The White House on Monday blamed what it called a “left-wing cult of hatred” for a shooting at a gala correspondents dinner in Washington attended by President Donald Trump.

Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said the incident, for which a suspect is due in court on Monday, was the third assassination attempt targeting Republican Trump in the past two years.

“The left-wing cult of hatred against the president and all of those who support him and work for him has gotten multiple people hurt and killed, and it almost did so again this weekend,”

Trump himself has pushed the barriers of presidential precedent in terms of using language towards political opponents that critics say is polarizing and sometimes violent.

In a press conference minutes after the attack at the White House Correspondents Dinner, Trump took a more conciliatory tone towards the media, whom he has previously dubbed the “enemy of the people.”

But Leavitt, who was on stage with Trump at the dinner when the incident happened, said there had been “systemic demonization” of the 79-year-old president.

“Nobody in recent years has faced more bullets and more violence than President Trump,” said Leavitt, who returned from maternity leave to host the briefing at the White House.

“Those who constantly, falsely label and slander the president as a fascist, as a threat to democracy, and compare him to Hitler to score political points, are fueling this kind of violence,” she added.

Those who have previously compared Trump to Nazi leader Adolf Hitler include his own Vice President JD Vance, when he was opposed to Trump in 2016.

AFP