Rutgers Prof Who Said Trump Shooting Should 'Inspire' Others Keeps Job

NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ — Rutgers University will allow a writing professor to continue teaching at the school this fall, after the university reviewed comments she wrote on her personal Facebook page in which she said “Let's hope today’s events inspire others" after the July 13 assassination attempt on President Donald Trump.

The professor is Tracy Budd, who, according to her LinkedIn profile, is a full-time, non-tenure-track writing professor in the Rutgers English Department.

The same day as the assassination attempt on Trump, Budd wrote on her Facebook page: "Let’s hope today’s events inspire others." She then added a later comment: “They shot his wig. Sad.”

The shooting at a Trump rally in Butler, Pennsylvania killed 50-year-old Corey Comperatore, who was in attendance. Authorities identified Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, as the shooter.

A politically conservative website called Campus Reform was the first to report Budd's comments, and took screenshots of her posts. Budd's Facebook page appears to have since been deleted.

Rutgers spokeswoman Megan Schumann told Patch the university reviewed Budd's comments, and Budd will be allowed to continue teaching at Rutgers this fall.

"The university has reviewed the matter, and Professor Budd is scheduled to teach in the fall," Schumann said Tuesday.

Budd has taught at Rutgers for the past 23 years; she started teaching there in 2001 and she herself earned her master's and undergraduate degrees from Rutgers. She earns $72,000 a year, according to the New York Post. She lives across the river in Highland Park.

A number of New Jersey lawmakers, all of them Republican, criticized Budd and Rutgers for allowing her to continue to teach.

"This professor should be fired," Monmouth County Republican state Sen. Declan O'Scanlon wrote Friday on his account on X. "More outrageous behavior from Rutgers. This isn’t about free speech. Calling someone your enemy … might be a poor choice of phrase. Calling for someone to be shot and inciting others to shoot presidential candidates (or anyone) is totally over the line."

"Do better Rutgers. This is completely unacceptable," state Senator Holly Schepisi, a Republican state lawmaker who represents Bergen County, wrote on her Facebook page Friday. "This is a professor teaching our youth and being paid by the taxpayers of New Jersey. SMDH (shaking my damn head)."

Ed Durr, the Republican trucker from South Jersey who famously upended longtime NJ Senate president Steve Sweeney from his seat, and who once ran for NJ governor, posted Friday on X that her comments are "hateful and dangerous."

"Ms. Budd should not be permitted to teach and shape the minds of our youth and the folks at Rutgers know it,” Durr wrote on his X profile. “If Rutgers does not reconsider the Governor and legislature should consider removing state funding."