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It’s time to deploy the “Presidents Club” in the fight against political violence

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by Douglas MacKinnon, opinion contributor - 04/29/26 9:00 AM ET

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by Douglas MacKinnon, opinion contributor - 04/29/26 9:00 AM ET

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Illustration / Courtney Jones; Angelina Katsanis, Rebecca S. Gratz, Jacquelyn Martin;, Gerald Herbert and Alex Brandon, Associated Press

Over the last year, I have heard a version of the same concern from multiple current and former high-level U.S. government officials: “There is something very bad going on just beneath the surface of our nation. I have a growing sense of foreboding.”

While time can play tricks on the mind, it has only been seven months since the targeted assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk. I’m afraid that despicable act of political violence was cheered by thousands of our fellow Americans in posts online in the hours and days to follow. Many of those abhorrent remarks came from the “professional” class, including healthcare workers, academics and members of the media, who criticized Kirk for voicing what they deemed unacceptable opinions.

Since when did the execution of a young man in broad daylight for espousing different views become acceptable to so many in our nation?

Or take the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, “gunned down in cold blood as he walked down a street in midtown Manhattan.” There has been a widespread outpouring of support for shooter Luigi Mangione, who has been lionized as some sort of modern-day Robin Hood fighting against corporate greed. How did we get to a place where so many can rationalize or even take joy from such an obscenity?

Last week’s attempted assassination of President Trump and other high-level U.S. government officials at the White House correspondents’ dinner in Washington, D.C., brings to mind a very disturbing poll that was highlighted after Kirk’s killing. Last April, the Network Contagion Research Institute, along with Rutgers University, found that 55 percent of self-identified left-of-center respondents said that it was at least somewhat justified to murder Donald Trump.

Sadly, after the three assassination attempts against Trump, the killings of Kirk and Thompson, and the sniper attack upon an ICE facility in Dallas, it is much less shocking to believe such a repugnant statistic. Importantly, it must be stressed that such twisted partisan hate manifests itself across our political spectrum.

A YouGov poll taken right after the Kirk assassination found that while Democrats were more likely to espouse or approve of political violence, a percentage of Republicans and independents shared the same vile views. According to the poll, 14 percent of Democrats, 13 percent of independents and 6 percent of Republicans were open to or justifying political violence. While the “good” news from that poll showed that 81 percent of Republicans, 72 percent of Democrats and 65 percent of independents stated political violence is “never justified,” the quiet and terrifying part was still said out loud.

If ever there was a DefCon 1, five-alarm warning for our leadership, it is this. In this the “Age of Trump,” purposeful, hate-filled rage, brought about by years of false and dehumanizing rhetorical smears, have potentially radicalized millions of Americans to contemplate the worst of all possible solutions within their own nation.

As Trump press secretary Karoline Leavitt said after the truly frightening but all too predictable incident at the WHCA dinner, “This hateful and constant and violent rhetoric directed at President Trump day after day after day for 11 years has helped to legitimize this violence and bring us to this dark moment. Those who constantly falsely label and slander the president as a fascist, as a threat to democracy, and compare him to Hitler to score political points are fueling this kind of violence.”

This violence must be dealt with immediately in the most bipartisan and unifying of ways possible. It is for that reason that I am calling for the “Presidents’ Club” to convene in person and call out this threat.

That “club” — the most exclusive in the world — consists of the living presidents and vice presidents. Those include formers presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama and Joe Biden along with vice presidents Dan Quayle, Al Gore, Mike Pence and Kamala Harris. The meeting should be hosted at the White House, by current president Trump and Vice President JD Vance.

Our nation now does sit on the razor’s edge of anarchy, with seemingly countless Americans radicalized to embrace political violence. The “Presidents’ Club” must immediately com