Trump condemns ‘lunatic’ in Charlotte stabbing: ‘If we don’t handle evil, we don’t have a country’

President Donald Trump on Monday addressed the horrifying murder of 23-year-old Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska, who was stabbed to death last month while riding Charlotte’s light rail. Speaking at the Museum of the Bible in Washington, Trump delivered a message many Americans have been waiting to hear: it’s time to confront evil directly.

“We’re all people of religion, but there are evil people,” Trump said. “And we have to confront that. I just give my love and hope to the family of the young woman who was stabbed this morning or last night in Charlotte by a madman.”

The suspect, 34-year-old Decarlos Brown, has a criminal history stretching back more than a decade. Court records show convictions for felony larceny, breaking and entering, and a 2015 robbery with a dangerous weapon that landed him in prison for more than six years. After his release in 2020, Brown continued racking up charges, including communicating threats and abusing the 911 system earlier this year. In short, this was not a man who slipped through the cracks—this was a dangerous repeat offender who should never have been on the streets.

Trump did not mince words. “A lunatic just got up and started,” he said, describing the attack. “It’s right on tape. Not really watchable because it’s so horrible, but just viciously stabbed. She’s just sitting there.” Surveillance video released by the Charlotte Area Transit System confirms his account, showing Zarutska scrolling her phone in her work uniform just minutes before being brutally attacked in cold blood.

The tragedy has become yet another indictment of soft-on-crime policies. Brown’s long history of arrests and convictions underscores a justice system that refuses to keep violent offenders behind bars. Trump reminded Americans of the dangers of cashless bail, a policy pushed by Democrats across the country. “This cashless bail started a wave in our country where a killer kills somebody and is out on the street by the afternoon and, in many cases, going out and killing again, cashless bail,” he warned.

For Zarutska, who fled the war in Ukraine for the promise of safety in America, that failure proved fatal. The broader lesson is chilling: when politicians prioritize criminals over victims, when prosecutors and judges refuse to enforce consequences, innocent people pay the price. Trump’s warning cut through the noise: “So they’re evil people. We have to be able to handle that. If we don’t handle that, we don’t have a country.”

This case isn’t just about one horrific crime—it’s about whether America still has the resolve to protect its citizens, restore order, and stop turning a blind eye to repeat offenders who should never walk free.