assassination culture

At least two more young men embraced assassination culture this month, culminating in Saturday’s shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner.

Prosecutors charged Cole Allen Monday with trying to assassinate President Donald Trump. The president attended Saturday’s dinner, where Allen allegedly charged past security and shot a law enforcement officer.

The president topped Allen’s list of intended victims, which he included in a document he reportedly sent to his family shortly before the attack.

He signed his name “Cole ‘coldForce’ ‘Friendly Federal Assassin’ Allen.”

Allen’s alleged crimes and manifesto bear all the hallmarks of assassination culture, a worldview which glorifies and celebrates political violence against the rich, powerful and politically conservative.

Assassination culture stems from a growing number of American who believe political violence, including destruction of property, can be at least partially justified.

In a 2025, nationally representative survey of nearly 1,300 American adults by the Network Contagion Research Institute and Rutgers’ University Social Perception Lab, 32% and 39% of respondents said it would be at least partially justified to murder Elon Musk and President Trump, respectively.

Nearly 40% said it would be at least partially justified to destroy Tesla dealerships.

Respondents who identified themselves as politically left of center showed higher willingness to accept political violence. More than half of respondents in this group said it would be at least partially justified to murder Musk (50%) and the president (56%). Nearly 60% felt it would be at least partially justified to destroy a Tesla dealership.

Growing acceptance of political violence resulted in the radicalization and celebration of young men like Luigi Mangione, who allegedly killed UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson to protest the healthcare system, and Tyler Robinson, who allegedly assassinated Charlie Kirk after he’d “had enough” of the conservative leader’s “hatred.”

Like Mangione and Robinson, Allen deemed himself judge, jury and executioner in a dangerous and unconstitutional display of vigilante justice.

“Turning the other cheek when someone else is oppressed is not Christian behavior; it is complicity in the oppressor’s crimes,” Allen justified in the manifesto sent to his family.

As the Daily Citizen has explained, narratives pitting “oppressors” against the “oppressed” can be used to justify any violence, so long as it’s perpetrated against the “oppressors.”

Pro-Hamas protesters, for instance, justified the terrorist group’s massacre of Israeli civilians on October 7, 2023 by labeling Israel the “oppressor” and Hamas part of the “oppressed.”

Mangione used rhetoric like this to justify shooting Thompson in the back on a Manhattan street. Thompson was part of a group of “parasites who simply had it coming,” he wrote in a manifesto attributed to him.

Another young man, 29-year-old Chamel Abdulkarim, also reportedly compared himself to Mangione after allegedly setting a 1.2 million square foot Kimberly-Clark distribution center on fire earlier this month.

Abdulkarim, who reportedly worked for company running the warehouse, allegedly filmed and posted several videos of himself setting paper products on fire.

“It you’re not going to pay us enough to [expletive] live or afford to live, at least pay us enough not to do this [expletive],” the narrator says in one video.

Later, as 175 firefighters from two fire stations battled the six-alarm blaze, text messages and phone calls attributed to Abdulkarim included messages like, “I just cost these [expletive] billions,” and, “All you had to do was pay us enough to live.”

Abdulkarim faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted. He pled not guilty to local charges on April 13.

Assassination culture promotes a parody of justice which permits humans to deprive others of due process and proportionate punishment to exact vengeance.

While God expects humans to make just judgements and uphold biblical justice through the legal system, only God has the wisdom, moral standing and clarity to take vengeance, or give an evil person their due.

Romans 12:19 , drawing from Deuteronomy 32:25, reads, “Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, ‘Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.’”

Read the Daily Citizen’s article for practical ways to protect your children from assassination culture.

Additional Articles and Resources

4 Ways to Protect Your Kids from Assassination Culture

Charlie Kirk’s Accused Assassin and His Links to Transgenderism.

‘Assassination Culture’: Many Believe Killing and Destruction Are Justified

Mangione Defense Fund Inexplicably Passes $150K

Luigi Mangione: Alleged Killer Apprehended With All-Too-Familiar Manifesto

Lorenz Feels ‘Joy’ at UnitedHealthcare CEO’s Execution

Cole Tomas Allen, the 31-year-old California teacher who stormed a Secret Service checkpoint inside the Washington Hilton on Saturday in an apparent attempt to assassinate President Donald Trump and other administration officials, is expected in court on Monday afternoon. 

Allen will be charged with two counts of using a firearm and one count of assault on a federal officer. The would-be assassin shot a Secret Service agent in the chest. Thankfully, the federal officer’s bulletproof vest saved his life.

A “manifesto” from the shooter that was released on Sunday provides evidence of a radicalized and disturbed individual claiming to be reluctantly carrying out the planned violence in an effort to address a laundry list of “crimes” allegedly perpetrated by the Trump administration.

Among the many disturbing things in the nearly 1,000-word letter, Allen invokes religious language to justify his planned murders. Early in the manifesto, Allen even attempts to address suspected objections to his plan. The radicalized Californian appears to suggest he’s a follower of Jesus. 

“Objection 1,” he wrote. “As a Christian, you should turn the other cheek.”

Allen is obviously referring to Jesus’ “Sermon on the Mount” where we read Christ’s famous words, “You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I say to you, ‘Do not resist the one who is evil. But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also’” (Matthew 5:38-39).

According to Allen, “Turning the other cheek is for when you yourself are oppressed. I’m not the person raped in a detention camp. I’m not the fisherman executed without trial. I’m not a schoolkid blown up or a child starved or a teenage girl abused by the many criminals in this administration.”

He then added:

“Turning the other cheek when *someone else* is oppressed is not Christian behavior; it is complicity in the oppressor’s crimes.”

Did Cole Tomas Allen really think his killing of administration officials would be a justifiable Christian act? 

Media outlets have reported that Allen is associated with the protest groups “The Wide Awakes” and the “No Kings” rallies. 

In a sit-down interview with President Trump on Sunday, CBS’s 60 Minutes’ Norah O’Donnell noted Allen’s participation in the latter leftist group. 

“I’m not a king,” replied Mr. Trump. “If I was a king, I wouldn’t be dealing with you.”

In reviewing the would-be assassin’s missive, it’s clear the deluded individual has been heavily influenced by his fringe (and maybe not so fringe) associations. According to media reports, Allen “had a tendency to make radical statements as he became involved in left-wing activism in Los Angeles.”

Speaking to reporters on Monday, White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt suggested that Allen’s manifesto was nearly “indistinguishable” from much of the vile hatred and rhetoric spewed daily on social media. 

Leavitt also called on Congress to fund the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), a critical government agency that’s been embroiled in a funding dispute over Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Border Patrol.

Please join us in praying for the safety and security of all government officials, especially in a dangerously amped up social media environment that seems to be normalizing violent rhetoric and feeding the mental instability of certain individuals.

At the same time, we give thanks for the many courageous security personnel who jumped into action on Saturday, including a Secret Service agent who jumped up on stage to put his body between any shooter and President and Mrs. Trump.

We don’t yet know his name, but we admire anyone willing to sacrifice their life to save someone else.

America is blessed to have so many brave law enforcement personnel. We often don’t see them until something happens – but lots of things don’t happen, too, because they’re there and doing their jobs.