Donald Trump has sparked outrage after he conjured up a violent fantasy about Liz Cheney being shot in the face during a campaign appearance days before Election Day.
The former president joined conservative broadcaster Tucker Carlson on stage at an event in Glendale, Arizona, on Thursday night where he branded the former Republican representative a “radical war hawk.”
After condemning the Iraq war and boasting about pardoning Dick Cheney’s then-chief of staff Scooter Libby, who was convicted on perjury charges in 2007, Trump lined up the former vice president’s daughter in his crosshairs.
“His daughter is a very dumb individual, very dumb. She’s a radical war hawk,” Trump said to some cheers.
“Let’s put her with a rifle standing there with nine barrels shooting at her. Let’s see how she feels about it. You know, when the guns are trained on her face.”
The Republican presidential candidate then took aim at government officials, before throwing one last jab at Cheney.
“They’re all war hawks when they’re sitting in Washington in a nice building saying, ‘Oh, gee, well, let’s send 10,000 troops right into the mouth of the enemy,’” Trump continued.
“But she’s a stupid person. And I used to have meetings with a lot of people and she always wanted to go to war with people.”
The former president – who has faced two assassination attempts this election cycle and has tried to blame the attacks on rhetoric from his poliical rivals – has faced a slew of online backlash online for the comments.
“Has anyone checked in with his parole officer? Because I’m pretty sure this is a violation,” former field director for the Democratic National Committee Adam Parkhomenko wrote on X about the convicted felon.
In another tweet, he added: “This is some really sick f***ing s**t and everyone needs to make sure everyone gets out to vote and end this f**k for good.”
“‘Where the guns are trained at her face…,’” reporter Justin Baragnona wrote on X. “This comes after Trump has already amplified calls for Liz Cheney to be tried for treason before a televised military tribunal.”
Trump’s latest attack comes as the former president and his MAGA allies have ramped up the violent rhetoric against their rivals.
Trump has called for Cheney, who endorsed Kamala Harris and hit the campaign trail alongside the vice president last month, to be jailed multiple times this year.
In March, he called for the former Wisconsin lawmaker – and other members of congress who investigated his actions surrounding the January 6 2021 Capitol riots – to be jailed on Truth Social.
By July, he called for “televised military tribunals” of his political opponents, sharing a post in the summer that stated “Elizabeth Lynne Cheney is guilty of treason.”
And, in recent weeks, the GOP candidate has branded top Democrats as “the enemy from within” and has suggested deploying the military to go after “radical left lunatics” on Election Day.
Elon Musk, a MAGA megadonor who is tipped to earn a cabinet spot if Trump is re-elected, also faced backlash for “joking” about the assassinations of both Harris and President Joe Biden.
Following the second attempt on Trump’s life at his West Palm Beach golf resort in September, Musk responded to an X user who asked: “Why they want to kill Donald Trump?”
“And no one is even trying to assassinate Biden/Kamala,” Musk replied, accompanied by the thinking face emoji.
Musk later tried to brush it off as a joke, telling Carlson: “I made a joke, which I realized – I deleted – which is like: nobody’s even bothering to try to kill Kamala because it’s pointless. What do you achieve?”
“Just buy another puppet,” Musk continued, before adding: “Nobody’s tried to kill Joe Biden. It’d be pointless.”
