Trump adviser scolds CNN after assassination attempt: The former president is the only person who can be “shamed”

Bryan Lanza, a senior adviser to the Trump 2024 campaign, said media criticism of former President Trump's rhetoric following a second assassination attempt has made him a target of “victim-shaming.”

“Listen, I would say what we've observed over the last 24 hours in connection with the shooting is that there's been a lot of victim shaming,” Lanza said.

On Sunday, another assassination attempt on Trump occurred as the former president was golfing at Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida. Authorities said the suspect, later identified as Ryan Wesley Routh, was 300 to 500 feet away from Trump before the Secret Service spotted him and opened fire. He fled but was arrested soon after.

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Former Trump communications adviser Bryan Lanza said media criticism of former President Trump's rhetoric following a second assassination attempt made him a target of “victim shaming.” (CNN)

“This is the only place where Donald Trump is the victim. It's OK to expose him,” he said. “He was shot immediately, there was another assassination attempt, and (but) thanks to the grace of the Secret Service getting there first, we were able to prevent another direct assassination attempt.”

“The rhetoric is getting heated,” Lanza said. “You have to remember that when Donald Trump entered this race, he was probably the most insulted presidential candidate in American history. He's been called Hitler. He's been called an anti-Semite. He's been called all these things because he holds the same views that he held 20 years ago, but that's not politically convenient for the Democratic Party.”

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“This is the only place where Donald Trump is the victim. It's OK to pillory him,” Lanza said of media criticism of Trump's rhetoric. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

“Yes, he gets frustrated from time to time, his rhetoric gets heated, we probably need to take it a little bit easier,” Lanza said. “But there is no way out.”

Lanza also criticized billionaire and major Democratic donor Reid Hoffman for his comments that Trump was a “martyr.”

In response to a viewer saying that the lawsuits against Trump had made him a “martyr” during a July panel, Hoffman reportedly said, “Yeah, I wish I had made him a real martyr.”

Hoffman later clarified these comments to X after the first assassination attempt on Trump.

“I am horrified and saddened by what happened to former President Trump and wish him a speedy recovery,” Hoffman wrote in July.

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Fox News' Landon Mion contributed to this report.