Dear President Trump,

We all mourn the assassination of Charlie Kirk, and our deepest sympathies go out to his loved ones. As you rightly stated, “violence and murder are the tragic consequences of demonizing those with whom you disagree. This kind of rhetoric is directly responsible for the terrorism in our country today, and it must stop right now.” Your words resonate with truth, and I commend your clarity in saying them. But Mr. President, with all due respect, I invite you to consider that you too bear a share of responsibility in fueling this atmosphere.

When, at your campaign rally in December 2023, you accused immigrants of “poisoning the blood of our country,” was that not demonization? Or when, during your interview with Hugh Hewitt in October 2024, you said “murder, it’s in their genes,” how does that not contribute to a dangerous narrative of dehumanization?

And what of your ally and good friend, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who described all Palestinians as “predators and wild beasts” during his tour of the Jordanian border in February 2016? Or his former deputy defense minister Eli Ben-Dahan who declared “Palestinians are like animals, not human,” echoed by Nissim Vaturi, member of Knesset for the Likud party and deputy speaker of the Knesset, who publicly labeled them “scum and subhumans?”

Not only are these public figures, whom you visibly support, demonizing Palestinians, thereby giving implicit permission to starve and massacre innocent women and children, but you and they also act as global role models, implicitly teaching that it is acceptable to kill anyone with whom you disagree, even without a fair trial.

If it is deemed acceptable to air-strike Qassem Soleimani, or to assassinate a Palestinian child simply because they are labeled “subhuman” or happen to be in the way, then it follows that it may be acceptable to shoot an American politician — or even one’s neighbor with a different point of view. And I use the term “assassinate” for the children of Gaza deliberately, as their murder is undeniably intentional. One does not kill tens of thousands by accident.

Yes, permission to kill with impunity! That is the message you are propagating when you bomb a sovereign state, publicly support another country for doing so, endorse executions without trial, or turn a blind eye to the massacre of children. I invite you to take responsibility for it. What you do in one part of the world inevitably has repercussions in another. We are all swimming in the same pool: if you urinate on one side, sooner or later you’ll be bathing in it on the other. You said it best yourself, Mr. President: “It must stop right now.”

Yours in reason and hope,

Dr. Wenner

Neuroscientist and Raelian Bishop