Trump Accuses Jeffries of Inciting Assassination Attempt, Calls for His Arrest

President Donald Trump accused House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., of inciting the most recent assassination attempt against him. The claim escalates Trump's feud with the top House Democrat.

Trump made the argument in a Truth Social post on Thursday. He said Jeffries should be arrested after promoting 'warfare' against Republicans just days before the assassination scare at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner in April.

"This lunatic, Hakeem 'Low IQ' Jeffries, should be charged with INCITING VIOLENCE!" Trump wrote on social media.

Trump included images of Jeffries standing with a sign displaying the words "maximum warfare" and the faces of Trump and his aide James Blair. He placed alongside it an image labeled "three days later" of alleged assassin Cole Allen storming the Secret Service checkpoint at the Washington Hilton.

Trump's post asked his 12.6 million followers, "Should Hakeem Jeffries be charged with inciting violence?"

A spokesperson for Jeffries referred Fox News Digital to a social media post on X. There, Jeffries called Trump’s comments "another deranged rant" and criticized the president on affordability.

"Gas prices are sky high, grocery bills are surging and families can't catch a break," he wrote. "Democrats are about to take back the House and you're losing your mind."

The online exchange followed Jeffries' defense of his "maximum warfare" language amid GOP backlash in late April.

"I don’t give a damn about your criticism," he told Republicans.

Jeffries justified the phrase in the context of the nationwide redistricting battle. He said an anonymous White House staffer first used "maximum warfare everywhere, all the time" to threaten Democrats with GOP-friendly gerrymanders in an interview with The New York Times last year.

"That phrase ‘maximum warfare everywhere, all the time’ came from the White House in the summer of 2025, when they started this redistricting battle, and now they're big mad," Jeffries said at a news conference. "Why? Because Democrats have decided to finish it. Get lost."

Jeffries has said he opposes all forms of political violence but has refused to retract his language.

He told Fox News Sunday last month that lawmakers "set the most appropriate example" in their rhetoric when asked about rising political violence.

"Whatever your ideological perspective is, we all love America, and we all want to make sure that this country is the best that it can possibly be," Jeffries said.