In response to a question about why he didn’t order flags lowered to half-staff to honor Melissa Hortman, the Democratic speaker of the Minnesota House of Representatives who was assassinated alongside her husband this summer, Donald Trump initially claimed he was “not familiar” with the case. A reporter brought up this issue during a briefing in the Oval Office on Monday, following the president’s recent order to lower flags in memory of rightwing activist Charlie Kirk. The reporter wanted to know why Trump and Republicans continued to blame the left for an increase in political violence, when officials and activists from both parties have been targeted.
Donald Trump stated he would have lowered the flags if the governor had asked him to do so. He also suggested that it’s not necessary to lower the flags every time there’s a tragic event: sometimes, requests to lower the flags have to be denied because it happens too often. In the past, Trump had dismissed Governor Walz (a Democrat and the vice-presidential nominee in 2024) as a “waste of time”, and referred to him as “whacked out” and a “mess”.
Kirk, the founder of the conservative youth activist group Turning Point USA and a close ally of the president, was fatally shot last week. In the aftermath, Trump and other prominent conservatives have blamed Democrats for political violence and vowed to crack down on left-wing groups. House Republicans and a few Democrats attended a prayer vigil for Kirk on Capitol Hill on Monday, but included Hortman’s assassination and other violent acts against Democrats in their thoughts.
Trump denies blaming just “one side” and instead accuses the “radical left” of causing “tremendous violence”. On the same day, vice president JD Vance, a close friend of Kirk’s, spoke of national unity and insisted that Democrats are primarily to blame for political violence, despite condemnation of Kirk’s killing from party officials and elected leaders.
Source: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/sep/15/trump-melissa-hortman-charlie-kirk-flags
