Donald Trump Slams Those Who Are Defending Luigi Mangione: 'That's a Sickness, Actually'

Donald Trump is condemning the alleged actions of Luigi Mangione and the people who defend him.

In a Dec. 17 news conference, the president-elect, 78, denounced the man accused of killing UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in New York City on Dec. 4, and expressed similar disdain for his supporters.

“I think it’s really terrible that some people seem to admire him, like him,” Trump said. “And I was happy to see that it wasn’t specific to this gentleman that was killed. It’s just an overall sickness, as opposed to a specific sickness. That was a terrible thing.”

He continued, “It was cold-blooded. Just a cold-blooded, horrible killing. And how people can like this guy is— that’s a sickness, actually.”

Trump’s comment about Mangione is one of his clearest condemnations of violence to date.

In 2020, then-President Trump defended the actions of Kyle Rittenhouse, a teenager who was charged with first-degree intentional homicide of two men and ultimately acquitted.

Victims Anthony Huber and Joseph Rosenbaum were in Kenosha, Wis., to protest the police shooting of Jacob Blake — a Black man who was shot seven times in front of his children — when they were killed by Rittenhouse.

Asked at the time if he’d like to condemn the violence by Rittenhouse and other “vigilantes,” Trump replied that it “was an interesting situation.” Trump later invited Rittenhouse and his mother to Mar-a-Lago for a meeting and praised him as “a nice young man.”

After Trump lost the 2020 presidential election to Joe Biden, rioters stormed the U.S. Capitol in an attempt to keep Trump in power, following Trump’s comments to “fight like hell” to save the country. The attack on Jan. 6, 2021, resulted in multiple deaths and hundreds of injuries.

Trump was later called on to denounce the violence committed in his name.

“I know your pain, I know your hurt,” he said to rioters after they had overtaken Capitol police officers, later adding, “We have to have peace. So, go home. We love you, you’re very special.”

More recently, Republicans have hailed Daniel Penny as a hero. Penny, a Marine Corps veteran, was recently acquitted on charges related to his 2023 killing of Jordan Neely, a homeless Black man, on the New York City subway. After Neely threatened subway passengers, Penny allegedly held him in a fatal chokehold that lasted for several minutes.

On Dec. 14, Penny was invited to join Trump and Vice President-elect J.D. Vance as a special guest at the annual Army-Navy football game.

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Trump’s comment about Mangione supporters comes after some Americans have made light of the assassination online and praised the suspected shooter for targeting the health insurance industry.

Mangione faces a slew of charges in relation to the assassination, including first-degree murder and terrorism.