US President Donald Trump has called for criminal charges of “incitement to violence” against top Democratic lawmaker Hakeem Jeffries, escalating his push to use the legal system against his political rivals.

Trump shared a social media post attempting to link past comments by the minority leader in the House of Representatives to the White House correspondents’ dinner shooting incident that prosecutors said targeted the US President.

“This lunatic, Hakeem ‘Low IQ’ Jeffries, should be charged with INCITING VIOLENCE! The Radical Left Democrats actually want to Destroy our Country.”
Donald Trump

Trump’s post showed an image of Jeffries standing next to a poster saying, “Maximum warfare everywhere all the time”, side-by-side with a photo of the alleged press gala gunman approaching a security checkpoint.

However, Jeffries’ remarks and poster were not about political violence. The House minority leader was referring to the partisan fight over redistricting after voters in Virginia approved an electoral map that favours Democrats.

In a news conference on April 22, Jeffries hailed the vote in Virginia and accused Republicans of launching a “gerrymandering war,” referring to efforts to draw partisan electoral maps.

Trump has been publicly pressuring state Republican officials to draw US House maps that boost the party’s chance of retaining control of the legislative chamber in the midterm elections in November.

Jeffries told reporters that Democrats would respond in the states they control, as they have in Virginia and California, while also pushing back against Republican-drawn maps.

“We are in an era of maximum warfare, everywhere, all the time. And we are going to keep the pressure on Republicans at every single state in the union, to ensure at the end of the day, that there is a fair, national map.”
Hakeem Jefferies

Three days after the top Democrat’s comments, an alleged gunman tried to run through a security checkpoint at the White House press dinner in what prosecutors say was an assassination attempt against Trump.

Republicans were quick to point to Jeffries’ “warfare” quote to accuse Democrats of violent rhetoric but last week, the Democratic legislator said he stands by his comment against criticism from what he called “phoney Republicans.” “You can continue to criticise me for it,” Jeffries said, “I don’t give a damn about your criticism,” he added.

Jeffries Keeps Seeming Reply

In a seeming reply to Trump’s post, Jefferies noted on social media, “The Knicks are up 2-0 and I have to wake up to another deranged rant from this guy.”

“Gas prices are sky high, grocery bills are surging and families can’t catch a break. Democrats are about to take back the House and you’re losing your mind.Where’s the luv?”
Hakeem Jefferies

Since returning to the White House last year, the US President has successfully pushed for criminal charges against political opponents, including New York Attorney General Letitia James and former FBI Director James Comey.

Trump’s call for charges against Jeffries came after federal prosecutors secured a grand jury indictment against former FBI Director Comey once more, this time over accusations that he threatened to kill Trump.

Last year, Trump posted a message to then-Attorney General Pam Bondi, pressuring her to pursue criminal charges against Comey and New York’s James, as well as several others.

Previous charges of lying to Congress against Comey had been dismissed; a judge also dropped charges of fraud against James, ruling that the special prosecutor in both cases had been appointed illegally.