
Former President Donald Trump claimed that overheated rhetoric from Democrats was responsible for an apparent assassination attempt on him on Sunday. However, records show that threats against presidents or those in line of presidential succession have been a recurring issue for decades.
An examination of Syracuse University’s Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) reveals that since 1986, the federal government has prosecuted 1,444 cases of threats against presidents or others in the line of presidential succession. The highest number of prosecutions in a single year was 73 in 1987 during the Reagan administration.