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Democratic Rep. Maxwell Alejandro Frost (Florida) said he was assaulted on Friday night by a man who allegedly said that the nonwhite lawmaker and his “kind” are going to be deported, in another instance of violence seemingly spurred by the Trump administration’s bigoted anti-immigrant agenda.
In a statement on X, Frost said he was “assaulted by a man at Sundance [Film] Festival who told me that Trump was going to deport me before he punched me in the face. He was heard screaming racist remarks as he drunkenly ran off.” The lawmaker, an outspoken critic of Trump’s immigration raids, said that he is “okay” after the punch.
Variety first reported that the alleged assault happened at a bar, where a talent agency at the film festival was holding a party. A source told the outlet that the man had snuck into the event, and was bragging to people that he was proud to be “white.”
A police affidavit says that he was making comments about the race of Frost and his friend, an unidentified woman. He pulled them in like he was hugging them and told them, “we are going to deport you and your kind,” then yelled a racial slur when the two pushed him away. He punched Frost in the face, then grabbed another woman, pushed her against the bar, and repeated the threats about deportation.
The alleged assailant was identified by local law enforcement as Christian Joel Young. The incident is being investigated as a potential hate crime, according to the affidavit, local outlets report.
Frost’s campaign website identifies him as having “roots in Puerto Rican, Lebanese, and Haitian ancestry.” He was adopted at birth into a family of Cuban immigrants.
“Thank you for all the well wishes,” Frost wrote on his X account. “We are in scary times. Please stay safe and do not let these people silence you. Onwards.”
Experts have warned that Trump’s hateful language against immigrants and nonwhite people would lead to violence. The alleged attack comes as the right is increasingly and openly embracing white nationalism.
Numerous Trump administration agencies, including the Department of Homeland Security, have been posting white supremacist and neo-Nazi language on their social media accounts. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is targeting right-wing extremists at gun shows and other right-coded events for recruitment. Their propaganda obliquely appeals to ridding the U.S. of nonwhite people, while figures close to the administration like Elon Musk endorse the outright ethnic cleansing of the U.S.
Trump has also incited violence directly against Democratic lawmakers. The president has encouraged violence against Democrats who have spoken up against him. He was relatively silent last year when a man assassinated a Democrat, former Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman — and, in fact, took the opportunity to spread unsubstantiated conspiracy theories about Democrats in the state.
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