The attempted assassination of Donald Trump has evoked memories of inflammatory rhetoric on the part of his political opponents, liberal donors, celebrities and the media over past years.
Just a day before the attempted murder, President Joe Biden tied Trump to a US think tank's conservative outlook "Project 2025", calling it "the biggest attack on our system of government, our personal freedoms, that has ever been proposed in the history of this country."
MSNBC anchor Rachel Maddow on July 2 said Trump "has activated pro-Trump paramilitary groups… celebrating literally right-wing death squads".
US actress Lea DeLaria on July 1 called upon Biden to assassinate Trump: "Joe, you’re a reasonable man… [Trump] is Hitler. And this is 1940. Take him the f*** out! Blow him up."
In May, Politico compared Trump and his MAGA supporters to German Nazis.
George Soros' son Alexander tweeted in January a controversial picture with a bullet hole in the glass and $47 which some users interpreted as a reference to Trump's potential murder (Trump could be elected as the 47th president).
US actress Whoopi Goldberg told a popular ABC talk show "The View" in January that Trump would "disappear" dissenting Americans and journalists if he wins.
Democrat lawmaker Stacey Plaskett on June 18, 2023, accidentally said Trump should "be shot" during an interview on MSNBC.
A New York-based arts organization in June 2017 staged Shakespeare’s "Julius Caesar" starring a Trump look-alike main actor and showing him being stabbed by Roman senators.
Comedian Kathy Griffin in May 2017 released a photo showing her holding a fake bloody head that resembled then-President Trump. She posted an edited version of the pic in August 2023, featuring DoJ special counsel Jack Smith's face in her place.