When Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) went from a likely no vote on confirming Pete Hegseth to become Defense Secretary to an easy yes, the switch was attributed to political pressure from Trump and his allies. That pressure was intense. There were cries of disloyalty from MAGA media; threats to primary Ernst, who is up for re-election in two years; and hundreds of thousands in ads that flooded her home state. Elon Musk, the world’s richest man and the financial brawn behind the MAGA swarm, promised to fund a challenger.
“The Trump MAGA machine is powerful. They are aggressive. They are nasty. They issue death threats.”
Perhaps that narrative was correct, and Ernst’s decision was based on political pressure. But lurking in the background remained the question of whether it wasn’t just threats of political retribution that steered Ernst and other GOP senators who weighed voting against Hegseth and other controversial Trump cabinet nominees, but also threats of violence. How much were they scared for their political lives, and how much were they scared for their actual lives?
As it turns out, threats of violence against members of Congress rose in January and February, at the same time that Trump and his allies were strong-arming lawmakers over confirmations. In January, the US Capitol Police counted 42 threats against members of the House and Senate, followed by 33 in February. During the same months in 2024, the numbers were 16 and 17, respectively.
The US Capitol Police released the information in response to a public records request by Mother Jones. The agency did not share any details about the party or house of Congress of the targets. While that makes it difficult to know if violent threats rose against Republican Senators as they decided whether to approve Trump’s most controversial nominees, the numbers show that, as senator after senator buckled and came to back nominees like Hegseth, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, and Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the threat atmosphere on Capitol Hill was significantly heightened.
According to the Capitol Police, threats against lawmakers have long been on the rise, and generally go up in election years. Last year, public data from the agency shows it investigated a record 9,474 concerning statements made against lawmakers, their families, and staff. The data Mother Jones obtained only covered threats against members, and shows significant variance month-to-month. For example, the highest number of threats came in November 2024, the month of the election, at 62. The second highest month in 2024, May, saw 31. Outside those two exceptions, January and February of this year saw abnormally high threat numbers during this 14-month period.
Violent threats were part of the MAGA confirmation playbook. When weighing Hegseth, Politico reported, “Ernst and her staff received a barrage of threatening messages. Some people even reached out to her family, according to one person who heard frustration from Ernst—though her office downplayed the badgering.” Journalists reporting on damaging allegations about Hegseth also got death threats: “Trump and Hegseth allies on the outside started going after reporters who covered the accusations—many of whom received death threats and had to receive additional security.”
Hegseth’s confirmation ultimately did not come down to Ernst. Instead, the final holdout was Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), who, like Ernst, is up for re-election in less than two years. According to a blow by blow Politico account, Tillis received inside pressure from Trump and his allies as well as from online “MAGA goons.” After 24-hours of defiance, Tillis caved. According to Vanity Fair, as Tillis was deciding, he faced serious threats of violence: “Tillis told people that the FBI warned him about ‘credible death threats’ when he was considering voting against Pete Hegseth’s nomination for defense secretary.”
In February, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) cited such threats as a reason Republicans confirmed Hegseth. “We got three Republicans to vote with us, Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, and Mitch McConnell,” Gillibrand said during a February appearance on WNYC. “We needed a fourth, and we were unable to get it because the Trump MAGA machine is powerful. They are aggressive. They are nasty. They issue death threats. They threaten people. They threaten them with retaliation. They have really gotten under the skin of a lot of Republicans who are unfortunately now unwilling to stand up to Trump, which is highly problematic.”
Senators may not have confirmed Hegseth at gunpoint—but may have at the threat of a gun being pointed at them.
In the few short weeks since the cabinet confirmation battles closed, the Trump administration has issued a litany of illegal and unconstitutional orders, claimed extraordinary powers to seize and deport people without due process, to round up residents and deport them based on their speech, to deny some infants birthright citizenship, to retaliate against law firms and universities based on speech, to dismantle federal agencies and fire watchdogs and commissioners whose jobs are protected by law. The list goes on. Republicans in Congress, meanwhile, have hardly protested. Some are likely on board with all Trump’s actions and nominees. Others may simply fear political retribution. But if the level of threats against members of Congress holds steady, it will be hard to ignore the degree to which violence, or the threat of it, is keeping Trump’s agenda rolling.
“Tillis told people that the FBI warned him about ‘credible death threats.’”
This isn’t the first time threats of violence may have spared Trump from an embarrassing vote. According to former Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah), some of his GOP Senate colleagues voted against impeaching Trump over the January 6 insurrection out of a fear for their safety. Romney himself began spending $5,000 per day on private security after his vote to impeach, as Republicans in the House who voted for impeachment contended with increased threats from Trump-backers.
Many of the members of Congress voting to confirm Trump’s most controversial nominees and choosing not to defend Congress’ prerogatives as the executive branch demolishes agencies it created and withholds money it allocated, were in the Capitol on January 6. Today, the nearly 1,600 pardoned January 6 offenders are not only back in society but back in the GOP fold. They are attendees at CPAC, the annual conservative confab. They are on the streets of DC, getting into skirmishes. Whatever fear guided most GOP lawmakers in the aftermath of January 6, there’s no reason to think that it will subside now.
Lawmakers are not alone in their fear of violent reprisal. Federal judges, who have halted dozens of Trump’s and Musk’s orders, are likewise seeing an uptick in threats. As more than 100 lawsuits pile up against the administration, judges hearing those cases may start to weigh not just the law but the physical safety of themselves and their families. This month, the sister of Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett received a bomb threat. The same night, the U.S. Marshals Service issued a warning that federal judges or their family members were being sent anonymous Domino’s pizza deliveries at home, including members of Barrett’s immediate family. Most of the pizzas targeted judges considering cases challenging Trump’s directives. Barrett had drawn the ire of Trump supporters when, five days earlier, she upheld a lower court judge’s order that the administration restart some foreign assistance payments.
Trump and Musk clearly support this menacing threat environment. Musk has personally donated to members of Congress who have introduced articles of impeachment against federal judges he has attacked for ruling against the administration. The impeachment push has folded into online attacks on the judges—and the lawmakers behind it are getting a pat on the back from the world’s richest man.
Clearly, these threats are coming from Trump supporters. But Tillis, who stands out among Republicans by displaying a willingness to discuss the issue of threats of violence against lawmakers, appears to be blaming liberal protesters of Trump and Musk.
Last week, his office released a selection of threatening messages that suggested most threats to Tillis are coming from liberals who want him to stand up against Trump, and not Trump adherents warning him to stay in line with the president. Tillis cited these threats as a reason not to attend town halls hosted in North Carolina this month by Democrats and progressive grassroots groups. Mother Jones reached out to Tillis’s office for comment on the threats against him—and to ask which side of the political spectrum makes more threats against the senator—but got no response.
“This is my promise,” Tillis recently said. “Anybody that communicates a death threat to me, if we catch you, I’m pressing charges. There’s no place for that and I would encourage any other members to do the same thing.” Tillis also revealed this month that he was the subject of death threats from a Minnesota man who was indicted by federal prosecutors in 2022.
Pressing charges is one way to punish the threats to lawmakers and possibly quell them. The question remains, of course, will Donald Trump’s Justice Department prosecute the threats that may be powering his agenda? An independent DOJ certainly would, as it did when Tills needed just a few years ago. But this one, as it carries out Trump’s political agenda, is another beast altogether.
