'Hard to overstate' how 'shaken' Trump is after Kirk murder and 'threats on his life': Haberman

Mediaite reports the assassination of MAGA influencer Charlie Kirk appears to have President Donald Trump worrying about his own life.

Responding to a question about "the thing" taking up "headspace" at the White House, "CNN commentator and New York Times White House correspondent Maggie Haberman told CNN host Kasie Hunt that Trump was “shaken” by the Kirk killing, and fearing for his safety.

“... I think if you had asked that question a couple of weeks ago, the Epstein story would have been it,” Haberman said on Wednesday’s edition of CNN’s “The Arena.” “Right now, it is the concerns about threats to the life — the lives of people around the president. And the president’s own, you know, two assassination attempts on his life, one of which was a near miss last year.”

Haberman went on to describe Trump’s willingness to engage in “crackdowns” on left-leaning organizations in the aftermath of Kirk’s murder. Trump and other administration officials, including Vice President JD Vance, are claiming left-leaning groups are inciting violence. The Hill reports administration officials have namedropped George Soros’ Open Society Foundations, Tides Foundation and the Ford Foundation as threats, despite the absence of evidence.

“He has insisted that political violence is only initiated by the political left, as opposed to against it. That’s just not true, in terms of attacks on the left and we, you know, we saw that with the Democratic lawmakers in Minnesota, for instance, we saw that with Nancy Pelosi’s husband,” Haberman said. “But he has made clear that he’s not accepting that, and he is moving forward.”

However, even as Trump vows retaliation against organizations with flimsy evidence and threatens to litigate “antifa” — which has no leadership or government body — Trump himself is rattled.

“It is really hard to overstate how shaken the White House and the president was and were by Charlie Kirk’s assassination,” Haerman said. “A lot of people in the White House were very close to Charlie Kirk, or knew him or admired him, and President Trump was also close to him, but also sees this in terms of the threats on his life. And so, I think that’s what you’re seeing is a primary driver right now.”