Political violence isn’t just being excused anymore — it’s being celebrated and rebranded as righteous activism.
Rutgers University teamed up with the Network Contagion Research Institute — a group that tracks digital threats — and dropped a report with a title that doesn’t mince words: “Assassination Culture: How Burning Teslas and Killing Billionaires Became a Meme Aesthetic for Political Violence.”
Researchers dove headfirst into progressive online circles and came up with a digital cesspool of demented bloodlust.
One user, flagged in the findings, declared that Elon Musk “needs a Luigi” — a reference to Luigi Mangione, the 26-year-old man accused of shooting UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in the back on a New York City street in December.
Another post fantasized about Mangione being released from prison just in time for Trump to catch a show at Ford’s Theatre. Subtle, huh?
It gets darker. In California, there’s an actual healthcare ballot initiative named the “Luigi Mangione Access to Health Care Act.”
This isn’t fringe, unfortunately. According to the Rutgers survey, 48% of self-described leftists have favorable views toward murdering Elon Musk. And 55% feel the same about killing Donald Trump.
This isn’t just keyboard outbursts, either. It’s spilling into the real world with disturbing frequency. The latest attack? A Tesla charging station in Lacey, Washington.
At 1:30 a.m. Tuesday, a loud blast rocked a Target parking lot. Police arrived to find a Tesla supercharger destroyed. Local authorities — and the FBI — are investigating what looks like a deliberate act of sabotage.
This is exactly the escalation the Rutgers analysis warned about. The report ends with a sober message: if political leaders — in this case, Democrats — don’t denounce this glorified violence now, the violence is only going to escalate.
Jason Mattera is a New York Times bestselling author and an Emmy-nominated crime correspondent for Newsmax. Get all of his latest reports here.
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.