Jack Schlossberg, grandson of President John F. Kennedy, sent a fundraising email that used blunt, confrontational language aimed at President Trump and at those who support renaming the Kennedy Center, drawing sharp reactions and renewed debate over political rhetoric and safety.
Democratic congressional candidate Jack Schlossberg released a fundraising email Saturday afternoon asking his supporters to send him to Congress to “smoke these fools.” The line landed hard because of who Schlossberg is and because it came wrapped in a charged, take-no-prisoners tone that is unusual for fundraising appeals tied to a storied family name.
The irate email arrived two days after the Kennedy Center’s board to rebrand the venue the Trump-Kennedy Center. In the message Schlossberg wrote, “Donald Trump just announced he’s going to rename the Kennedy Center after HIMSELF. Will you help send me to Congress to stand up to his dictator B.S….?”
Schlossberg doubled down inside the appeal, writing, “This isn’t the first time Trump has tried to erase my grandfather President Kennedy’s legacy, and it won’t be the last.” The candidate explicitly framed his run as a line in the sand against what he called Trump’s ego and historical revisionism.
He followed with a mix of defiance and fundraising urgency: “I’ll have zero part in propping up Trump’s narcissism. Send me to Congress to smoke these fools! I won’t be intimidated or back down.” That language is the move that drew the most attention and the harshest criticism, since it blends electoral politics with violent metaphor.
Schlossberg finished the message with a rallying cry aimed squarely at his base: “Our campaign represents everything Trump can’t stand or defeat, and that makes me proud as hell,” the email finished. “Fight back.” The line plays the classic partisan card of portraying the campaign as both symbolic and combative.
Schlossberg that the vote to rename the Center was not unanimous, and that President Trump pursued the name change due to Schlossberg’s congressional campaign. That claim fed the narrative in his email while also underscoring how local institutional decisions can become proxy fights in national politics.
The fiery language arrived while violence and political targeting remain very real dangers for public figures. Conservatives have faced attacks nationwide, and the piece notes the two assassination attempts on President Trump in 2024 as grim context for why heated rhetoric can be dangerous.
From a Republican perspective, there are two problems here: first, the use of violent-sounding metaphors in a fundraising pitch by someone with a famous last name, and second, the choice to frame a cultural institution fight as a personal feud. Both gestures make it easier for opponents to accuse Democrats of stoking tribal anger rather than offering sober leadership.
Editor’s Note: Democrats are fanning the flames and raising the rhetoric by comparing ICE to the Gestapo, fascists, and secret police. That line lands as a reminder that rhetoric across the political spectrum has trended toward extreme comparisons, and many voters are tired of escalation that feels performative rather than productive.
Campaign fundraising thrives on heat, and campaigns will always test the boundary between passion and harm. Still, when a candidate invokes images that can be read as threatening, and when the country has recently seen actual attempts on a major political figure’s life, it is fair to ask whether the rhetoric is responsible or reckless.
Schlossberg’s email will certainly energize some donors and frustrate others, and it already has changed the conversation around a local board decision into a national headline. The broader lesson for campaigns on both sides is obvious: fiery language wins attention, but attention can come with consequences that candidates must be prepared to manage.
