Douglas MacKinnon, a former White House and Pentagon official, is sounding an urgent alarm: the United States is teetering on the edge of widespread political violence, and the only way to pull back is for the nation's most powerful living leaders to speak with one voice.
In a new call to action, MacKinnon argues that the so-called Presidents' Club—comprising former presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama, Joe Biden, and Vice Presidents Dan Quayle, Al Gore, Mike Pence, and Kamala Harris—should gather at the White House alongside President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance to issue a unified condemnation of the escalating attacks.
MacKinnon points to a string of recent high-profile incidents: the targeted killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk seven months ago, the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in Manhattan, and the attempted assassination of Trump and other officials at the White House Correspondents' Association dinner last week. He notes that each event was met with disturbing levels of public approval online, including from professionals in healthcare, academia, and media.
“Since when did the execution of a young man in broad daylight for espousing different views become acceptable to so many?” MacKinnon writes, referencing the Kirk assassination. He also highlights the widespread lionization of Luigi Mangione, the man charged with killing Thompson, as a modern-day Robin Hood figure fighting corporate greed.
The former official cites polling data to underscore the breadth of the problem. A study from the Network Contagion Research Institute and Rutgers University found that 55 percent of left-leaning respondents considered the murder of Trump at least somewhat justified. A YouGov poll after Kirk’s death showed that 14 percent of Democrats, 13 percent of independents, and 6 percent of Republicans were open to or justified political violence. While the majority across all groups rejected violence, MacKinnon warns that the minority willing to embrace it is large enough to pose a genuine threat.
Trump press secretary Karoline Leavitt, following the WHCA dinner attack, blamed years of “hateful and constant and violent rhetoric” directed at the president. “Those who constantly falsely label and slander the president as a fascist, as a threat to democracy, and compare him to Hitler to score political points are fueling this kind of violence,” she said.
MacKinnon echoes that sentiment, arguing that dehumanizing language from both sides of the aisle has radicalized millions. He calls the current moment a “DefCon 1, five-alarm warning” for national leadership and insists that only a bipartisan, public show of unity from every living president and vice president can begin to defuse the crisis.
“Our nation now does sit on the razor’s edge of anarchy, with seemingly countless Americans radicalized to embrace political violence,” MacKinnon writes. “The Presidents’ Club must immediately come together as one to call out such violence and insanity before it becomes unstoppable.”
The proposal comes amid heightened political tensions, including GOP infighting over DHS funding and Democratic press conferences amid the WHCA shooting fallout. Whether the former presidents will heed the call remains uncertain, but MacKinnon insists the stakes could not be higher.
