Reid Hoffman, founder of LinkedIn, reportedly said he wished he’d made Former President Donald Trump an “actual martyr” just days before an attempted assassination of Trump.
Hoffman made the remark to his former classmate Peter Thiel when the two recently attended a conference in Idaho, according to Puck News.
Thiel, a billionaire tech investor, thanked Hoffman for funding one of the many lawsuits against Trump, saying it turned the former president into a martyr and increased his chances of reelection this November.
Hoffman reportedly responded, “Yeah, I wish I had made him an actual martyr.”
Just days after that exchange, Trump was shot during a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. The former president was hit in his right ear, while others in attendance were injured and one man was killed.
After the incident, Hoffman took to X, formerly Twitter, to defend his comments.
“It is abhorrent that anyone has tried to assassinate President Trump,” Hoffman wrote. “Everyone, on all sides of this election, should condemn political violence loudly and publicly.”
First and everything: There is no place for political violence in our society. Assassination is not only categorically wrong, but is also the assassination of democracy. It is abhorrent that anyone has tried to assassinate President Trump. Everyone, on all sides of this…
— Reid Hoffman (@reidhoffman) July 14, 2024
The post, however, went on to compare the political violence committed against the former president to Jan. 6.
“Instead of calling the January 6th insurrectionists ‘heroes’ whom he [Trump] intends to pardon and even hire into
