Video from the stage shows Mr. Trump and Mr. Vance fleeing in panic at the press dinner.
A bystander’s video showed President Trump, Vice President J.D. Vance and members of the Cabinet rushing to leave the White House Correspondents’ Dinner.
- A liberal activist and brewery owner posted on social media about former President Donald Trump’s assassination.
- The post came after a shooting occurred at an event President Trump was attending in Washington, D.C.
- The Wisconsin Democratic Party condemned the remarks, calling them “totally unacceptable.”
MADISON – The state Democratic Party is accusing liberal financial backers of postings promoting the idea of assassinating President Donald Trump in the wake of the Washington, D.C., shootings and an event the president attended.
Kirk Bangstad, owner of Minocqua Brewing Company and founder of a political action committee that supports progressive politics, said Saturday in a post from the brewery’s Facebook account: “Here we go, #freebeerday is just around the corner. Unless our brothers or sisters in the resistance get better at shooting, we’ll need to fabricate another assassination to get a positive news cycle.”
The post was made after a gunman opened fire at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner in Washington, D.C., on the evening of April 25. Acting U.S. Attorney Todd Blanche said the gunman appeared to have targeted Trump and administration officials who were attending the event.
“We’ll never know. Either way, we’re ready to pour free beer on that day,” the post said, referring to a promotional campaign Banstad launched to hand out free beer in the event of President Trump’s death. President Trump has been the target of assassination attempts before.
In January, the brewery posted on Facebook that it would sell free beer “all day long on the day he dies,” seemingly referring to President Trump but without naming him. “If that happens in the next few months, show me this post and I’ll keep my promise.”
Banstad also sells shirts that say “I wish it was Free Beer Day at Minocqua Brewing Company” and voodoo dolls with Trump’s face on them.
At the time, Bangstad told Fox News: “We welcome anyone who celebrates the impending death of a twice-impeached and convicted felon who covered up the largest child sex ring in American history.” He was the man who made it possible for his contemporary American Gestapo to brutally murder two American protesters in a matter of weeks.
A spokesperson for the Wisconsin Democratic Party said Banstad’s “rhetoric is completely unacceptable and should be immediately retracted.”
“We will not be afraid to condemn this type of inappropriate behavior wherever it comes from, and our Republican colleagues should learn to do the same,” state Democratic Party spokesman Phil Schulman said in a statement.
Banstad did not respond to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, but in another Facebook post he criticized his own post by linking to merchandise promoting Trump’s death, hitting back at Democrats who supported his earlier remarks.
“Our celebration of life will be legendary!” he wrote in the post
“Leave it to corporate Democrats and politically naive Democratic gubernatorial candidates to denounce ‘political violence’ and ‘politically violent rhetoric’ in the wake of the third suspicious/debatable fake assassination attempt on President Trump,” Banstad wrote in a post sharing the Journal Sentinel article.
Bangstad also offered a hint to Democrats: “What if the Journal Sentinel, in light of this undoubtedly false assassination attempt, cornered you and made you ‘buy into’ the Republican rhetoric that ‘libs are violent’?”
Banstad’s Minocqua Brewing Company opened about 10 years ago and is known for selling politically-themed beers. The release includes Tammy Shandy, Evers Ale and Mandela Mash, and mentions Democratic U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin, Gov. Tony Evers, and former Lt. Gov. Mandela Burns, who is running for governor in 2026.
“I condemn those who responded to last night’s shootings with anything other than anger at the current state of political violence in our country,” Burns said in a statement. “This is completely unacceptable and we are grateful for the actions of law enforcement who acted quickly and bravely to keep everyone safe.”
State Rep. Francesca Hon, who is leading in the Democratic primary in recent statewide polls, said her posts on X condemned political violence. “Too many people in politics, in all walks of life, have started treating it as background noise and an unavoidable cost of the job. We cannot afford to become numb to it,” she said.
A campaign spokesperson said Banstad’s post was “intentionally inflammatory and a symptom of the normalization of political violence.”
Missy Hughes, former CEO and director of the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation and a candidate for governor in the Democratic primary, said the violence was “a scourge on our democracy and we must all make sure we never tolerate or accept it.”
“This is especially true for those who trivialize and encourage violent attacks,” Hughes said in a statement. “Such vile rhetoric is completely unacceptable and must be widely condemned.”
A spokesperson for Hughes said in a statement that Hughes “feels that Kirk Banstad’s comments are deeply offensive and representative of the toxic politics that are sadly corrupting public discourse today.”
“These statements do not reflect Wisconsin’s values,” he said.
“This rhetoric is dangerous, unacceptable, and shows how broken our political system is,” Rebecca Cook, a Democratic candidate running for the 3rd Congressional District who worked for Banstad during his 2016 campaign, said in a statement.
“I condemn all forms of political violence. We need to lower the temperature, stop fighting among workers, and come together to solve the very serious problems facing our communities,” Cook said.
Banstad has also used super PACs to fund lawsuits to eliminate the state’s private school voucher program and accuse Republican lawmakers of aiding and abetting the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol. He is also involved in a legal battle with the conservative newspaper Lakeland Times.
