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The Atlantic: What the Josh Shapiro Attack Reveals
The Atlantic - (archived: https://archive.ph/wWtIq ) What the Josh Shapiro Attack Reveals
Donald Trump condemns political violence only when he has nothing to gain from it.
By Ali Breland
April 14, 2025, 7:51 PM ET
Josh Shapiro is very lucky to be alive. The Pennsylvania governor and his family escaped an arson attack in the early hours of this morning. Parts of the governor’s mansion were badly charred, including an opulent room with a piano and a chandelier where Shapiro had hosted a Passover Seder just hours earlier. Things could have been much worse. The suspect, Cody Balmer, who turned himself in, would have beaten Shapiro with a hammer if he had found him in his home, he reportedly said in an affidavit.
Balmer admitted to “harboring hatred” of Shapiro, authorities said, but his precise motives are still unclear. He reportedly expressed anti-government views and made allusions to violence on social media. He reposted an image of a Molotov cocktail with the caption “Be the light you want to see in the world.” Balmer’s mother told CBS that he has a history of mental illness. But no matter how you square it, the attack is just the latest example of political violence in the United States. Last month, a Wisconsin teenager was charged with murdering his mother and stepfather as part of a plot to try to assassinate President Donald Trump—this, of course, follows two assassination attempts targeting Trump last year. Other prominent instances of ideological violence include the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson late last year, and the time when a man broke into Nancy Pelosi’s home in 2022 and attacked her husband, Paul Pelosi, with a hammer, fracturing his skull. (He was badly hurt but survived.)
Shapiro is a Democrat, but in a rare moment of bipartisan agreement, Republicans joined Democrats in condemning the attack. President Trump said in the Oval Office today that the suspect “was probably just a wack job and certainly a thing like that cannot be allowed to happen.” Vice President J. D. Vance called the violence “disgusting,” and Attorney General Pam Bondi posted on X that she was “relieved” that Shapiro and his family are safe.
These kinds of condemnations of political violence are good. They’re also meaningless—especially when taken in the broader context of Trump’s governing style. Perhaps it’s no coincidence that since Trump first ran for office, political violence has been on the rise. When it’s useful to Trump, he praises violence and makes leveraging the threat of it endemic to his style of politics. When Montana’s then–congressional candidate (and now-governor) Greg Gianforte assaulted a reporter in 2017, Trump later said, “Any guy that can do a body slam, he is my type!” After Kyle Rittenhouse shot and killed a protester in Kenosha, Wisconsin, in the summer of 2020, he had a friendly meeting with Trump at Mar-a-Lago the next year. And during a presidential debate against Joe Biden that fall, when Trump was asked if he would rebuke the Proud Boys, a far-right organization with a history of inciting violence, he told the group to “stand back and stand by,” as though he were giving it orders. (This is also how the Proud Boys interpreted it.)
Trump made his willingness to engage in political violence especially clear during the Capitol insurrection on January 6, 2021. Instead of immediately attempting to call off his rabid supporters, Trump sat on his hands as his supporters stormed the Capitol—even as members of his own party urged him to help. Despite having lost the election, Trump appeared okay with violence if it helped him maintain the presidency.
/snip
Donald Trump condemns political violence only when he has nothing to gain from it.
By Ali Breland
April 14, 2025, 7:51 PM ET
Josh Shapiro is very lucky to be alive. The Pennsylvania governor and his family escaped an arson attack in the early hours of this morning. Parts of the governor’s mansion were badly charred, including an opulent room with a piano and a chandelier where Shapiro had hosted a Passover Seder just hours earlier. Things could have been much worse. The suspect, Cody Balmer, who turned himself in, would have beaten Shapiro with a hammer if he had found him in his home, he reportedly said in an affidavit.
Balmer admitted to “harboring hatred” of Shapiro, authorities said, but his precise motives are still unclear. He reportedly expressed anti-government views and made allusions to violence on social media. He reposted an image of a Molotov cocktail with the caption “Be the light you want to see in the world.” Balmer’s mother told CBS that he has a history of mental illness. But no matter how you square it, the attack is just the latest example of political violence in the United States. Last month, a Wisconsin teenager was charged with murdering his mother and stepfather as part of a plot to try to assassinate President Donald Trump—this, of course, follows two assassination attempts targeting Trump last year. Other prominent instances of ideological violence include the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson late last year, and the time when a man broke into Nancy Pelosi’s home in 2022 and attacked her husband, Paul Pelosi, with a hammer, fracturing his skull. (He was badly hurt but survived.)
Shapiro is a Democrat, but in a rare moment of bipartisan agreement, Republicans joined Democrats in condemning the attack. President Trump said in the Oval Office today that the suspect “was probably just a wack job and certainly a thing like that cannot be allowed to happen.” Vice President J. D. Vance called the violence “disgusting,” and Attorney General Pam Bondi posted on X that she was “relieved” that Shapiro and his family are safe.
These kinds of condemnations of political violence are good. They’re also meaningless—especially when taken in the broader context of Trump’s governing style. Perhaps it’s no coincidence that since Trump first ran for office, political violence has been on the rise. When it’s useful to Trump, he praises violence and makes leveraging the threat of it endemic to his style of politics. When Montana’s then–congressional candidate (and now-governor) Greg Gianforte assaulted a reporter in 2017, Trump later said, “Any guy that can do a body slam, he is my type!” After Kyle Rittenhouse shot and killed a protester in Kenosha, Wisconsin, in the summer of 2020, he had a friendly meeting with Trump at Mar-a-Lago the next year. And during a presidential debate against Joe Biden that fall, when Trump was asked if he would rebuke the Proud Boys, a far-right organization with a history of inciting violence, he told the group to “stand back and stand by,” as though he were giving it orders. (This is also how the Proud Boys interpreted it.)
Trump made his willingness to engage in political violence especially clear during the Capitol insurrection on January 6, 2021. Instead of immediately attempting to call off his rabid supporters, Trump sat on his hands as his supporters stormed the Capitol—even as members of his own party urged him to help. Despite having lost the election, Trump appeared okay with violence if it helped him maintain the presidency.
/snip
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