Author Salman Rushdie warned that everyone in the United States is in danger due to rising political violence and attacks on free expression.
Rushdie's warning highlights a growing trend of instability within the U.S., where political polarization is increasingly manifesting as physical danger to citizens and intellectuals alike.
Speaking during the Minneapolis-St. Paul Film Festival on Jan. 27, 2026, Rushdie said the current environment is a crisis for public safety [1]. He specifically cited the killing of two Americans by federal immigration agents in Minneapolis as an example of the escalating violence [1].
"Everyone is in danger," Rushdie said [1].
The author linked this atmosphere of fear to a broader decline in the protection of speech. This trend is reflected in academic settings, where there were 345 attempts to disinvite speakers at U.S. graduation ceremonies between 2000 and 2024 [4].
Rushdie's own history with violence remains a central part of his public identity. He survived a knife attack four years ago [3]. The attacker, Hadi Matar, was sentenced to 25 years in prison for that crime [2].
Despite these threats, Rushdie recently expressed a desire to return to his creative roots. He said he was "happy to return to the world of fiction" [5].
His comments come as international observers monitor the intersection of government agency actions and civil liberties in the U.S. The author said that when political violence becomes normalized, the safety of the individual is compromised regardless of their status.
“"Everyone is in danger," Rushdie said”
Rushdie's warnings frame the current U.S. political climate not just as a matter of policy disagreement, but as a systemic threat to the First Amendment. By linking federal agency violence in Minneapolis to campus censorship and his own assassination attempt, he argues that the erosion of civil discourse leads directly to physical insecurity for the general public.
