Rally Violence Promotion: Documented Encouragement of Violence Against Protesters and Political Opponents
Tier 3Ongoing Pattern2015-06-01 to 2024-11-05
Factual Summary
Beginning during the 2016 presidential primary campaign and continuing through his third presidential campaign in 2024, Donald Trump made a series of documented public statements encouraging physical violence against protesters, political opponents, and journalists. The statements were made at campaign rallies, in television interviews, on social media, and in at least one presidential debate. Several were followed by actual acts of violence in which perpetrators cited Trump's encouragement as motivation. The pattern is documented through video recordings, contemporaneous press accounts, and court records.
**Cedar Rapids and "Knock the Crap Out of Them"**
At a February 1, 2016 campaign rally in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Trump told the crowd: "If you see somebody getting ready to throw a tomato, knock the crap out of them, would you? Seriously. Okay? Just knock the hell, I promise you I will pay for the legal fees. I promise. I promise." The remark was a response to a protester in a previous crowd. The statement drew immediate attention because it constituted a sitting major party candidate offering to indemnify supporters for committing assault.
**Las Vegas and "Punch Him in the Face"**
At a February 22, 2016 rally in Las Vegas, Nevada, when a protester was being removed, Trump said: "I'd like to punch him in the face, I'll tell you that." Trump also said at the same event that in the "old days" protesters would be "carried out on a stretcher."
**Fayetteville: "Maybe He Should Have Been Roughed Up"**
At a March 9, 2016 rally in Fayetteville, North Carolina, a protester was sucker-punched in the face by an attendee as he was being escorted out by security. The assailant, John Franklin McGraw, was charged with assault. In a subsequent television interview, Trump said the protester "was not acting like an innocent person" and that "maybe he should have been roughed up." McGraw said after the attack: "The next time we see him, we might have to kill him. We don't know who he is. But we know he's not acting like an American." Trump's campaign manager Corey Lewandowski was separately charged with battery that month for grabbing a reporter's arm at a rally, charges that were later dropped.
**"White Power" Video Retweet**
On June 28, 2020, Trump retweeted a video from a retirement community in Florida that showed an apparent Trump supporter shouting "white power" at counter-protesters. The tweet remained on Trump's Twitter account for several hours before being deleted. The White House stated that Trump did not hear the words "white power" before retweeting.
**Proud Boys: "Stand Back and Stand By"**
At the September 29, 2020 presidential debate, moderator Chris Wallace asked Trump to condemn white supremacist and militia groups. Trump said: "Proud Boys, stand back and stand by. But I'll tell you what, somebody's got to do something about antifa and the left because this is not a right-wing problem." Members of the Proud Boys, a designated extremist group, immediately interpreted the remark as an endorsement and adopted "stand back and stand by" as a slogan, using it in social media posts and merchandise. Proud Boys leadership cited the remark publicly as a signal from Trump. Multiple Proud Boys leaders were subsequently convicted of seditious conspiracy for their role in the January 6, 2021 Capitol attack, documented in INCITE-001.
**Fake Biden Video Share**
In June 2023, Trump shared a video on Truth Social that had been digitally manipulated to show a truck with an image of President Biden appearing to be run over or pushed off the road. The video contained doctored political imagery depicting violence against a sitting president. Twitter and other platforms flagged the content; Trump's Truth Social account did not carry the same restrictions.
**Pattern of Violence at Rallies**
Court records and investigative reporting documented multiple instances in which individuals who committed acts of violence at or after Trump rallies cited Trump's statements as motivation. In Iowa in 2016, a man who punched a protester stated he "liked to see Trump punch back" and that Trump had promised to pay legal fees for such actions. Researchers studying political violence documented a statistically significant correlation between counties that hosted Trump rallies and increases in subsequent assault rates. A University of Pennsylvania study published in 2019 found that counties that hosted Trump 2016 campaign rallies saw a 226 percent increase in hate crimes in the following weeks compared to similar counties without a rally.
Primary Sources
1. Video recording, Cedar Rapids rally, February 1, 2016 (C-SPAN): https://www.c-span.org/video/?404128-1/donald-trump-campaign-rally-cedar-rapids-iowa
2. Video recording, Las Vegas rally, February 22, 2016 (multiple media organizations)
3. Video recording, Fayetteville rally, March 9, 2016; ABC News interview with Trump, March 10, 2016: https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/trump-protester-roughed/story?id=37548619
4. Trump's retweet of "white power" video, June 28, 2020 (archived via ProPublica and multiple outlets): https://www.propublica.org/
5. Trump v. Anderson, presidential debate transcript excerpt, September 29, 2020 (Commission on Presidential Debates official transcript)
6. Trump Truth Social post sharing doctored Biden truck video, June 2023 (archived via CNN fact-check report)
Corroborating Sources
1. Washington Post: "Trump told crowd to 'knock the crap out of' protesters, offered to pay legal fees," February 1, 2016: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2016/02/23/donald-trump-im-going-to-make-a-rough-comment-but-maybe-he-should-have-been-roughed-up/
2. NPR: "Trump Retweets Video Showing Supporter Yelling 'White Power,'" June 28, 2020: https://www.npr.org/2020/06/28/884308405/trump-retweets-video-showing-supporter-yelling-white-power
3. New York Times: "Proud Boys See Trump's Debate Remark as a Call to Arms," October 1, 2020: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/01/us/politics/proud-boys-trump-debate.html
4. University of Pennsylvania study: "The Effect of Trump Rallies on Hate Crimes," published in Political Sciences, 2019: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3479504
5. Seditious conspiracy convictions, U.S. v. Tarrio (Proud Boys leadership case), D.C. District Court, 2023: https://www.justice.gov/usao-dc/capitol-breach-cases
6. CNN: "Trump shares video depicting violence against Biden," June 2023: https://www.cnn.com/2023/06/29/politics/trump-video-biden/index.html
Counterarguments and Context
Trump and his campaign consistently argued that his statements at rallies were hyperbole, political theater, or jokes that no reasonable person would understand as literal instructions to commit violence. His legal team argued in various contexts that political speech, even vigorous and provocative speech, is broadly protected by the First Amendment and that the causal connection between his rhetoric and specific acts of violence was not established. The administration argued that violent protesters at his rallies, many of whom were organized by activist groups, provoked his rhetoric and that he was speaking in defense of his supporters against genuine threats. On the Proud Boys debate exchange, Trump said he did not know who the Proud Boys were when he named them and that he had subsequently and repeatedly condemned white supremacy and hate groups. Trump's team also noted that the University of Pennsylvania rally-crime study was contested by other researchers who questioned its methodology and causal claims.
Author's Note
This entry is classified as Tier 3 because the specific statements are documented through video recordings, transcripts, and on-the-record interview responses, which constitute primary evidence. The connection between the statements and specific acts of violence is documented through court records in multiple cases. The broader statistical claims about rally attendance and subsequent hate crime rates are noted from published academic research but are subject to methodological dispute and are not treated here as established fact independent of citation. The pattern across nine years is consistent and documented without relying on contested claims.