Free beer for political assassination. That’s apparently how low the American left has stooped in the logical, violent outcome of Trump Derangement Syndrome.
Kirk Bangstad, the far-left owner of Wisconsin’s “progressive” Minocqua Brewing Company, has long promised “free beer, all day long” on the day of President Donald Trump’s death. Following the latest attempt on the president’s life, the brewery’s social media pages begged the “Resistance” to step up its assassination game.
“Well, we almost got #freebeerday,” the company wrote on now-deleted posts. “Either a brother or sister in the Resistance needs to work on their marksmanship or he faked another assassination to get a positive news cycle. We’ll never know.”
“Regardless, we stand at the ready to pour free beer the day it happens,” the post added.
Corporate media outlets like Newsweek assert that the twisted TDS post “appeared to celebrate the weekend attempt to assassinate” Trump. But in this era of surging left-wing violence, can the not-so-subtle message be viewed as anything less than a call to kill the President of the United States of America?
Do law enforcement officials see it that way? The Federalist on Monday reached out to the FBI and the United States Secret Service. Neither responded to questions, including whether the agencies planned to investigate the brewery’s incendiary posts.
A Threat and a Bounty
In the span of less than two years, Trump has been the target of at least five assassination attempts, including from a gunman who in July 2024 came within a fraction of an inch of ending the president’s life at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. In that assassination attempt, the shooter murdered a rally-goer and seriously injured two others.
The latest episode in the left’s assassination culture occurred Saturday evening at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner in Washington, D.C., where the president, vice president, cabinet members and journalists were in attendance. Cole Thomas Allen, a 31-year-old California man reportedly radicalized in the school of leftist dogma, allegedly stormed through a screening checkpoint armed with guns and knives and began shooting. Allen allegedly shot a Secret Service agent who was wearing a protective bullet-proof vest at the time. On Monday, federal prosecutors charged him with attempting to assassinate the president, transporting a firearm and ammunition with intent to commit a felony, and discharging a firearm during a violent crime.
Authorities say Allen wrote a pointed manifesto detailing his political hatred for Trump and members of his administration. He described himself as a “friendly federal assassin.” Allen wrote that he did not intend to hurt law enforcement, hotel staff, guests, or the media members in attendance — many of whom that have spent the better part of the past decade spewing hatred for Trump and his supporters.
The alleged attempted assassin wrote flippantly, apologizing to his parents for “saying I had an interview without specifying it was for ‘Most Wanted.’”
That’s the kind of gallows “humor” you’ll find in the now-deleted messages from Bangstad and his brew crew. A Wisconsin congressman who has sparred on social media with the hate-spewing leftist says there’s no mistaking the message — or its intent.
“Clearly this can be interpreted as a threat and it can clearly be seen as a bounty,” Rep. Derrick Van Orden, a Republican who represents western Wisconsin’s 3rd Congressional District, told The Federalist Monday in a phone interview. And in the beer-loving Badger State, a cold one holds higher allure than in other places.
While the strength of the First Amendment may ultimately be shown in its protection of the most reprehensible speech, Van Orden said there are limitations.
“Threatening speech is not protected speech. Libelous speech is not protected, either,” the congressman said. “There should be a very detailed analysis of all of this guy’s social media because his comments are really incendiary.”
‘Violence-Charged Rhetoric of the Left’
Bangstad, who runs a suspect liberal super PAC that attacks Republicans, has a long history of incendiary speech.
Last July, Bangstad and his band of radicals threatened to shut down the annual Fourth of July parade in Minocqua, the Northwoods Wisconsin city where the brewery’s headquarters is located. Deputies had arrested Bangstad and some of his customers following a verbal dispute with Gregg Walker, publisher of Minocqua’s Lakeland Times. Law enforcement officials reported that Bangstad and others shouted profanities while holding lewd signs in front of the newspaper, located across the street from the brewery.
Bangstad said he’d call off the dogs if the county would give him the zoning permit he demanded, even after his establishment had racked up repeated violations, according to the Lakeland Times. The protesters ultimately didn’t show up and the parade went on as scheduled. Bangstad later claimed he was “trolling” local government. Bangstad later pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct charges stemming from the incident. He had a hard time keeping his mouth shut at that trial, according to WIFW.com.
Meanwhile, the unrepentant leftist’s feud with Walker, the newspaper, Trump, Republicans, and conservatives everywhere goes on. A jury in 2023 found Bangstad guilty of defaming Walker by “falsely implying that Walker had let his own brother die in order to inherit the family business,” Wisconsin Public Radio reported. The activist settled for a reported $580,000. At one time, Bangstad had faced criminal defamation accusations, but a Wisconsin judge dismissed the charge.
Jessi Ebben, a Republican candidate running for Wisconsin’s 7th Congressional District seat, noted that Bangstad has a lot of backup from liberals who applaud violence targeting conservatives.
“The amount of likes and the vile comments on this post, along with the other hateful rhetoric spewed on social media (regularly, not just after another assassination attempt) says it all: they hate us,” Ebben wrote in a Facebook post commenting on Bangstad’s free beer offer “The violence-charged rhetoric of the left is creating terrifying actions being taken by the left.”
‘Exponentially Increases the Chances of Violence’
None of it should be surprising anymore to even the most obtuse corporate media dope. Looking at you Chuck Todd.
Democrats and their allies in the accomplice media have spent years comparing Trump to Hitler, calling him a Nazi, a fascist, a threat to democracy. But the demonizing of the conservative movement has been common core indoctrination in college classrooms for more than 60 years, with the radical left taking over schools of education, journalism, law, preaching hatred for traditional, foundational values.
A study released a year ago found that 55 percent of self-identified liberals believe that there is at least some justification for violence against Trump and his top administration officials. The study, produced by the Network of Contagion Research Institute (NCRI) in partnership with Rutgers University’s Social Perception Lab, points to a broader “assassination culture” … “emerging within segments of the U.S. public on the extreme left …” Political violence is “becoming increasingly normalized.”
Van Orden has lived it. Nearly a year ago he was forced to cancel a town hall with constituents and miss some votes when law enforcement officials told him there had been a credible threat made against him, his wife, children, and grandchildren.
“The more these people make these statements and the more others hear them, the more they are brainwashed by them. That exponentially increases the chances of violence against run-of-the-mill guys in Congress like me,” he said.
Bangstad did not return The Federalist’s requests for comment. In a Facebook post he chided Wisconsin Democrats for sending paper-thin condemnations of him to the liberal Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. The leftist sack of excrement blamed “Corporate Dems and politically naive Democratic gubernatorial candidates” for taking the bait. He sounded put off that anyone would “condemn ‘political violence’ or ‘politically violent rhetoric’ after the 3rd questionably/arguable fake assassination attempt against Trump.”
Bangstad doubled down on his offer for free beer on the “day,” a not-so-veiled reference to Trump’s death.
“Our celebration of life is going to be legendary!” he wrote in the post.
