“Let’s not mince words. Donald Trump’s statement is a death threat. The sitting President of the United States is calling for the murder of his political opponents. We cannot lose sight of how shocking, dangerous, and abnormal this is.” — Jim McGovern
The quote is from Senator McGovern, Democrat from Massachusetts, in November, 2025, after Trump stated,
“Each one of these traitors to our Country should be ARRESTED AND PUT ON TRIAL. Their words cannot be allowed to stand — We won’t have a Country anymore!!! An example MUST BE SET,” the president wrote.
In another, he wrote: “SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR, punishable by DEATH!” — Donald J. Trump
Trump wrote in response to former military and lawmakers who posted a video encouraging members of the military not to follow illegal orders.
After Trump’s response, they were all inundated with death threats.
The venom in a snake is in the head
Before this administration, I didn’t take personal death threats by online trolls very seriously. I’ve gotten them, and they’ve alarmed and shaken me, but I’ve wondered about the ferocity of someone who doesn’t know anything about me except what I write, sending me a death threat. How can they be serious?
Now it seems anyone who resists the persistent, malicious, chipping away of our freedoms is open to death threats. They come equally from the troll in his parents’ basement, as from the highest office in the land.
It’s not just individuals who endure death threats. Entire countries of civilians are equally threatened if their government doesn’t acquiesce to the deranged “leader of the free world.” Trump threatened Iran saying “a whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again” in an Easter message. Let that sink in.
In 2020, Christopher Krebs filed a defamation lawsuit against 45’s lawyer Joseph diGenova and Newsmax. In the Newsmax interview, diGenova stated that Krebs should be “drawn and quartered,” or “shot at dawn.” Why?
Christopher Krebs had stated that the 2020 election was the “most secure in American History.”
Krebs defamation lawsuit contends that those death penalties are for convicted traitors, which he most decidedly is not.
diGenova called Krebs a traitor because he had the audacity to proclaim, as head of the Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, that the 2020 election was the most secure in American History. His agency found no evidence of any voting system deleting or losing votes, changing votes, or in any way compromising the electio n.
By the way, Krebs is a life-long Republican.
Apparently, anyone who goes against the Orange-One-In-Chief is a traitor who deserves death. But not anyone who actively stormed the Capitol screaming for the death of the Vice-President and Senators and Representatives. Those get pardoned.
Even when the holder of the highest office in the land doesn’t threaten you with death, there are others, trolls and malcontents, who take him at his word if he calls you a traitor. Krebs received death threats from just these types, following diGenova’s statements.
More recently, so has Majorie Taylor Greene, after she stood up to the administration and for the Epstein survivors, demanding release of the Epstein files. She received so many death threats, she resigned from office.
I started getting serious death threats — serious death threats. A pipe bomb death threat on my home, a pipe bomb death threat on my family construction business, and then direct death threats on my youngest child, my son,” Greene said.
She goes on to state that the threats came because Trump called her a traitor. The venom in a snake is in the head.
Here’s the real problem with death threats. As a psychotherapist, I can tell you that it’s difficult to know exactly who will carry out such threats and who will not. It’s never a good idea to gamble on a death threat.
From some sources, it may be hyperbole. From others, it’s a threat they feel free to make because their leader gave them permission, by calling someone a traitor or making the threat himself. For others, the thought festers until they convince themselves action must be taken. The more unstable a person is, the more likely they are to carry out a threat.
Death threats are a dangerous game. Politicians and their lawyers are some of the last people who should be making them Certainly not the President of the United States. Not only because they should show more decorum and plain old common sense, but because their unstable followers don’t understand hyperbole, and are likely to carry out threats.
For that matter, the military, unless they follow the advice of former military and lawmakers to refuse illegal orders, will be ordered to carry out threats of destroying an entire civilization. And they will do so.
State criminal codes take death threats seriously. “Under state criminal codes, which vary by state, it is an offense to knowingly utter or convey a threat to cause death or bodily harm to any person.”
The Supreme Court, overall, has protected political hyperbolic speeches that appeared to be threats. In most rulings, they found that only “true threats” are outside the protection of the first amendment. But what’s a “true threat?”
The Ninth Circuit stated in one case that, “It is not necessary that the defendant intend to, or be able to carry out his threat; the only intent requirement for a true threat is that the defendant intentionally or knowingly communicate the threat.”
And therein lies the issue. In today’s world of instantaneous sound bites, retweeting, and sharply divided media coverage, threats are immediately and widely communicated. Much of that communication goes out to people who are not stable. To those who default to the psychological defense mechanism of all-or-nothing thinking, who see things as all good or all bad. To people who take the words of those they follow as gospel and directives.
Whether it’s political death threats, or death threats to women, BIPOC, LGBTQ people, and anyone who disagrees with the world view of the one hurling death threats, the danger is real. There is always someone willing to act on those type of threats.
What can we do if we receive death threats, as many of us writers, especially women and people of color, and queer people have? Most advice is to ignore trolls online. I agree. They’re usually anonymous, and all you can do is block and report them.
It’s good advice to ignore and block the individual anonymous ones, because psychologically, they thrive on your outrage and reactions. Although, for most troll comments that are disturbing or threatening, I respond,
“Well, that took a dark turn,” and then block.
If there is a threat from someone identifiable, and you can afford a lawyer, suing for defamation, as Krebs did, is a useful tool. For threats coming from someone you know, contact the police. They can’t do much with one harassing threat, but if the threats continue, they can arrest the person and issue a restraining order. Keep the texts, emails, and/or phone messages as proof.
How do I know? I lived through this once from a woman who stalked me, broke my car’s rear window, and left constant threatening voice mails. Over a man, which is doubly sad. The police were able to arrest her because of the voice mails I kept. She’s an example of why we have to take threats seriously. Some people are unstable enough to act on them.
Finally, if the pattern of harassment and threats is from a group of people, as is the case for writers and speakers who’ve touched a racist, misogynist, homophobic, or other nerve, notify your local police. That way if fake SWAT calls are made, or you are doxxed, there will be a record.
It’s unnerving that we have to deal with death threats and what to do about them at all.
AlAnd yet, here we are. With a president who makes death threats against individuals and countries, inspiring others to do the same.
Don’t let them destroy your peace. Block them, keep records, alert the police when necessary and possible, alert others to your situation. To regain your equilibrium, practice mindfulness. Do deep breathing exercises. Know that, while these people must be taken seriously, their anger has nothing to do with you, not really. They are the ones dysregulated. Don’t let them make you dysregulated, too.
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This post was previously published on This America.
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