Donald Trump delivers remarks alongside SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son (R) and Trump’s choice for Secretary of Commerce, Cantor Fitzgerald, Chairman and CEO Howard Lutnick, at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort on December 16, 2024, in Palm Beach, Florida. | Source: Andrew Harnik / Getty
Donald Trump used a wide-ranging and rambling press conference on Monday in part to offer a harsh condemnation to the suspected gunman who shot and killed a health insurance CEO just days after the president-elect extended a warm welcome to a vigilante who choked an unarmed Black man to death over a perceived threat.
It was at once a display of Trump’s penchant for the illogical, if not flat-out racism since he was effectively justifying one fatal sneak attack over the other. A closer look along granular lines shows that Trump approved of the brazen killing of an unarmed and unsuspecting Black man while disparaging the brazen killing of an unarmed and unsuspecting white man, both of whom were slain in Trump’s native New York City.
MORE: Notable White Vigilantes Who Were Never Held Accountable
The optics were already damning enough over the weekend when Daniel Penny, just days removed from his shocking acquittal of negligent homicide for killing Jordan Neely – an unhoused street performer in the throes of a mental health crisis on a subway train last year – happily accepted an invitation from Vice President-elect JD Vance to attend the annual Army-Navy football game alongside Trump and Vance.
On Saturday, while attending the game, Trump posed for a photo next to Penny. Both men were smiling broadly and Trump gave a thumbs-up sign with his hand, indicating his explicit approval of the same man who sneaked up behind Neely and placed him in a sprawling chokehold for six consecutive minutes on the floor of a subway train while bystanders recorded the deadly episode. Penny, a former Marine, said he acted to protect his fellow subway passengers, none of whom testified at trial that Neely had directly threatened them. A medical examiner concluded that Penny killed Neely via the chokehold.
Daniel Penny and Donald Trump pose at the Army-Navy football game on Dec. 14, 2024. | Source: X
Barely two days after taking that photo alongside Penny, Trump held the aforementioned press conference at his Mar-A-Lago club in Florida and suggested he couldn’t understand how anyone could show support for Luigi Mangione, who is accused of murdering UnitedHealthCare CEO Brian Thompson.
“I think it’s a terrible thing that some people like this guy,” Trump said of the surging popularity being lent to Mangione, whose alleged shooting may have been motivated by anger about the insurance industry denying coverage to patients in need.
Trump suggested Mangione suffered from “a sickness” and that Thompson’s shooting “was so bad” because he was struck “right in the back.”
Trump added of Mangione and those showing him support: “There’s a certain appetite for him…I don’t get it.”
Yet, Trump’s welcome to Penny suggests not only that he understands Neely’s killing but also that it is not “so bad” even though he was ambushed from “the back” like Thompson was.
Instead, and inexplicably, Trump – who has on more than one occasion referred to himself as “the law and order president” – only had criticism for Thompson’s killer.
Luigi Mangione, the suspect who allegedly killed the CEO of a major insurance group, UnitedHealthcare, in New York City was taken into custody by police in Pennsylvania, on December 10, 2024. | (Photo by PA Department of Corrections / Handout/Anadolu via Getty Images) | Source: Anadolu / Getty
The Rev. Al Sharpton, who delivered the eulogy at Neely’s funeral last year, described support for Penny from Vance and Trump as “a pure endorsement of vigilantism – even if it leads to murder.”
Meanwhile, the mother of Eric Garner – an unarmed Black man who was choked to death by an NYPD mob over the nonviolent suspicion of illegally selling untaxed loose cigarettes – suggested Penny benefited from the color of his skin when it came to the results of his trial.
“If this had been the other way – if your family had murdered this so-called innocent guy now – it would have been a different story,” Gwen Carr told Neely’s family about Penny at a press conference held immediately following the reading of the verdict. “He would have been in jail and would have never came out. But they don’t do the same to us. It’s two justice systems and we have to stop this.”
Trump’s treatment of Penny was consistent with that of other white vigilantes, including Kyle Rittenhouse — the teenager who killed two people and injured another at a racial justice protest in 2020 — and the Capitol rioters on Jan. 6, 2021.
This is America.
SEE ALSO:
Infamous ‘Subway Vigilante’ Bernhard Goetz Speaks Out About Daniel Penny’s Chokehold Trial
The Killing Of Jordan Neely And Why Police Should Also Be Held To Account
