'He’s so divisive': Influential podcaster rips Trump for firing up political tensions

Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy on comedian Theo Von's podcast in 2023 (Image: Screengrab via Theo Von / YouTube)

During a Friday morning, September 12 appearance on Fox News' "Fox & Friends," President Donald Trump discussed the fatal shooting of MAGA activist and Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk and announced that a suspect was "in custody." Later that morning at a press conference, FBI Director Kash Patel and Utah Gov. Spencer Cox identified the shooter as 22-year-old Utah resident Tyler Robinson.

Trump, on "Fox & Friends," claimed that "radicals on the left" are more dangerous than "radicals on the right" because the latter are just expressing their frustration over crime and illegal immigration. Trump told the hosts, "Radicals on the left are the problem, and they are vicious and horrible and politically savvy. They want men in women's sports, they want transgender for everyone, open borders. Worst thing that happened to this country."

Many Trump's critics, following Kirk's murder, are arguing that his inflammatory rhetoric does nothing to calm political tensions in the U.S. And of the people making that argument is Barstool Sports' Dave Portnoy.

Portnoy, on a vodcast, commented, "Politics definitely has a huge part in it. Trump —

and when I say Trump has a huge part in it, I don't necessarily mean he's to blame for it, but he's so divisive without really even…. Just his face is like divisive. Like he just, people hate him so much."

Portnoy continued, "And the left and the right, the rhetoric — especially, to me, the left — is insane. And it just boils, boils, boils, boils."

Portnoy also argued that Kirk was brave to visit college campuses and debate students who disagreed with his politics vehemently.

Portnoy said, "The thing that I do respect the most about him, he knew he was in danger. Like going to those rallies in an open-air space with the amount of hate he has towards him, you are in danger, especially in this world."

From Your Site Articles