Trump Questions Luigi Mangione Fans After Hosting Daniel Penny

Donald Trump used a wide-ranging and rambling press convention on Monday partly to supply a harsh condemnation to the suspected gunman who shot and killed a medical insurance CEO simply days after the president-elect prolonged a heat welcome to a vigilante who choked an unarmed Black man to dying over a perceived menace.

It was without delay a show of Trump’s penchant for the illogical, if not flat-out racism since he was successfully justifying one deadly sneak assault over the opposite. A more in-depth look alongside granular traces exhibits that Trump permitted of the brazen killing of an unarmed and unsuspecting Black man whereas disparaging the brazen killing of an unarmed and unsuspecting white man, each of whom had been slain in Trump’s native New York Metropolis.

MORE: Notable White Vigilantes Who Had been By no means Held Accountable

The optics had been already damning sufficient over the weekend when Daniel Penny, simply days faraway from his stunning acquittal of negligent murder for killing Jordan Neely – an unhoused avenue performer within the throes of a psychological well being disaster on a subway practice final 12 months – fortunately accepted an invite from Vice President-elect JD Vance to attend the annual Military-Navy soccer recreation alongside Trump and Vance.

On Saturday, whereas attending the sport, Trump posed for a photograph subsequent to Penny. Each males had been smiling broadly and Trump gave a thumbs-up signal together with his hand, indicating his express approval of the identical man who sneaked up behind Neely and positioned him in a sprawling chokehold for six consecutive minutes on the ground of a subway practice whereas bystanders recorded the lethal episode. Penny, a former Marine, mentioned he acted to guard his fellow subway passengers, none of whom testified at trial that Neely had immediately threatened them. A health worker concluded that Penny killed Neely through the chokehold.

Daniel Penny and Donald Trump pose on the Military-Navy soccer recreation on Dec. 14, 2024. | Supply: X

Barely two days after taking that picture alongside Penny, Trump held the aforementioned press convention at his Mar-A-Lago membership in Florida and prompt he couldn’t perceive how anybody might present help for Luigi Mangione, who’s accused of murdering UnitedHealthCare CEO Brian Thompson.

“I feel it’s a horrible factor that some folks like this man,” Trump mentioned of the surging recognition being lent to Mangione, whose alleged capturing might have been motivated by anger in regards to the insurance coverage business denying protection to sufferers in want.

Trump prompt Mangione suffered from “a illness” and that Thompson’s capturing “was so dangerous” as a result of he was struck “proper within the again.”

Trump added of Mangione and people exhibiting him help: “There’s a sure urge for food for him…I don’t get it.”

But, Trump’s welcome to Penny suggests not solely that he understands Neely’s killing but in addition that it’s not “so dangerous” though he was ambushed from “the again” like Thompson was.

As a substitute, and inexplicably, Trump – who has on multiple event referred to himself as “the legislation and order president” – solely had criticism for Thompson’s killer.

Luigi Mangione, the suspect who allegedly killed the CEO of a significant insurance coverage group, UnitedHealthcare, in New York Metropolis was taken into custody by police in Pennsylvania, on December 10, 2024. | (Picture by PA Division of Corrections / Handout/Anadolu through Getty Photographs) | Supply: Anadolu / Getty

The Rev. Al Sharpton, who delivered the eulogy at Neely’s funeral final 12 months, described help for Penny from Vance and Trump as “a pure endorsement of vigilantism – even when it results in homicide.”

In the meantime, the mom of Eric Garner – an unarmed Black man who was choked to dying by an NYPD mob over the nonviolent suspicion of illegally promoting untaxed free cigarettes – prompt Penny benefited from the colour of his pores and skin when it got here to the outcomes of his trial.

“If this had been the opposite method – if your loved ones had murdered this so-called harmless man now – it will have been a unique story,” Gwen Carr instructed Neely’s household about Penny at a press convention held instantly following the studying of the decision. “He would have been in jail and would have by no means got here out. However they don’t do the identical to us. It’s two justice methods and we’ve to cease this.”

Trump’s remedy of Penny was per that of different white vigilantes, together with Kyle Rittenhouse — {the teenager} who killed two folks and injured one other at a racial justice protest in 2020 — and the Capitol rioters on Jan. 6, 2021.

That is America.

SEE ALSO:

Notorious ‘Subway Vigilante’ Bernhard Goetz Speaks Out About Daniel Penny’s Chokehold Trial

The Killing Of Jordan Neely And Why Police Ought to Additionally Be Held To Account

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