Did trump say that if he shot someone at New York people will still vote for him
Executive summary
Yes — Donald Trump explicitly said, “I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody, and I wouldn’t lose any voters,” during a campaign stop in Iowa on Jan. 23, 2016; the remark was widely reported at the time by Reuters, NBC, CBS, NPR and other outlets [1] [2] [3] [4]. The line was delivered as a boast about the loyalty of his supporters, treated by many news organizations as hyperbolic campaign rhetoric rather than a literal admission of intent [5] [6].
1. The quote: what he actually said and where
At a rally in Sioux Center, Iowa, Trump used the exact Fifth Avenue phrasing — miming a gun with his hand while saying he could “stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody” and still not lose voters — a statement captured and quoted verbatim across major outlets including Reuters, CNN, CBS, ABC and NPR [1] [6] [3] [5] [4].
2. How the media and rivals framed it
News organizations presented the line as provocative campaign bravado and contextualized it with Trump’s polling strength and insistence on supporter loyalty; rivals and commentators treated it as dangerous rhetoric but also as part of a pattern of provocative, attention-grabbing remarks rather than a literal confession, with some opponents responding with pointed rebukes or derision [1] [7] [6].
3. Intent and reception: joke, boast, or warning sign?
Contemporaneous reports emphasized that Trump delivered the line with laughter from the crowd and a performative gesture, and many outlets described it as a jokey demonstration of confidence about his political base rather than a statement of criminal intent — yet outlets also noted critics who called it alarming in the context of national debates over gun violence and presidential rhetoric [5] [8] [6].
4. Did the remark reflect actual voter behavior or political reality?
Subsequent analysis and polling cited by outlets suggested Trump’s base showed remarkable durability: early-2016 polls reported sizable leads and a high percentage of “absolutely certain” supporters, and later retrospectives have repeatedly asked whether his claim proved true as voters continued backing him through legal troubles and controversies, with some polls after legal actions showing only modest erosion among core supporters [3] [2] [9].
5. The line’s afterlife in legal and political debate
The Fifth Avenue quip resurfaced in legal and political discussions years later, both as shorthand for perceived partisan loyalty and as a rhetorical counterpoint when Trump’s lawyers argued about presidential immunity; commentators and even judges referenced the line when weighing claims about whether a sitting president could be insulated from prosecution, showing the comment’s persistence beyond the campaign trail [10] [11].
6. Caveats and limits of the sources
The available reporting uniformly records the utterance and how it was presented and received in 2016, and later pieces analyze its political resonance, but the sources do not—and cannot—prove a counterfactual (that he would or would not actually shoot someone) nor do they provide definitive causal proof that any single remark alone determined voter behavior in subsequent elections; those inferences require separate, detailed empirical research beyond these reports [1] [9].