President Donald Trump on Sunday reportedly demanded that Jay Jones, the Democratic nominee for attorney general in Virginia, withdraw from the race after reports surfaced that Jones sent “sick and demented” text messages joking about shooting a Republican legislator in the head.
In a blistering Truth Social post, Trump condemned Jones’ comments and said even some Democrats privately agreed that the candidate’s remarks were “resignation from campaign territory.”
“It has just come out that the Radical Left Lunatic, Jay Jones, who is running against Jason Miyares, the GREAT Attorney General in Virginia, made SICK and DEMENTED jokes, if they were jokes at all, which were not funny,” Trump wrote. “Even Democrats are saying it is ‘RESIGNATION FROM CAMPAIGN’ TERRITORY. Democrat Jay Jones should drop out of the race, IMMEDIATELY.”
The controversy erupted after National Review reported that Jones, in a 2022 text exchange, told colleagues he would rather put “two bullets to the head” of Todd Gilbert, the former Republican Speaker of Virginia’s House of Delegates, than use them on Adolf Hitler or Pol Pot.
Jones reportedly accidentally sent the message to Republican delegate Carrie Coyner, who later confronted him. Instead of apologizing, Jones allegedly doubled down, saying he would attend Gilbert’s funeral just to “piss” on his grave.
According to National Review reporter Audrey Fahlberg, Jones also made graphic and disturbing remarks during a subsequent phone call, telling Coyner that “the only way public policy changes is when policymakers feel pain themselves, like the pain that parents feel when they watch their children die from gun violence.”
“At one point,” Fahlberg wrote, “he suggested he wished Gilbert’s wife could watch her own child die in her arms so that Gilbert might reconsider his political views, prompting Coyner to hang up the phone in disgust.”
The comments have sparked outrage across Virginia’s political spectrum. While most Democrats have stayed silent, Trump criticized gubernatorial candidate Abigail Spanberger for refusing to condemn Jones’ remarks. “Abigail Spanberger, who is running for Governor, is weak and ineffective, and refuses to acknowledge what this Lunatic has done,” Trump said.
Jones later acknowledged the authenticity of the text messages but sought to deflect blame, accusing his Republican opponent, Attorney General Jason Miyares, of leaking the information to damage his campaign. Miyares, a Cuban American conservative who won the office in 2021, has earned Trump’s “Complete and Total Endorsement.”
“Jason will never let you down!” the president declared, praising Miyares for his “law-and-order leadership” in contrast to Jones’ “vile and dangerous rhetoric.”
The scandal has rattled Virginia Democrats, already facing criticism for internal divisions and their party’s handling of public safety issues.
Jones’ remarks, coming amid renewed debates about political violence and civility, have underscored a widening moral divide in the state’s politics.
Trump’s condemnation capped a weekend of growing pressure on Jones to exit the race — a demand Republicans say is the only acceptable response to such inflammatory comments.
“The people of Virginia deserve better than this kind of hate,” Trump wrote. “They deserve leaders who uphold the rule of law — not ones who fantasize about murder.”
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