They also come as threats have been on the rise against federal lawmakers. The Capitol Police said in an assessment in February that threats against lawmakers, their families and staff increased in 2024 for the second year in a row, going from about 8,000 concerning statements and direct threats in 2023 to nearly 9,500 last year.

Criminally charged threats and attacks against members of Congress jumped more than 600% during Trump’s first term compared to President Barack Obama’s second term — 148 in the Trump years compared to 21 during the later Obama years, according to a study by the Chicago Project on Security and Threats (CPOST), a nonpartisan research center at the University of Chicago.

The number of charged threats remained relatively unchanged during President Joe Biden’s four years in office, with 140 people charged, the study found.

While the bulk of the legislators threatened from 2000 to 2012 were Democrats, the survey found the victims have been split nearly 50-50 from 2013 to the end of last year.

“We are in a new era of political violence,” the study’s author, University of Chicago professor Robert Pape, told NBC News, pointing to the assassination attempts on Trump, the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, the assassination of Democratic Minnesota state Rep. Melissa Hortman and the firebombing of the home of Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, a Democrat.

Americans are broadly trending toward seeing overheated rhetoric as a factor in episodes of political violence, as opposed to just seeing those incidents as the acts of individual disturbed perpetrators, according to NBC News polling on five instances of political violence in the last 15 years, the most recent being Kirk’s murder in September. Sixty-one percent of respondents in a poll earlier this year said that extreme political rhetoric was a significant factor in Kirk’s death, compared to just 24% who said rhetoric was to blame for the 2011 shooting of then-Rep. Gabby Giffords.

Law enforcement has not identified the sources of the new wave of threats, but many of Trump’s targets say the president provoked them with over-the-top accusations of criminality on the part of Democrats and betrayal on the part of his fellow Republicans.

A spokeswoman for the White House, Abigail Jackson, said the president is concerned about political violence and hasn’t done anything wrong.

“As the survivor of two assassination attempts — and recently watching his dear friend Charlie be assassinated — no one understands the dangers of political violence more than President Trump,” Jackson said in a statement.

“But President Trump, and the entire Administration, will not hesitate to speak the truth and call out Democrats for smearing their opponents as Nazis, encouraging members of the military to ignore lawful orders, and enabling violent criminals to invade our country. Sharing these facts is not inciting violence and the media would be wrong to make such an accusation,” she added.

Trump accuses Democrats of sedition

The video that led Trump to accuse the six Democrats of sedition encouraged members of the military and intelligence agencies to “refuse illegal orders,” not lawful ones.

The lawmakers, Sens. Mark Kelly of Arizona and Elissa Slotkin of Michigan, and Reps. Jason Crow of Colorado, Chrissy Houlahan and Chris Deluzio of Pennsylvania and Maggie Goodlander of New Hampshire, are all veterans of military or intelligence agencies.

“Like us, you all swore an oath to protect and defend this Constitution. Right now, the threats coming to our Constitution aren’t just coming from abroad but from right here at home. Our laws are clear. You can refuse illegal orders. You must refuse illegal orders,” they said in their Nov. 18 video.

Two days later, on Nov. 20, Trump responded with a barrage of attacks on Truth Social, accusing the six of “seditious behavior at the highest level.”

“Each one of these traitors to our Country should be ARRESTED AND PUT ON TRIAL. Their words cannot be allowed to stand — We won’t have a Country anymore!!! An example MUST BE SET,” the president wrote.

In another, he wrote: “SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR, punishable by DEATH!”

Most of the lawmakers said their offices were immediately inundated with death threats.

Slotkin told reporters that day that “the shift was immediate.”

“We’ve had hundreds and hundreds, if not, you know, closer to 1,000 threats come in to our phones, our emails — all our Senate systems,” she added.

Houlahan said in a Nov. 20 phone interview with NBC News, “The president of the United States threatened a member of Congress with their life and now I have to worry about my life and about those around me.”

Trump told Fox News the next day, “I’m not threatening death, but I think they’re in serious trouble. In the old days, it was death.”

Another Democrat and frequent Trump target appeared to get caught in the crosshairs as well. Schumer said on Dec. 1 that “multiple bomb threats” had been sent to his offices around New York with “the email subject line ‘MAGA’ and from an email address alleging the ‘2020 election was rigged.’”

Trump feuds with Marjorie Taylor Greene

Trump also used fiery language about Greene, a Republican and a longtime ally, in the same time period, calling her a “traitor” and a “disgrace” after she said Trump should spend less time on foreign affairs and broke with the administration on issues like health care, Israel and the release of the Justice Department’s Jeffrey Epstein records.

Trump announced he was withdrawing his support for Greene in mid-November, calling her a “ranting lunatic” who has “gone far left” in the first of several posts about her on the weekend of Nov. 14.

Greene said on X that weekend that she’d been bombarded by threats that “are being fueled and egged on by the most powerful man in the world. The man I supported and helped get elected.”

Trump was unmoved and kept posting about her, saying she was “working overtime to try and portray herself as a victim when, in actuality, she is the cause of all of her own problems. The fact is, nobody cares about this Traitor to our Country!”

Greene said the continued remarks led to a pipe bomb threat at her business and death threats against her son.

“President Trump’s unwarranted and vicious attacks against me were a dog whistle to dangerous radicals that could lead to serious attacks on me and my family,” she wrote on X.

Trump shrugged off her claim.

“I don’t think her life is in danger. I don’t think, frankly, I don’t think anybody cares about her,” he said at the time.

Pape said that it’s “to be expected” that the type of language Trump uses could encourage violence.

“He routinely uses metaphors and characterizations that we know from decades of studies encourages support for political violence. That’s been true for years now,” he said. “Dehumanizing people with the word garbage or the word traitor — with the idea of ‘they deserve death,’ it lowers the threshold for supporting violence against the target.”

What makes his “continuing pervasive use of morally disengaging metaphors” even more dangerous, Pape said, is his “extreme popularity.”

Trump takes aim at Indiana Republicans

In recent weeks, Trump has used social media to publicly pressure lawmakers in Indiana to support a midcycle redistricting measure aimed at giving Republicans more seats in the U.S. House.

On Nov. 16, two days after Indiana Senate Leader Rodric Bray announced that the chamber did not have enough support to pass the measure, Trump said he was “very disappointed in Indiana State Senate Republicans,” and called out two by name: Bray and Greg Goode.

The same post also criticized Gov. Mike Braun, describing him as a friend who “perhaps, is not working the way he should to get the necessary Votes. Considering that Mike wouldn’t be Governor without me (Not even close!), is disappointing!”

Hours later, Goode was the victim of a swatting incident at his home, when someone claiming to be him called the police and said he’d murdered his wife and child.

“My front door was kicked in. I had weapons pointed directly at me. I am so grateful that I was home. My wife and son were in the basement getting Christmas decorations,” he said Thursday.

In the following weeks, a total of at least 12 Republican state senators — in addition to Braun and a member of the state House — were targeted with threats and swatting attacks. Trump continued posting about Indiana and suggesting any Republican who voted against the redistricting bill should be voted out of office.

A spokesperson for the Indiana State Police, Capt. Ron Galaviz, said that in total there had been “a few dozen threats” made against state senators and representatives in recent weeks.

The redistricting measure passed in the state House on Dec. 5 but failed in the state Senate on Thursday.

State Rep. Tim Yocum, one of a handful of Republican legislators who voted against the redistricting measure in the House, received a bomb threat at his house on Wednesday.

“These kinds of threats of violence are never acceptable, and I wholeheartedly condemn them,” Yocum said in a statement.

Indiana state Senate Whip Mike Crider — who also voted against the measure — told NBC affiliate 13WTHR that he has received three threats this week alone. He cited the threats he received among the reasons he was voting against the redistricting bill.

“When you get kind of bullied and threatened, if that tactic works, then you can expect to deal with that for the rest of your political career,” he said. “And so I’m a kind of guy that, if you start pushing on me, you’re going to get a reaction.”