President Donald Trump was widely criticized for saying Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) “probably had herself sprayed” after learning that a man had attacked her with an unknown substance during a town hall event in Minneapolis on Tuesday. And experts in political science believe there are a few takeaways from this type of rhetoric.

Omar had delivered a speech at the event slamming Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem days after federal agents shot and killed 37-year-old Minneapolis ICU nurse Alex Pretti, and weeks after an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer fatally shot Renee Good.

The Minnesota Democrat was calling for the abolishment of ICE and the resignation or impeachment of Noem when a man charged toward her and sprayed her with a syringe full of unknown liquid.

The man, who has since been identified as 55-year-old Anthony Kazmierczak, was immediately tackled. He was arrested and booked at the county jail on a preliminary third-degree assault charge, a spokesperson told The Associated Press. An AP journalist who was at the town hall said there was a strong, vinegar-like smell after the man sprayed the liquid.

Omar returned to the podium to continue her speech after the incident, saying, “We are Minnesota strong, and we will stay resilient at the face of whatever they might throw at us.”

“I’m ok. I’m a survivor so this small agitator isn’t going to intimidate me from doing my work,” she later wrote on X. “I don’t let bullies win. Grateful to my incredible constituents who rallied behind me. Minnesota strong.”

Asked if he had seen the video of the man attacking Omar, Trump told ABC’s Rachel Scott: “No. I don’t think about her,” before adding, “I think she’s a fraud. I really don’t think about that. She probably had herself sprayed, knowing her.”

When Scott asked the president again if he had seen the video, Trump responded: “I haven’t seen it. No, no. I hope I don’t have to bother.”

Trump had even disparaged Omar at a rally in Iowa hours before the man sprayed her at the town hall, telling the crowd that people who legally come to the U.S. had to show that they “love our country.”

“Not like Ilhan Omar,” he said as the crowd booed. He later added: “She comes from a country that’s a disaster ... they’re good at one thing, pirates.”

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) called Trump’s reaction “shameful” in a post on X.

“Rep. Ilhan Omar showed incredible courage by continuing her town hall after being attacked last night,” he wrote. “It is shameful that, instead of condemning the attack, Trump escalated his rhetoric and targeted her once again. No more hatred and racism. This country belongs to ALL of us.”

Conor M. Dowling, professor of political science at University at Buffalo College of Arts and Sciences, told HuffPost that while he can’t say for certain that Trump bears responsibility for the current conspiracy theories tied to Tuesday night’s attack on Omar — since these theories “often take hold online with relative ease” — he believes Trump’s comments “certainly don’t do anything to quell them.”

Dowling said that, generally speaking, Trump’s rhetoric “can certainly contribute to political violence being viewed as more acceptable, especially when continually directed at a specific individual.”

Brandon Bell via Getty Images

Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) speaks during a town hall meeting where a man charged the podium and sprayed her with an unknown substance on January 27, 2026, in Minneapolis.

Trump’s response to the attack on Ilhan Omar is anything but “normal” — and it’s concerning.

Dowling said he’s most concerned that Trump offered a response without reviewing the video or any other evidence.

“Most sitting presidents would either decline to comment until they were presented with the evidence or, at the very least, not immediately jump to accusations that the act was staged,” he said.

Todd Belt, professor and political management program director at the Graduate School of Political Management at George Washington University, told HuffPost that this was just another example of Trump “lashing out before all of the facts are known about an incident.”

“Any normal president would convey sympathy and concern and put in a call (as [Former President Joe] Biden did to Trump when he was shot),” he said. “The president’s statements stand in stark contrast to the Republicans in Congress who have spoken out condemning the attack on their colleague.”

“Trump’s rhetoric about ‘fraud’ on the Democratic side throughout the course of his political life [has] inspired many others to believe in the conspiracies he feeds,” Belt later continued. “But it’s also true that there are a few Democrats who also believe Trump’s attempted assassination in Pennsylvania was staged.”

“We seem to live in a world where we can no longer agree on basic facts and partisans are eager to believe the worst about the other side — which is an easy thing to do when it is served up by politicians and media personalities,” he added.

But Belt believes that Trump’s reaction to the attack on Omar was yet another example of the president’s habit of making a situation about himself.

“As long as Trump keeps making things about himself, he won’t have the empathy to bring down the temperature around the crisis in Minnesota,” he said.