A Monday memo from the White House listed the celebration of 2020 Engineering graduate Luigi Manigione’s killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson as an example of “Radical Left violence.”
The Sept. 22 memo was published following an executive order from 1968 Wharton graduate and President Donald Trump designating “Antifa” as a domestic terrorist organization. The memo alleged the group’s responsibility in a “long history of terrorizing our communities,” which was described as a part of the “trend of Radical Left violence that has permeated the nation in recent years.”
“President Donald J. Trump is right: the violence problem is on the Left,” the memo read. “That’s why he just designated Antifa — a network of Radical Left terrorists that aim to overthrow the government through violence and agitation — as a domestic terrorist organization.”
The executive order requires the Trump administration to “investigate, disrupt and dismantle” individuals and groups associating themselves with the anti-fascist ideology, including against “those who fund such operations.”
The move comes amid rising concern over political violence in the United States following the assassination of conservative political activist Charlie Kirk. Alongside Kirk’s assassination and “leftists” who celebrated Mangione, the memo also named assassination attempts made against Trump as examples of left-wing violence.
Since Mangione’s arrest, individuals across the country have held up his actions as an act of vigilantism against the injustices of the healthcare industry — both outside courthouse hearings and on social media. The support for Mangione has been widely criticized by conservative pundits and Republican officials.
In December 2024, English and Cinema and Media Studies assistant professor Julia Alekseyeva faced criticism and was denounced by the University for comments that appeared to celebrate the actions of Mangione. Following condemnation from Jeffrey Kallberg — who served as the Deputy Dean of the School of Arts and Sciences at the time — Alekseyeva retracted her comments and noted that they were “completely insensitive and inappropriate.”
In a Sept. 20 motion, Mangione’s defense outlined a 118-page argument against the “constitutionality of the death penalty” and cited his academic record and time at Penn as evidence. Attorney General Pam Bondi had announced in April that the Department of Justice would seek capital punishment against Mangione.
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Mangione was cleared of two New York state terrorism charges on Sept. 16, which were among the most serious counts he faced and carried a sentence of life without parole.
