The children of slain Minnesota lawmaker Melissa Hortman want Donald Trump to delete a Truth Social post pushing a baseless conspiracy about her murder—and apologize.
Colin and Sophie Hortman issued blistering statements Sunday after Trump amplified a video that, without evidence, insinuates Gov. Tim Walz was involved in the June 14 assassination of their mother, 55, and her husband Mark, 58, at their home.
“My father and mother, Mark and Melissa Hortman, and their dog Gilbert, were killed by a man who believed conspiracy theories and fake news,” Colin wrote, adding, “Words matter. Sharing fake news is dangerous.”
He also asked the president to remove the video and apologize for “using my mother’s own words to dishonor her memory.”
Sophie said the post was “a painful, false twisting of my mother’s final vote,” and warned it “fuels the flames of political division.” She added that Trump’s post had become “another hurdle our family must overcome in grieving the loss of my parents, Mark and Melissa, and their beloved Gilbert.”
Walz, 61, called Trump’s post “dangerous, depraved behavior from the sitting president of the United States,” warning it could inspire more bloodshed. Minnesota Republicans, including state Sen. Julia Coleman, have also condemned the conspiracizing around Hortman’s death.
In the clip Trump boosted, a narrator baselessly argues Hortman was killed over a budget vote—then tries to stitch that claim to Minnesota fraud investigations.
Authorities have said there is no evidence linking Walz to the killings. Trump’s video also incorrectly suggested the accused gunman, Vance Boelter, had been a Walz aide but the governor’s office connection cited in the video is Boelter’s past service on an unpaid workforce advisory board.
Federal prosecutors allege Boelter posed as law enforcement during a 90-minute rampage that also left State Sen. John Hoffman and his wife wounded, and included an attempted shooting of another of the Hoffmans’ daughters, Hope. Boelter, 58, has pleaded not guilty.
Trump’s latest attack on Walz is the latest in a broader clash that has turned Minnesota fraud allegations into a national political outrage.
Federal prosecutors have described the Feeding Our Future case as a massive pandemic-era scheme, while Walz and local leaders have accused the president and right-wing influencers of stoking hostility toward the state’s Somali American community as they hype claims about wrongdoing.
That rhetoric has already spilled over into public heckling aimed at Walz.
The Daily Beast has contacted the White House to ask whether Trump would take down the post and apologize—and, if not, why not. It did not immediately respond.
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