Liberals and leftist want inclusion, but to achieve that goal, it seems they have to exclude some people and kill others.
The unrest that followed the fentanyl overdose death of career criminal George Floyd in the spring of 2020 stretched on for months in several cities. Between May 25 and July 31, 2020, major city police agencies recorded roughly 8,700 protests across 68 jurisdictions, according to a survey by the Major Cities Chiefs Association. Of those, 574 involved violence.
Portland saw the longest run of nightly unrest. A House Judiciary Committee letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland states Portland went through over 100 consecutive nights of violence, with rioters attacking federal courthouses, businesses, and police precincts. Portland police spent almost $8 million responding, and made over 900 arrests across 120 consecutive days.
Federal property in Portland took sustained damage. DHS situation reports describe rioters using Molotov cocktails and lasers against federal officers and setting fires inside the courthouse security perimeter, night after night. A House Judiciary letter to DHS cited testimony of 270 injuries to 140 federal officers in Portland, with federal building damage there reaching $2.3 million by February 2021.
At the White House, tensions peaked on the night of May 29 into May 30. Secret Service officers were assaulted with bricks, rocks, and bottles. Eleven officers were hospitalized. No one crossed the White House fence that night. Two nights later, on June 1, protesters breached the outer security perimeter.
The Washington Post reported a group hopped over temporary barricades near the Treasury grounds, and multiple people crossed fences erected around the wider White House complex. Secret Service moved President Trump to the underground bunker as a precaution. Within days, workers erected permanent 8-foot fencing around Lafayette Square. NBC reported the fencing was later extended along 17th Street and around the wider complex. It stayed up for close to a year before being removed.
Property damage nationwide set a modern record. Axios, citing data from Property Claim Services, reported insured losses of $1 billion to $2 billion nationally, making it the costliest civil disorder event in U.S. insurance history, surpassing the 1992 Los Angeles riots.
In Minneapolis-St. Paul, where the unrest began, Governor Tim Walz’s administration estimated damage over $500 million in the Twin Cities and surrounding suburbs, with more than 1,300 buildings damaged by arson and looting.
Arrests topped 16,000. The MCCA survey of 68 agencies counted 16,241 arrests between May 25 and July 31, including 2,735 felony arrests.
Police officers took heavy injuries. The same MCCA survey found 2,037 officers injured in the line of duty during the three-month window, with 97 police cars burned and 624 arson incidents recorded among the 68 responding agencies. FBI data showed 60,105 officers assaulted nationwide across all of 2020, a 7.2% increase from 2019, with about 31% of those incidents resulting in injury.
Retired St. Louis police captain David Dorn was shot and killed by looters at a pawn shop on June 2, 2020. Nationwide death counts vary depending on the source and the date range used. Forbes counted 19 people killed between May 27 and June 6 alone. The Guardian’s broader tally put the total at 25.
Beyond the riots there have been more assassination attempts on President Trump than any other U.S. president, 5 total, counting one when he was a candidate running against Hillary Clinton. On June 18, 2016, British national Michael Sandford attempted to grab a police officer’s gun at a Trump campaign rally in Las Vegas, later telling investigators he intended to “shoot and kill” Trump.
On July 13, 2024, a gunman opened fire at a Trump rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. Axios reported the shooter, Thomas Matthew Crooks, grazed Trump’s ear, killed one rally attendee, and was shot dead by a Secret Service sniper.
Two months later, on September 15, 2024, Secret Service agents spotted a second gunman, Ryan Routh, hiding in the bushes near Trump’s golf course in West Palm Beach, Florida. A federal jury found Routh guilty on all counts in September 2025, including attempted assassination of a major presidential candidate, and he was sentenced to life in prison.
A third confirmed attempt followed after Trump returned to office. On April 25, 2026, suspect Cole Allen rushed a security checkpoint at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner at the Washington Hilton, armed with a shotgun, a pistol, and knives. Fox News reported Allen fired and struck a Secret Service officer in the chest; the officer’s ballistic vest prevented serious injury.
Trump, the First Lady, Vice President Vance, and Cabinet members were evacuated. Allen was charged with attempted assassination of Trump, and acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said preliminary findings indicated he was targeting administration officials.
A fourth incident remains unresolved. On February 22, 2026, Secret Service agents and a sheriff’s deputy shot and killed 21-year-old Austin Tucker Martin after he breached the security perimeter at Mar-a-Lago carrying a shotgun and a gas can. Trump was not at the property.
He was at the White House at the time, according to the Associated Press. Investigators have said they have not identified a motive, and Martin’s family described him to reporters as apolitical and afraid of guns, coming from a family of Trump supporters. His family had reported him missing hours before the shooting. The FBI continues to investigate.
Political violence against Republican officials predates the current period. On June 14, 2017, James Hodgkinson opened fire on Republican members of Congress practicing for the annual Congressional Baseball Game in Alexandria, Virginia. A Secret Service review found Hodgkinson had driven from Illinois with a list of Republican targets. He shot House Majority Whip Steve Scalise and two Capitol Police officers before being killed by responding police. Scalise underwent months of surgery and treatment before returning to Congress that September.
Political violence has also touched the corporate world. On December 4, 2024, UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was shot and killed outside a Manhattan hotel in what New York police called a targeted attack. Suspect Luigi Mangione was arrested and charged with murder. In the aftermath, Mangione drew a wave of public support from liberal and anti-corporate activists.
A group calling itself the December 4th Legal Committee raised more than $1.3 million for his legal defense, with a spokesperson telling NewsNation that “Luigi Mangione is a hero, and everybody knows it.” The Intercept reported activists organized rallies outside his hearings to spotlight grievances against the health insurance industry. NBC News noted Mangione’s own online history reflected a more mixed political profile, including posts critical of “woke” culture.
Conservative Christian Charlie Kirk was assassinated on September 10, 2025, while speaking at a Turning Point USA event at Utah Valley University. The FBI reported a single shot was fired from a nearby rooftop, striking Kirk in the neck. Utah Governor Spencer Cox called it a political assassination. Suspect Tyler Robinson, 22, turned himself in after his parents recognized him from released images, and was charged with aggravated murder.
Law enforcement and federal immigration facilities have also come under armed attack, and the broader trend has escalated sharply. The department reported 275 assaults against ICE officers between January 20 and December 31, 2025, compared to 19 during the same period in 2024, a 1,347% increase. DHS also reported 66 vehicular attacks on ICE officers over roughly the same window, compared to 2 the year prior, and said death threats against ICE personnel rose 8,000%.
Antifa is the most significant left-wing movement tied to political violence today. Federal authorities blame it for coordinated attacks on ICE facilities and law enforcement officers across multiple states since 2025.
On July 4, 2025, a group the Justice Department described as a North Texas Antifa cell carried out a coordinated assault on the Prairieland ICE Detention Center in Alvarado, Texas. Prosecutors said the group used firearms and explosives and shot an Alvarado police officer who responded to the scene.
In March 2026, eight defendants were convicted, and members were later sentenced to a combined 450 years in prison, with lead defendant Benjamin Hanil Song receiving 100 years for the attempted murder of a law enforcement officer.
Separately, on September 24, 2025, a gunman opened fire on an ICE facility in Dallas from a nearby rooftop, killing one detainee and wounding two others before turning the gun on himself. FBI Director Kash Patel said investigators recovered a shell casing inscribed with the words “ANTI ICE” at the scene.
More attacks followed elsewhere. On July 7, 2025, Ryan Louis Mosqueda opened fire with an assault rifle on a Border Patrol facility in McAllen, Texas.
Antifa militants repeatedly attacked the Portland ICE facility beginning in mid-2025. The attacks resulted in dozens of arrests and multiple convictions. Antifa insurgents also attacked an ICE facility in Spokane, Washington, resulting in federal conspiracy convictions in May 2026.
In May 2026, Antifa members laid siege to a Newark, New Jersey ICE detention center. That resulted in dozens of arrests and federal charges. In December 2025, federal authorities charged Antifa extremists in a coordinated bombing plot targeting businesses, ICE agents, and vehicles across Southern California.
President Trump designated Antifa a domestic terrorist organization by executive order in September 2025. In November 2025, the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned several foreign groups tied to the movement. These included Germany’s Antifa Ost. Treasury named them Specially Designated Global Terrorists.
In June 2026, federal prosecutors charged 15 individuals connected to Antifa-associated activity. They were accused of organizing violent disruptions against ICE personnel and federal facilities during Operation Metro Surge in Minneapolis.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis also moved against the group. On July 1, 2026, citing a new state law, DeSantis announced his intent to designate Antifa a domestic terrorist organization under Florida law, alongside the Council on American-Islamic Relations and the Muslim Brotherhood.
And with that single designation, Ron DeSantis recognized what the Trump administration already knew: that the party of liberal tolerance was neither liberal nor tolerant, and that neither it nor the religion of peace was peaceful.
The post Leftist Violence Has Been Surging Since 2020 – Riots, Looting and Assassinations appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.
