President Donald Trump said on Monday that he was “not familiar” with the case of Melissa Hortman, the Democratic speaker of the Minnesota House of Representatives who was assassinated alongside her husband this summer. The comment came during an Oval Office briefing when a reporter asked why Trump had ordered flags lowered to half-staff for slain conservative activist Charlie Kirk but not for Hortman.
Trump initially responded, “I’m not familiar. The who?” before acknowledging the case after the reporter clarified. He then said he would have ordered the flags lowered if Minnesota Governor Tim Walz had asked him to do so. “I wouldn’t have thought of that, but I would’ve, if somebody had asked me,” Trump added, noting that many requests for flag-lowering are denied.
At the time of Hortman’s killing, Trump had dismissed the idea of contacting Walz, calling it a “waste of time” and referring to the governor as “whacked out” and a “mess”. The exchange highlighted a pattern of Republicans condemning violence against conservatives while largely ignoring attacks on Democrats, including the arson at Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro’s home, the assault on Paul Pelosi, and a plot to kidnap Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer.
Trump denied blaming only one side for political violence but accused the “radical left” of causing “tremendous violence”. Vice President JD Vance, a close friend of Kirk, also avoided mentioning Hortman during a podcast episode, instead blaming Democrats for a “lunatic fringe” on the far left and vowing to dismantle institutions that “promote violence and terrorism”.
