US experienced about 150 politically-motivated attacks in first half of 2025 \u2014 nearly twice as many as over same period last year
\n Washington
\nThe assassination of right-wing influencer Charlie Kirk marks a watershed moment in a surge of US political violence, one that some experts fear will inflame an already-fractured country and inspire more unrest.
\n\u201dThis event is horrifying, alarming, but not necessarily surprising,\u201d said Mike Jensen, a researcher at the University of Maryland, which has tracked such violence in a terrorism database since 1970.
\nIn the first six months of the year, the US experienced about 150 politically-motivated attacks \u2014 nearly twice as many as over the same period last year, said Jensen.
\n\u201cI think we are in a very, very dangerous spot right now that could quite easily escalate into more widespread civil unrest if we don\u2019t get a hold of it,\u201d Jensen said. \u201cThis could absolutely serve as a kind of flashpoint that inspires more of it.\u201d
\nExperts in domestic terrorism cite a convergence of factors for increased violence in the US: economic insecurity, anxiety over shifting racial and ethnic demographics, and the increasingly inflammatory tone of political discourse.
\nTraditional ideological divides \u2014 once centered on policy disagreements \u2014 have morphed into a deeper, more personal animosity. That anger is amplified by a mix of social media, conspiracy theories and personal grievances.
\nReuters identified last year at least 300 cases of political violence across the US between the January 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol and the 2024 presidential election, marking the most significant and sustained surge in such violence since the 1970s.
\n\u201cExtreme political violence is increasingly becoming the norm in our country, and the shooting of Charlie Kirk is indicative of a far greater and more pervasive issue: acts of violence are becoming more common, even without any clear ideology or motive,\u201d said Jon Lewis, a research fellow at the Program on Extremism at George Washington University.
\n\u201cThere\u2019s really a concern about what the blowback to something like this will look like.\u201d
\nOther experts who study political violence agreed. \u201cPeople are reluctant to engage in violence first, but they\u2019re much more willing to engage in violence as retaliation,\u201d said Lilliana Mason, a political science professor at Johns Hopkins University. \u201cNo one wants to be the one to start it, but lots of people want to be able to finish it.\u201d
\nKirk, a close ally of US President Donald Trump and founder of the conservative student group Turning Point USA, was addressing an outdoor crowd of about 3,000 at Utah Valley University when a gunshot rang out, sending him tumbling from his chair and attendees fleeing in panic.
\nAuthorities had not yet publicly identified a suspect by Wednesday evening, nearly six hours after the shooting. FBI Director Kash Patel said an unnamed \u201csubject\u201d had been detained for questioning and then released.
\nKirk, 31, was a pioneer in the conservative movement and harnessed the power of social media to lure millions of young Americans into Trump\u2019s MAGA base.
\n\u201cNo one understood or had the Heart of the Youth in the United States better than Charlie,\u201d Trump said in a social media post announcing Kirk\u2019s death. Republican House of Representatives Speaker Mike Johnson told CNN there has been a \u201cdeluge\u201d of lawmakers calling for stronger security in the wake of Kirk\u2019s killing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
US experienced about 150 politically-motivated attacks in first half of 2025 \u2014 nearly twice as many as over same period last year Washington The assassination of right-wing influencer Charlie Kirk marks a watershed moment in a surge of US political violence, one that some experts fear will inflame an already-fractured country and inspire more unrest. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":502354,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-502343","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n