Small Subset of Trump Supporters 'Likely' to Try to Kill in 2024: Analyst

Political analyst Brian Klaas, a frequent critic of Donald Trump, warned on Sunday that a small subset of the former president's supporters are "highly likely" to try to kill people ahead of the 2024 presidential election.

Trump is currently among the packed field of candidates seeking the 2024 GOP presidential nomination as part of his bid to retake the White House. He has consistently led the pack in polls by a wide margin, with recent national averages giving him over 50 percent support from likely Republican voters. Trump's lead is considered to be so strong, that many observers have dismissed the forthcoming Republican primary process as a formality.

Amid his reelection campaign, Trump's public comments have also become increasingly laced with hints and outright suggestions of violence, setting off a new wave of concern from his critics. In a Truth Social post last month, Trump trashed outgoing Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Mark Milley and suggested that his past interactions with Chinese officials amounted to "treason," further claiming that "in times gone by, the punishment would have been DEATH!" He also recently claimed that he would support legislation to allow business owners and employees to shoot shoplifters on sight in "places where there's a true breakdown in the rule of law."

During a Sunday appearance on MSNBC, Klaas, an associate professor in global politics at University College London, was asked by host Jonathan Capehart about how concerned people should be about Trump's increasingly violent rhetoric.

"It's the biggest story of the 2024 election, but it's not being treated as that in the press," Klaas said. "I think that's a real failing, because it has become the banality of crazy incitement to violence, this sort of normalcy and routine of Trump saying things that could get people killed. You have him suggesting that you could execute America's top general. On Friday night, you had him joking about Paul Pelosi [husband of former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi] being attacked and the crowd laughed when he referenced an 82-year-old man being hit over the head with a hammer."

He continued: "He called to execute people who shoplift from stores, a very minor crime, one to take seriously, but certainly not one worthy of execution...He has demonized a variety of people in his various outlets, on Truth Social and in his various discussions in front of crowds, and this is related to a term called 'stochastic terrorism'... what it basically means is when someone who is very powerful targets and demonizes individual groups in the public, at least a small number of their followers will take them as marching orders. And what is highly likely going into the 2024 election is that a small subset of Trump's very well-armed and extremist base will try to kill people."

Klaas further referenced a Trump supporter, Cesar Sayoc Jr., who in 2018 was arrested after attempting to send bombs in the mail to various people Trump had criticized on Twitter, including Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton, and former President Barack Obama.

Sayoc was only unsuccessful, Klaas argued, due to his lack of skill in making bombs, not because Trump's rhetoric had been insufficient.

Newsweek reached out to Trump's office via email for comment.

Update 10/17/23, 7:45 a.m. ET: The headline on this article was updated for clarity.