A new survey reveals that about half of Americans who lean Left politically believe murdering President Donald Trump and billionaire Elon Musk is at least somewhat justified as concerns mount about “assassination culture.”
The Network Contagion Research Institute and Rutgers University’s Social Perception Lab released a report Monday titled “Assassination Culture: How Burning Teslas and Killing Billionaires Became a Meme Aesthetic for Political Violence.” The data included in the report is based on responses collected from 1,264 U.S. adults. The main takeaway from the report is that, “A broader ‘assassination culture’ appears to be emerging within segments of the U.S. public on the extreme left.”
The survey, which comes at a time when Trump and Musk are facing ire for their efforts to trim the size of the federal government, asked respondents whether they thought murdering the two men or destroying Tesla dealerships that sell products manufactured by a company owned by Musk was justified. Among the whole sample, 31.6% of respondents maintained that murdering Musk was at least somewhat justified. That number rose to nearly half (48.6%) among Americans who identify as Left of center.
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An even larger share of all respondents (38.5%) and Left-leaning respondents (55.2%) believed that murdering Trump was at least partially justified. When asked if they thought destroying Tesla dealerships was at least partially acceptable, 39.8% of all respondents and 57.6% of Left-leaning respondents answered in the affirmative.
“This report points to disturbingly high levels of support for political violence, particularly targeting President Donald Trump and Elon Musk. Across survey responses, nearly one-third of respondents — and a significantly higher share of left-leaning respondents — expressed some degree of justification for acts of lethal violence,” the report stated.
The report also comes nearly a year after Trump was targeted in two assassination attempts and the murder of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson by Luigi Mangione. It suggests that a culture has developed online that has had the effect of encouraging political violence online, which includes the perception of Mangione as a heroic figure.
In addition to analyzing Americans’ views on harming Trump and Musk, the report attempted to examine the factors that made people more prone to support political violence.
The survey revealed a positive correlation between the use of the progressive social media platform BlueSky and adherence to left-wing authoritarianism (0.24), the belief that it was acceptable to destroy Tesla dealerships (0.23), killing Musk is justified (0.22), support for Mangione (0.15) and the belief that killing Trump is justified (0.12).
The report also discovered a positive correlation between support for Mangione and the belief that killing Musk is justified (0.36), support for left-wing authoritarianism (0.34), the belief that killing Trump is justified (0.31) and the view that destroying Tesla dealerships is acceptable (0.27). A strong correlation was also measured between Left-wing authoritarianism and the beliefs that destroying Tesla dealerships is acceptable (0.51), killing Trump is justified (0.49) and killing Musk is justified (0.47).
Unsurprisingly, there was a noticeable correlation between the belief that killing Trump was justified and the view that destroying Tesla dealerships is acceptable (0.53) and killing Musk is justified (0.69). There was a 0.59 correlation between the idea that killing Musk is justified and the view that destroying Tesla dealerships is acceptable.
“Unless political and cultural leadership explicitly confronts and condemns this trend, [a] growing probability of real-world escalation” exists, the report added. “Given the current economic volatility and institutional distrust, the online normalization of political violence may increasingly translate into offline action.”
“Taken together, the findings underscore the erosion of democratic norms and the growing acceptability of political violence in American discourse, particularly among ideologically extreme communities online,” the report warned. “Continued monitoring and broader measurement efforts are urgently needed.”
A follow-up to the original survey focusing on thoughts about assassinating Trump and Musk and destroying Tesla asked 1,233 respondents: “How justified or not justified would someone be if they killed a powerful political leader? Twenty-nine percent of Republicans and 41% of Democrats suggested that murdering a powerful political figure was at least somewhat justified.
Ryan Foley is a reporter for The Christian Post. He can be reached at: ryan.foley@christianpost.com
