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By Mark Freedman
Sixty years ago, the United States faced a wave of political upheaval and violence, which included the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Robert Kennedy, and Malcolm X. Today, it seems, assassinations have returned to America. Since mid-2024, we’ve witnessed two attempts on the life of President Trump, the murder of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson, the killing of former Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband, the arson of the residence of Governor Josh Shapiro, and most recently, the assassination of Charlie Kirk.
One notable difference between the wave of assassinations in the 1960s and that of the 2020s is the presence of social media. In today’s internet environment, assassinations have become a cause célèbres for individuals on social media who support the assailant’s ideology. This phenomenon was perhaps most visible in the lionization of Luigi Mangione following the murder of Brian Thompson.
As killing is cheered online, there are indications that broader swaths of the American public now endorse political violence – if they agree with its motives. A recent survey by the Chicago Project on Security and Threats at the University of Chicago found that as of September 2025, the number of Americans in both parties who supported the use of force for political purposes with which they agreed had tripled from just a year prior.
Re-evaluation of Executive Protection
With data showing that political violence and assassinations in the United States are unlikely to abate, both private sector companies and government agencies are being forced to conduct the most significant re-evaluation in executive protection in decades. This requires that organizations take a strategic approach, starting with understanding their risk environment and building a comprehensive executive protection program that integrates across threat assessment, office and residential security, event security, travel security, secure transport, family security, digital footprint management, and other areas.
In August 2025, ASIS published its new Executive Protection Standard, marking a significant step forward in the industry’s development of agreed guidelines for what an executive protection program should look like. Widely agreed at this point is that intelligence and threat assessment are vital pre-requisites to effective executive protection. And for the assassination wave of the 2020s, where attackers and their supporters justify and celebrate executions on social media, this work begins online.
Open-source Intelligence
When considering how to initiate or expand open-source intelligence capabilities to support executive protection, organizations should consider three key questions:
How can internet chatter help us understand the strategic threat environment?
The threat environment for executives and political leaders has changed markedly in the last two years, and it should be expected that further changes will occur. Insight into discussions and chatter online helps security teams get a sense of emerging issues and peer into the future to anticipate how big-picture events – like ongoing challenges in the job market and next year’s mid-term elections – may increase risk levels to executives.
How can we identify specific threats online?
Open-source intelligence can also be used more tactically. As social media has become the venue for individuals to broadcast their support for violence, it is critical that security teams monitor X, Instagram, imageboards, the deep and dark web, and other online forums closely for specific threat indicators.
How are we integrating open-source intelligence with broader executive protection and security efforts?
Intelligence capabilities are no good in a vacuum. They must be tightly integrated with other security functions, such as advance planning, travel security, and residential security, to support executive protection. Therefore, organizations must invest in the right intelligence technologies and ensure they have the people and processes in place to put them to use.
The new assassination wave in America shows few signs of slowing. Every organization should take a careful look at their executive protection and intelligence capabilities to meet this significant risk.
Mark Freedman
Principal & CEO, Rebel Global Security
Mark Freedman is Principal and CEO of Rebel Global Security and was formerly the Chief of Staff for the U.S. Department of State’s Counterterrorism Bureau.
This post is part of Liferaft and Rebel’s collaborative work to analyze the evolving global threat environment and provide critical insights to private sector and government clients.