a decision to make the founders could say we won now we're going to be the ones who now rule America and you all will be under our little tyranny but see the founders actually had principle when it came to what they believed about liberty and that coming from God they actually said look this isn't up to us this isn't up to us here we're going to remain consistent we're not going to get a group of people that are in the inner circle the ones that led this revolution and led the American people to victory we're not going to get together and form our own little type of tyranny or oligarchy we're not going to establish ourselves as the rulers and the you know the folks who are going to run the show here instead we're not and we're not going to form a government that then says here's how things are going to happen
Todd Huff: they did something revolutionary the revolution did not end after we defeated the British in the Revolutionary War that was the beginning now it was time for the revolutionary ideas to be implemented and they said they said that you as a person are created in the image of God that you receive by virtue of your birth you receive certain unalienable rights and they listed some of those life liberty property the pursuit of happiness talked about these and so forth and they said it's not our job to tell you how this country is going to run in fact what we're going to say and what we recognize is that you as free people get to decide you as free people get to decide how what which powers you're going to delegate to the government instead of the government telling you what you can do what you're going to do well through the the formation of this government ultimately the constitutional convention you are going to shape what this government how it operates what it can do what powers you have delegated to it and it flipped everything on its head again I've said before Americans are not subjects they are citizens Americans are free people now the truth is the truth is people around the world were all created to be free but their government their dictators their ruling classes have inserted themselves as those who are not simply those who are following the well accepting the role that the people gave them they are going to exceed their role and do what they want what they want to see happen implement policies or just arbitrarily change things this has happened throughout history ruling with an iron fist and people have gone along with this right we don't have a king in America we have the rule of law we have a constitutional republic we have people who are supposed to represent us and if they don't we can do something about it at the ballot box not at the end of a firearm and that's where this thing goes awry and what happens is you know human nature we've gone through this before the left has no answer for human nature the left refuses to accept what human nature is constantly getting it 180 degrees out of whack constantly telling us the exact opposite.
Todd Huff: I mean I could I could go through the examples I won't right now because I want to get to these things that I talked about but just as one example the left tells us when it comes to human nature and human nature and personal responsibility the left tells us that we're all collectively responsible for everything that goes wrong in this country in some sort of indirect ambiguous sort of way but yet no one unless you're a conservative unless you're Donald Trump unless you're a Christian but no one minus their exceptions is actually responsible for their own actions this is how the left operates this is why people commit heinous crimes and liberal activist judges give them community service or some such things or ridiculously small short sentences there's no justice there but when it comes to say their perspective on climate change and how man is responsible you better believe that you that you and I are being blamed for this because we're driving SUVs and we're eating beef and beef allows there to be cattle roaming the countryside and cattle have well flatulence and create methane gas all this ridiculous stuff this is just it's nonsensical it's nonsensical but yet when someone when someone does something criminal they're quick to defend these folks these lunatics anyway but that's I don't want to get into that today there's many many examples of that I won't get into that but the point here is that human nature we all have a yearning a desire to be free because we've been created to be free but then there's this other battle this war within us and if we're being honest humanity has shown this time and time again that there is a inclination of the human heart to be attracted to power and we've seen this time and time and time again I don't know how many times we need to see this I hear people talking about communism and they try to disassociate the fact that communism is in practicality always authoritarian I just read something about this earlier today communism is always authoritarian give me an example of a communist society that did not have an authoritarian it does have authoritarians even in spite of the fact of all the things that it talks about perfect equality and all this sort of stuff those things never happen because of the elixir the intoxication of power that's what happens and humanity people who who are given power they like power for power's sake it fuels the ego it fuels our pride in fact if you've ever read C S Lewis he talks about talks about pride being the great sin this is what we see this is what is repeated throughout history and so what happens is if you have a group of people that are insistent on following the Constitution as I know many of you are I hope I hope all of you are but common sense tells me that there's some out here that or that not on board with this yet for whatever reason you're learning why that's fine but it's not fine if we don't understand and get to the point where we say we are insistent that we remain free and that government stays within its proper role its proper function because if it doesn't if it does as it never will when left to its own devices I've said this before I'll say it again it is when God created humanity God created us remember we're made in the image of God and the first thing we know about God in the Bible if we start in Genesis is that God is creative and we have not the creative ability of the God of the universe but we have a portion of that a little reflection of His creativity and so we are creators we are building God created humanity to rule over the earth and that's why we build things we build families we build communities we build churches we build cities we build governments businesses everything that you can think of we're building and that's a good thing in general but the problem is when we build a government and we and we leave it to its own devices it will become just because of human nature it will become at some point left unchecked the default is more authoritarian more we're the boss we have the power you're going to do what we say so we have to stay vigilant and so there are the forces that want government to grow because government grows and they promise to give us things if you vote for me you'll get free this you'll get free health care free education you won't have anything to worry about and so those those forces and I'm telling you you read the manifesto of this lunatic this alleged lunatic here the alleged assassin if you read it you'll see elements of it doesn't make a whole lot of sense it's it's really kind of maybe partly what you would think from someone who came up with this sort of ridiculous plan plan of action here but he's going in with with some grievances and I think you get at least pause and think this guy doesn't like what Trump is doing obviously and and you begin to think that this guy you can see where he has a different expectation of government where he sees Trump as being a direct threat to whatever he thinks government should be doing and I think it's a fair assumption or a fair step to say this guy thinks that Trump is preventing there from being some degree of American utopianism that would be ushered in by the political left I think that you could at least pause and consider that that's what his mind was thinking and so so here you go you got people who want and desire for this government to grow because of the promises that had been pushed out there by politicians and so forth this picture of well they say it's reality but it's not reality and then they're upset at people that want to step in and interfere with government provided services that are supposed to put us on the fast track to this Utopia and you can at least see how the tension exists they view us they view people who want a limited government as part of the problem now the lawsuit go on the offensive and say that Trump is of course evil and Hitler and everything else saying there's there's certainly layers to this this is sophisticated and it's well nature confusing because the people who are committing these sorts of heinous acts are are confused intellectually psychologically certainly spiritually and so here we find ourselves here we find ourselves in this particular situation and so Caroline Levitt I want to square this up before we get to the next segment Caroline Levitt took to the podium yesterday on Monday to basically name names and say Democrats Democrats out there have been fueling this sort of stuff for the people who are not spiritually well or if you want to say well from a mental health perspective fine and so she she goes a little bit she goes after him seem as she goes after him so we'll talk about that next segment friends let's face it living with discomfort is tough and while prescription medications can help they often come with a long long list of side effects not to mention the risk of dependency that's why more people are exploring 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Todd Huff: welcome back my friends before I play before I play the clip of Caroline Levitt naming names or blaming the Democrat party for getting us to this particular point I do want to play I do want to play a sound bite or maybe I'll just read the capture or the transcript here of S E Cupp S E Cupp is a contributor on CNN and she was about 20 minutes before the attempt at assassination Saturday night she was on CNN talking about of course the context of the dinner is it's a dinner about the First Amendment the freedom of speech of course there's four freedoms in the First Amendment freedom of speech the freedom of press which the press is there so they're going to have a little bit of fun but she's saying look it's kind of ironic that the press is going to do this event with this guy Donald Trump and they well Donald Trump wants them metaphorically that's not the worst figuratively she said figuratively he wants us referring to journalists dead that's what she said 20 minutes I think it was 20 minutes before the event I referenced this yesterday I didn't have time to get to this yesterday so I'm going to play it today because I promised you that we would talk about this and I'll get on to I'll get on to Caroline Levitt's comments here afterward but here's SE Cupp just about 20 minutes before the attempted assassination of President Trump and his cabinet on Saturday night planned this scenario better and guess what he didn't we did journalism planned this scenario for Donald Trump so if I'm Donald Trump of course I come under these conditions and you just heard Brian Stelter say that the correspondence association was trying to sort of mend some fences with the guy who wants us dead figuratively figuratively he wants journalism dead it does make a lot of sense to me I don't think this is a great night for journalism.
Todd Huff: get a life get a wife who wants who dead by the way how many attempted literal literal not figuratively SE Cupp how many literal assassinations have happened of President Donald J Trump how many plans for assassinations how many things have happened that we don't even know about we know the Iranians have been planning hoping to take out President Trump how many really are there I would hate to candidly form a guess here because it is it's a lot she says Trump it's ironic it's it's not a good night for journalism she says because Trump wants journalism dead that's what she says he wants journalism dead I just it's it's so pathetic and it's so boring I mean is this the best that you've got just because Trump has spats with you he doesn't want journalism dead I mean my goodness he deals with these clowns and Jokers each and every day this is it's just really a bad pathetic take and it comes across candidly if I can say so like they're a bunch of little childish babies over here because they don't like President Trump so anyway I told you that I was going to play that I was going to play Caroline Levitt she steps to the podium yesterday on Monday and she calls out she calls out some people by name in the Democrat party for contributing to the rhetoric to the metaphorical SE Cupp figurative temperature in the room here which by the way has been increased in part maybe large part by some of these politicians she's mentioning Caroline Levitt here is mentioning and also by many of the people that you sit around with and pontificate with and talk politics with that have undoubtedly been invited to CNN I mean there have been some just some terrible things that have been said about President Trump
Todd Huff: I just mentioned in we've got a Todd Talk I don't know if it's today's or tomorrows but Jimmy Kimmel you may have seen this I don't want to say too much about this now but Jimmy Kimmel did a a bit last week now in fairness it was before it was on Thursday I believe but he was doing a a bit on the White House correspondence dinner and he was kind of pretending he was there and he made a comment about Melania having the what radiance of a widow you look radiant like a new like a widow or some such thing and that that draws laughs and what would make Melania a widow I mean this is for the low information crowd out there this is for the people who find that sort of thing comical what makes Melania a widow is the death of her husband how is that a joke how is the death of the president of the United States something to to joke about why what is funny about that these people are morally bankrupt clowns but anyway let's get to Caroline Levitt here calling people out I'm just going to play this you can enjoy this she goes right after them for sure just the media it is the entire Democrat party has made their pitch to voters across the country that Donald Trump poses an existential threat to democracy that he is a fascist and that they compare him to Hitler I mean these are despicable statements that the American people have been consuming for years and so many mentally perturbed individuals are led to believe these words are truth and then are inspired to act on it
Todd Huff: I have a whole host of examples that we can share with you after it is pages and pages of major Democrat party elected officials saying such as reproem Jeffreys just this April this month said we are in an era of maximum warfare everywhere all the time Governor Josh Shapiro said heads need to roll within the administration Senator Alex Padilla said people are quote dying because of fear and terror caused by the Trump administration Senator Elizabeth Warren President Trump is making the country look like a quote fascist state Senator Adam Schiff saying President Trump using a dictator playbook Senator Ed Markey calling President Trump a dictator saying that this administration's actions are authoritarianism on steroids Governor JB Pritzker never before in my life have I called for mass protest disruptions these Republicans cannot know a moment of peace you have Presley saying we'll see you in the streets Monica McIver a Democrat representative on Capitol Hill we will not take this shit from Donald Trump he thinks he's a dictator we are at war these are Democrat elected officials calling for war against the president of the United States in his supporters I could go on and on but again when you have people in positions of power that are saying things like this every single day for years you are inspiring violence by people who are already mentally ill and that's what we've seen against this President for far too long
Todd Huff: she's not wrong there now some of those I would say I think is is metaphorical I understand that when the temperatures are high you might want to think more carefully about what you are saying especially when the president of the United States has been the target of now multiple assassinations the first of course literally striking him in the ear and of course there are people out there that still don't believe it they say it's staged they say this weekends was staged and everything else okay I mean listen the mind will the mind will justify what the heart desires right I mean that's that's ultimately I think the lesson here certainly we should question things and be be skeptics skeptical healthy skepticism anyway but these are real assassinations on a real our real president's life he's really being targeted it's not hard to understand why because what she's saying here at the core of what she's saying here she's absolutely 100 percent correct the problem here the problem here is that for a decade people have been stirred up I've talked about this for some time people have been stirred up into a frenzy they've listened as the president of the United States has been accused of everything conceivable right he's been accused of being a rapist in fact I don't I'm not going to have time to get to the manifesto I don't think maybe we'll try to read some of it next segment but you'll see that that that language is in the so well the manifesto that's been shared with us released
Todd Huff: but that's that's not true people say oh it's been proven in court that he was a race no it's not people don't just it's amazing to me civil court and liabilities versus criminal court those are not the same things if you think if you think the president is a rapist I even hate to say those words on the radio if you think that then then and you make that statement and he decides to sue you you better be prepared to prove it and you're going to have a heck of a time I'm not saying he's going to sue individual citizens maybe if CNN says it or something like that but anyway just this Caroline Levitt is is right I'll talk more about it after the break but I got to get to that timeout friends our investments are like seeds that we plant they grow they multiply but are they bearing the kind of fruit that we want that's not just it is the financial reward right the the growth of the investment the dividend of the investment but it's also it's also the type of values we support in our society 4:8 Financial believes that our money should reflect our values that's why they specialize in wealth management and biblically responsible investing where they can screen out companies that don't align with your faith it's all part of the purpose centered financial planning helping you live a life of purpose and meaning if you want to see if your investments align or to what degree they align with your values go to 48financial.com Todd that's 48financial.com Todd quick timeout my friends back in just a minute
Todd Huff: welcome back my friends time flies here I would say as you're having fun I don't know that we're having fun I mean we're having fun I guess but it is very precarious times that we are living through these lunatics these lunatics that are out there now I will say this Caroline Levitt's point that the Democrats the media as well I don't know she in that clip she didn't specifically mention the Democrat or the media I should say but she's right right she's right to say that the rhetoric and I don't think all the examples she listed are good I do give people some freedom to use metaphorical language I think she said Josh Shapiro that heads need to roll I mean that's that's a term that's used I think we're maybe overly sensitive to that that's not meant to be literal but to say repeatedly as to her point she's right here the Democrats have been saying for the better part of a decade now that Trump first of all he stole the election right of 2016 he colluded with Vladimir Putin his buddy he went to the Kremlin he probably was drinking vodka in a smoke filled room and they came up with a plan a ploy to steal the 2016 election by tricking Hillary voters into voting for Trump by using some Facebook ads some Pokemon Go ads some ads on what was known as Twitter at the time that just tricked them fooled them into voting for Trump
Todd Huff: and how did they do that well they went to the experts on America media consumption American politics inside the Kremlin they couldn't find any people here in the United States who would of course trump there were Trump's buddies here as well but apparently you know Trump and the shady cast of characters he dealt with here wasn't mean and dirty enough he had to go to the Kremlin and they they gave him a team of social media marketers who could trick again Hillary supporters into thinking they were Donald Trump supporters on election day and that's what happened they told us that's where it started then we I mean it just kept going and it's still going they've impeached the guy twice they have made criminal charges civil court charges they have tried everything conceivable to take this man down and going back to Trump's statements earlier in the program this is what happens he's right on this this is what happens you're the target when you're the when when you're someone who wants to get things done and when you're someone who I talked about the nature of government is to grow and some people benefit from that growth because it takes from people who produce and it's a tool where you can tell your government take from them give to me so that I can have all these things and if you don't allow that if you're if you're a politician like Trump or like a conservative who interferes with that you're viewed as the problem you're the one who is preventing them from living their life you're causing death and destruction and tumult and chaos in society because you won't participate in the process and therefore you guess in the extreme cases here they think that because you're ruining life for other people or even for them you deserve to be targeted well and executed and shot that's what this lunatic thinks I'll read a bit of this I don't I won't get through all of it and I've got this posted again in the stack of stuff this is what's reported to be the full the full manifesto of the alleged assassin here I'll read part of it hello everybody exclamation point so I may have given a lot of people a surprise today let me start off by apologizing to everyone whose trust I abuse that's going to take you a while knucklehead but anyway I apologize to my parents for saying I had had an interview with that specifying it was for most wanted I apologize to my colleagues and students you did your students a favor by getting out of their lives buddy for saying I had a personal emergency by the time anyone reads this I probably most certainly do need to go to the ER but can hardly call that not a self inflicted status I apologize to all the people I traveled next to all the workers who handled my luggage and all the other non targeted people at the hotel who I put in danger simply by being near these people he thinks he's more by apologizing and having good intentions he thinks for these other people walking around society he's doing the right thing here this is wild stuff I apologize to everyone who is abused and or murdered before this okay they're not just whatever to all those who suffered before I was able to attempt this there you go where'd that go before I was able to attempt this sorry the thing the window jumped oh to all the all who may still suffer after regardless of my success or failure see he's talking about those very people people who suffered because Trump's president sorry I didn't do it sooner is basically what he's saying I don't expect forgiveness but if I could have seen any other way to get this close I would have taken it again my sincere apologies on why I did any of this I am a citizen of the United States of America what my representatives do reflects me and I'm no longer willing to permit a pedophile his words not mine rapist and traitor to coat my hands with his crimes well to be completely honest I was no longer willing a long time ago but this is the first real opportunity I've had to do something about it again the stupid manifesto I'm reading here while discussing this I'll also go over my expected rules of engagement probably in a terrible format I'm not military so too bad I mean this this is real this is his stupid manifesto he got objections in here I'm just out of time I knew I wouldn't get through this it's in the stack of stuff you can get that by texting truth 3177851030 but I gotta go my friends thanks for listening SDG
