President Donald Trump has said that he does not view rightwing extremism as a rising threat. This puts him at odds with his own FBI director, Christopher Wray, who recently told a Senate committee that the growing number of domestic terrorism cases owes to “some version of what you might call white supremacist violence.” In fact, according to a January report by the Anti-Defamation League, every extremist killing in the United States in 2018—and there were at least fifty in all—had a rightwing link.
Here are some of the most deadly and horrific acts of domestic terrorism driven by rightwing ideology in just the past year:
Smoking Gun 1
October 27, 2018
A forty-six-year-old trucker armed with three Glock .357 handguns and a Colt AR-15 rifle murders eleven people at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The shooter, who blamed Jews for helping migrant caravans from Central America, a major Trump bugaboo, yells “All Jews must die!” before opening fire.
November 2, 2018
A forty-year-old man with a handgun shoots six women, killing two, at a yoga studio in Tallahassee, Florida, before killing himself. He had made a number of racist and misogynistic YouTube videos, blaming women for his status as an “incel,” or involuntary celibate. In one video, he expressed sympathy for another woman-hating mass murderer.
April 27, 2019
A nineteen-year-old white supremacist employs his AR-style assault rifle at a synagogue in Poway, California, killing one person and injuring three before fleeing. The man, an admirer of both Hitler and the shooter in a deadly New Zealand mosque attack, then calls 911 to turn himself in, saying, “I just shot up a synagogue . . . because Jewish people are destroying the white race.” He has pleaded not guilty.
July 28, 2019
A nineteen-year-old man uses an AK-style assault rifle to shoot to death three people, including two children, and wound seventeen others at a community festival in Gilroy, California. A clown mask, wilderness survival guide, camouflage pack, and passport are found in his car. FBI Agent John Bennett says the shooter, who took his own life during a gunfight with police, “appeared to have an interest in variant, competing, violent ideologies.”
August 3, 2019
A twenty-one-year-old Trump supporter and white supremacist armed with an AK-style assault rifle kills twenty-two people and wounds about two dozen more at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas, before surrendering to police. The shooting took place minutes after a four-page screed—allegedly authored by the assailant—appeared online decrying the “Hispanic invasion of Texas,” using one of Trump’s favorite terms. Police say the shooter showed no remorse.
August 17, 2019
A twenty-year-old avowed anti-Semite and white nationalist is arrested after making a video in which he fires a weapon and references a Jewish Community Center in Youngstown, Ohio. Police searching his home find semiautomatic weapons, dozens of rounds of ammunition, a gas mask, and bulletproof armor. The man has pleaded not guilty to charges of harassment and aggravated menacing.