I’ve been covering politics long enough to know one thing with certainty: whenever a tragedy strikes, the first instinct of MAGA world is to weaponize it. Before we even knew the name of Charlie Kirk’s killer, Trump and his enablers were already spreading lies, smears, and conspiracy theories. They wanted you to believe this was a “leftist, liberal, transgender plot.” They wanted you to picture some cartoonish villain, a purple-haired “antifa” caricature that they could rail against to further demonize marginalized communities and shut down Democratic organizations.
But the facts caught up to them.
The killer has been identified as Tyler Robinson, a 22-year-old white Mormon from Utah, raised in a Trump-supporting family. He attended Utah State University for a single semester before entering a technical college apprenticeship program. Robinson’s political beliefs at this moment seem all over the place, and people who know him have told the press different things.
His grandmother said their whole family is Republican, very pro-Trump, and emphasized that she doesn’t even know of any Democrats in the family. Some are speculating that Robinson is a Groyper—a group of alt-right, white nationalist, extremely online agitators who have targeted figures like Kirk and Ben Shapiro from the right. An anonymous person who described themselves as a former friend of Robinson in high school said that Robinson had once been critical of Donald Trump, adding that they haven’t had contact with him in several years. Then there are the photos: this young man once dressed up in a Donald Trump piggyback costume for Halloween, mimicked the “squatting slav” pose (a popular internet meme), and posed with guns alongside his siblings and parents. Regardless of what his true beliefs are, and if he even has a coherent ideology, one thing seems certain as of now: he clearly lived steeped in online meme culture. He is not the MAGA fantasy “enemy” they wanted you to believe in.
And so, like clockwork, the right-wing narrative shifted.
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Congresswoman Nancy Mace, who just yesterday was on TV ranting about a supposed “Democrat leftist tranny plot,” suddenly struck a different tone. Now she tells us that we need to pray for the killer. She says Kirk would have wanted us to extend forgiveness. Really? That’s a remarkable change of heart, considering that before the facts came out, Mace was smearing entire communities with grotesque slurs.
Fox News also scrambled. When it became undeniable that Robinson wasn’t the boogeyman they wished for, they reached for the next scapegoat: college. Yes, the same Fox News whose hosts rant nightly about “Marxist professors” tried to pin Robinson’s violence on one semester at Utah State. Never mind that he spent the last few years in an electrical apprenticeship program at Dixie Technical College, not exactly a hub of left-wing radicalization. They needed a villain, and higher education was the easiest straw man.
Meanwhile, Trump himself barely acknowledged the assassination. When asked about how he was coping with Kirk’s death, a man who spent years shilling for him, Trump immediately pivoted to bragging about building a new ballroom at the White House. The heartlessness was shocking, even for Trump. MAGA influencers can dedicate their lives to serving Trump, but when they’re gone, they get half a sentence before he plugs his latest grift.
Let’s take a step back here. This isn’t just about hypocrisy. It’s about a pattern we’ve seen over and over again.
Look at the data: between 2013 and 2022, the overwhelming majority of extremist-linked killings in the United States came from right-wing actors. Left-wing violence exists, but it’s a tiny fraction by comparison. The Trump administration gutted the FBI’s counterterrorism division and replaced experienced professionals with unqualified loyalists, deliberately steering resources away from tracking right-wing extremism. And what have we seen since? More violence, more radicalization, and more tragedies.
And here’s the hard truth: the shooters don’t fit the MAGA narrative because the shooters usually look like Tyler Robinson. Young, white, male, chronically online. Raised in families that glorify guns. Lacking healthy outlets, relationships, or hope for the future. Immersed in toxic internet subcultures where irony blurs with incitement and meme-based hate is a way of life.
That’s the reality. And it terrifies MAGA leaders because it destroys their phony narratives that are intended to inflame and divide.
Instead of confronting what is radicalizing these young men, they double down. They scapegoat transgender Americans. They attack universities. They gin up fear about immigrants. Anything to avoid acknowledging that their constant stream of hate and division is fueling this cycle.
And it is a cycle. Violence begets violence. Leaders set the tone. When Barack Obama responded to the Charleston church massacre, he led with unity and grief, not blame. When Donald Trump responds to tragedy, he lies, scapegoats, and brags about his vanity projects. That contrast tells you everything you need to know about why our country feels like it’s unraveling.
So here’s where I stand: I condemn all political violence. Full stop. Violence is not the answer, ever. And condemning violence also means refusing to tolerate the lies that excuse or enable it. It means demanding accountability from leaders who spew division and then pretend they’re shocked when their followers act on it.
Tyler Robinson found validation in extremist rhetoric and meme culture. That’s tragic in its own right. But the way MAGA has reacted to his assassination, first by exploiting it, then by rewriting the story, shows us the deeper sickness in our politics.
We don’t fix this by scapegoating. We fix this by addressing mental health, by enacting common-sense gun reform, and by building a culture where young people have real hope, connection, and dignity. And we fix this by rejecting leaders like Donald Trump who profit from chaos and division.
The facts matter. The truth matters. And if we don’t start confronting the reality of where this violence is coming from, we’re going to see more Tyler Robinsons. More funerals. More leaders twisting tragedy for political gain.
Enough is enough.
