‘It’s going to get back to them’: Trump’s dark warning on political violence

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New York: US President Donald Trump warned against “energising” right-wing activists and raised the spectre of retaliatory attacks against the left as he blamed progressives and Democrats for the latest act of political violence to divide the country.

A detainee was killed, and two others were wounded, when a gunman opened fire at an immigration detention centre in Dallas, Texas, on Wednesday. The shooter, whom officials have identified as 29-year-old Joshua Jahn, then fatally shot himself.

FBI agents investigate the crime scene near the Immigration and Customs Enforcement office in Dallas, Texas.

Investigators on Thursday (Friday AEST) said they recovered a collection of notes from Jahn’s home that showed he harboured a deep hatred of Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, deliberately targeted ICE agents at the facility, and did not mean to hurt the detainees.

“What he did is the very definition of terrorism,” said Nancy Larson, the acting US attorney for the Northern District of Texas. Accidental harm to detainees at the facility was a “tragic irony”, she said.

In the notes, Jahn described ICE employees as “people showing up to collect a dirty pay cheque”, Larson said.

“He hoped his actions would terrorise ICE employees and interfere with their work, which he called human trafficking … His words were definitely anti-ICE.”

Nancy Larson, the acting US attorney for the Northern District of Texas.

Another note expressed hatred for the federal government in “crude words”, Larson said. “That said, we did not find evidence of membership in any specific group or entity, nor did he mention any specific government agency other than ICE.”

FBI special agent Joe Rothrock said Jahn legally obtained an 8-millimetre bolt action rifle in August and engaged in a high level of planning for the attack, including researching an office building at the facility whose windows he fired into.

“Jahn specifically intended to kill ICE agents,” Rothrock said. Officials believe he acted alone, and a note found at his home said: “Yes, it was just me.”

Earlier, FBI director Kash Patel had released a photo on social media that showed an unused bullet found at the scene containing the words “ANTI-ICE” in what appeared to be marker.

The Dallas shooting is the latest in a string of attacks on ICE agents and facilities amid Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration, which has led to the detention and deportation of thousands of undocumented migrants. Several of those incidents have occurred in Texas.

Asked about the latest incident, Trump said that “radical left rhetoric” was to blame and warned the attacks would backfire on the left.

“They’re out of control … The radical left is causing this problem. Not the right, the radical left,” he said in the Oval Office during an on-camera Q&A with reporters while meeting Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

“It’s going to get worse, and ultimately, it’s going to get back to them. Bad things happen when they play these games.

Donald Trump warned the left about retribution to acts of political violence.

“I’ll give you a little clue, the right is a lot tougher than the left. But the right’s not doing this. And they better not get them energised because it won’t be good for the left.”

Trump said he did not want to see any such escalation because he was president for all Americans.

“But the radical left Democrats are causing this problem,” he said. “If it gets worse, it’ll be a point where other people won’t take it any more, and that will not be good for the radical left. We don’t want that.”

The president has led the charge against what he calls the radical left since the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk at a university campus in Utah just over two weeks ago.

White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller vowed to come after those responsible for inciting hatred and violence against conservatives.

Police allege the accused man in that shooting, 22-year-old Tyler Robinson, expressed increasingly radical political ideology to family members and spent significant amounts of time in internet forums.

At a memorial for Kirk on the weekend, which was attended by Trump, Vice President JD Vance and numerous senior members of the administration, some speakers spoke of a reckoning over politically motivated violence.

In particular, White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller said the administration would come after the activists and non-government organisations inciting hatred and violence against conservatives.

“You have no idea the dragon you have awakened. You have no idea how determined we will be to save this civilisation, to save the West, to save this republic,” he said.

“To our enemies, you have nothing to give, you have nothing to offer, you have nothing to share but bitterness.

“We have beauty, we have light, we have goodness, we have determination, we have vision, we have strength. We built the world that we inhabit now … and we will defend this world.”