Trump: 'I Could Stand in the Middle of Fifth Avenue and Shoot Somebody'

The Quote

On January 23, 2016, at a campaign rally at Dordt College in Sioux Center, Iowa, Donald Trump marveled at the durability of his support base. “I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody, and I wouldn’t lose any voters, okay?” he told the crowd, mimicking a gun with his hand. “It’s, like, incredible.”

The remark drew laughter and cheers from the audience. It came just nine days before the Iowa caucuses, the first voting contest of the 2016 presidential primary season, at a moment when Trump was locked in a tight race with Senator Ted Cruz for the lead in the state.

Reactions and Analysis

Critics seized on the comment as evidence of Trump’s authoritarian tendencies and disregard for democratic norms. Republican rivals called the statement inappropriate, though few offered sustained criticism. Political commentators noted that the remark was remarkable not just for its content but for what it revealed about Trump’s understanding of his own movement — that his appeal transcended traditional political metrics of policy and propriety.

Media coverage of the line was extensive, but as with previous Trump controversies, it did not trigger a decline in his poll numbers. If anything, the comment reinforced the narrative Trump had been building since the start of his campaign: that he was a different kind of candidate, one who operated by a different set of rules, and that the normal mechanisms of political accountability did not apply to him.

A Line That Endured

The Fifth Avenue quote took on new significance in the years that followed. It was cited repeatedly during Trump’s first impeachment proceedings, during the January 6th investigations, and during his multiple criminal indictments. Legal scholars referenced it in debates about presidential immunity. In 2024, Trump’s attorneys would argue before the Supreme Court that a president could indeed face no criminal prosecution for official acts — an argument critics connected directly to the spirit of the Fifth Avenue boast.

What had seemed like an offhand moment of campaign trail bravado became, in retrospect, one of the most revealing statements of Trump’s political career — a frank articulation of the belief that he existed above the consequences that constrained other public figures.