Psychologist Warns of Suicidal Empathy Fueling Political Violence After Hamill's Trump Headstone Post

Evolutionary psychologist Dr. Gad Saad warned that rising political rhetoric, including a social media post by actor Mark Hamill depicting a headstone for President Donald Trump, signals a suicidal turn in American values.

On "Jesse Watters Primetime," Saad argued the country faces takeover by a hyperactive form of empathy that has crushed reason and, in some instances, sparked political violence.

"Civilizations do not die by murder; they die by suicide," Saad said Thursday. "I'm arguing that the means by which we are committing suicide is by the dysregulation of an otherwise virtuous value, which is empathy."

Saad said empathy remains valuable, but suicidal empathy arises when it applies to improper contexts. He pointed to a victim shielding a violent attacker to evade judgment as an example of compassion overriding survival instincts, with dire results.

Saad's comments followed backlash against "Star Wars" actor Mark Hamill, who posted an AI-generated image on Bluesky showing Trump's headstone captioned "If Only." The post appeared days after law enforcement officials described an assassination attempt at the White House Correspondents' Association Dinner.

Hamill deleted the image and followed with a new post stating Trump should "live long enough to witness his inevitable devastating loss in the midterms, be held accountable for his unprecedented corruption, impeached, convicted & humiliated for his countless crimes."

U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro also raised alarms about increasing political violence. She told "Fox & Friends" on Thursday that law enforcement observes more people set on crimes.

"We’ve crossed the Rubicon because, for some reason, they think that they are allowed to violate the law, kill individuals if it satisfies what they think is their political moral compass," Pirro said.

Pirro referenced a shooting involving a Secret Service officer near the Washington Monument and said such violence grows more common in the district.

"People, for some reason, think they can come here and that they can commit these acts," Pirro said. "That they'll get attention for — to exercise their right to complain about what they think is unfair politics."