Assassination culture and anti-Christian extremism fueled alleged plot against Erika Kirk, horrifying report claims

A new report reveals that a dangerous dynamic of anti-Christian extremism and “assassination culture” could have fueled the recent attempt to kill conservative leader Charlie Kirk’s widow, Erika Kirk, as threats against public officials and figures rise to historic levels.In late May, Bexar County charged Jacob Wenske, 26, with a third-degree felony count of making a terroristic threat involving public fear of serious bodily injury or public disruption for his alleged plan to bomb a Turning Point USA event where Kirk was the keynote speaker. In an email to TPUSA, Wenske said he was targeting Kirk, other event speakers and so-called “Christian nationalists,” according to an arrest warrant.Wenske, who worked as a valet driver, also posted multiple threats on social media, according to the warrant.Wenske’s arrest emerged amid a record number of threats against political figures and members of Congress.The US Capitol Police Threat Assessment Section showed a 58 percent increase in threats against members of Congress from 2024 to 2025, and threats overall have nearly doubled since 2020. The Network Contagion Research Institute, a research lab that studies how radical ideologies spread across digital networks and social media, analyzed the threats against Kirk to assess the level of danger and how “permission structure” plays a role in originating the threat.“What we’re seeing is a massive influx of foreign malign influence that is truly shaping the Western world right now, particularly through social media,” Travis Hawley, cyber threat and open-source intelligence analyst at the Network Contagion Research Institute, told Fox News Digital.

“What you could call our digital diet is really shaping how people see ourselves, our values, our country, and even our history.”“And there are many countries, organizations, and wealthy individuals, whether it’s [Neville Roy] Singham in China, who are really pushing or putting their thumb on the...