A new intelligence report is drawing urgent attention to the alarming rise of what experts are calling an “assassination culture” in the United States. The report, released by the Network Contagion Research Institute (NCRI) in partnership with Rutgers University’s Social Perception Lab, highlights the growing acceptance of political violence—particularly among online communities and ideologically extreme groups on the far left. The findings come in the wake of the assassination of Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk, who was shot and killed while speaking at Utah Valley University just last week.

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Kirk, 31, was addressing a crowd of students in Orem, Utah, when a sniper’s bullet fatally struck him in the neck. Authorities arrested 22-year-old Tyler Robinson roughly 33 hours later, after Robinson’s father convinced him to surrender. Police recovered a Mauser .30-06 rifle believed to be the murder weapon, along with bullets etched with memes and slogans linked to online anti-fascist rhetoric.

The NCRI-Rutgers report had warned earlier this year that political violence was becoming “meme-ified,” with assassinations increasingly treated as both satire and inspiration online. The study noted that more than 30% of survey respondents considered it “at least somewhat justified” to murder billionaires, a figure that rose to 50% among those identifying as politically left-of-center. Researchers also pointed to the disturbing role of coded references, memes, and irony in normalizing calls for violence.

Charlie Kirk’s assassination was the latest in a series of politically and ideologically motivated killings. In December 2024, UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was murdered outside a New York City hotel where he was scheduled to attend an investor conference. His accused killer, Luigi Mangione, a 26-year-old from a wealthy Maryland family, is currently facing murder charges. Investigators said Mangione was in possession of the murder weapon, a silencer, and writings critical of the health insurance industry. Bullet casings left at the scene were also inscribed with messages tied to political grievances.

Mangione has become a cause célèbre among some supporters, with individuals rallying outside his court hearings dressed as Nintendo’s Luigi character and waving signs reading “Free Luigi.” Though terrorism charges against him were recently dropped, he still faces second-degree murder charges in New York, as well as additional cases at the federal level and in Pennsylvania.

Other violent episodes underscore the report’s concerns. In July 2025, a gunman stormed a Manhattan office building, killing four—including an off-duty NYPD officer, a corporate executive, a security guard, and an employee—before taking his own life. Just a year earlier, President Donald Trump narrowly survived an assassination attempt during a Pennsylvania campaign rally, where one spectator was killed and others wounded. Researchers argue these incidents, when coupled with online rhetoric, demonstrate the erosion of democratic norms and the growing tolerance for violence as a political tool.

The study warns that these developments are not isolated but rather part of a cultural shift in which assassinations and political killings are portrayed as acceptable—or even heroic—acts in some corners of the internet. “Political violence targeting Donald Trump and Elon Musk is becoming increasingly normalized,” the report cautioned, adding that public figures, business leaders, and elected officials may face elevated risks in the months ahead.

In the wake of Kirk’s killing, the NYPD has issued heightened threat assessments, and the Trump administration has requested nearly $60 million in new federal funding for security protections covering executive and judicial officials. Authorities have stressed the importance of swift law enforcement action, but researchers also emphasized the need for political and cultural leaders across the spectrum to clearly condemn the violence and reject the ideology that fuels it.

Federal prosecutors prosecuting Mangione warned in late August that the normalization of violence was precisely what the accused killer hoped to inspire. “Simply put, the defendant hoped to normalize the use of violence to achieve ideological or political objectives,” they wrote. This echoes the central concern of the NCRI-Rutgers study—that unchecked rhetoric and meme culture could inspire more individuals to carry out targeted killings.

Charlie Kirk, like Thompson, was a father of two. His murder at Utah Valley University shocked supporters nationwide and added a tragic example of the very trend experts have been warning against. For researchers, law enforcement, and policymakers alike, the growing wave of assassination attempts and political killings is not just a string of tragic events—it represents a broader cultural crisis that demands urgent attention.

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Excerpted from FOX News. Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images.