President-elect Donald Trump shared his thoughts on the assassination of a health insurance executive, denouncing the online expressions of support for the murder as “disturbing.”
Trump, who has strong ties to New York City, spoke out against the brutal killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, describing it as “atrocious” and “chilling” during a press conference. This came after the arrest of Luigi Mangione, a 26-year-old University of Pennsylvania graduate, in Altoona, Pennsylvania.
“It is disheartening to see individuals showing admiration or support for the perpetrator,” Trump commented. “The act was callous and devastating.”
Luigi Mangione shouts while officers restrain him as he arrives for his extradition hearing at Blair County Courthouse in Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania on Tuesday, Dec. 10, 2024. (David Dee Delgado for Fox News Digital)
“How people can like this guy, that’s a sickness actually,” Trump said Monday.
He was particularly appalled by how the murder was carried out – gunshots from behind.
Surveillance video taken outside a Manhattan Hilton hotel where UnitedHealthcare was about to host shareholders and other investors for an annual conference shows Thompson walking up about an hour and 15 minutes before the event started.
Despite the violence, many commentators online praised the unmasked suspect’s appearance and the attack on the health insurance industry.
Online fundraising sites shut down efforts to raise money for his legal defense. His image appeared on viral memes. Radical commenters praised the slaying and condemned the witnesses who spotted him at an Altoona, Pennsylvania, McDonald’s and called 911.
The restaurant, its workers and local police have all received a wave of death threats as a result, and other large health care companies have taken portraits and biographical information of their corporate leaders down from their websites.
A masked man stepped out behind him, fired into his back and walked away, as a horrified woman who witnessed the murder fled in the other direction.
The suspected gunman in UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson’s murder, believed to be Luigi Mangione, is seen flirting with a hostel employee on surveillance footage before the Dec. 4 shooting. (NYPD)
Mangione is facing a slew of charges in New York and Pennsylvania, including second-degree murder, unlawful possession of a firearm and carrying a fake ID.
His lawyer told a Pennsylvania judge last week he planned to fight extradition to New York.
