Sophie and Colin Hortman have spoken out against Truth Social posts shared by President Donald Trump over the weekend which platform baseless conspiracy theories regarding their parents’ assassinations on June 14.
“My father and mother, Mark and Melissa Hortman, and their dog Gilbert, were killed by a man who believed conspiracy theories and fake news. Words matter. Sharing fake news is dangerous,” Colin said in his statement Sunday night.
Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, are photographed Friday, June 13, 2025, at the annual Humphrey-Mondale Dinner in Minneapolis. (Courtesy of the Minnesota House DFL Caucus)
The video shared by the president falsely implies that Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Melissa Hortman’s vote to repeal MinnesotaCare for undocumented adults had something to do with her assassination.
There is no public evidence to suggest the assassination was motivated by that vote. Hortman did not vote for the repeal because she supported it — she and the House DFL were against the repeal. As the caucus leader at the negotiation table, she agreed to be a “yes” vote as part of a budget deal with Republicans to keep the government open.
After Hortman voted for the repeal June 9, she teared up before reporters, in distress over a vote she didn’t want to make. She said that in 20 years, she didn’t remember ever having to vote for “something as painful as that,” but that it was a condition Republicans required to fund the state government.
Former Speaker of the House Rep. Melissa Hortman, DFL-Brooklyn Park, talks with a colleague on the floor of the House chambers during a special session at the Minnesota Capitol in St. Paul on Monday, June 9, 2025. (John Autey / Pioneer Press)
“I’ll continue to have health insurance, so I’m fine. What I worry about is the people who will lose their health insurance. I know that people will be hurt by that vote, and … we worked very hard to try to get a budget deal that wouldn’t include that provision, and we tried any other way we could to come to a budget agreement with Republicans, and they wouldn’t have it,” Hortman said. “So, you know, I did what leaders do, I stepped up and I got the job done for the people of Minnesota.”
In his statement, Colin Hortman said one part of his grief journey has been understanding his last conversation with his mother.
“She loved her job. People respected her job and what she did at her job,” he wrote.
“When I called her after the legislative session ended, I asked why she voted for the bill mentioned in the video shared by President Trump, and she wept. That bill and her vote had nothing to do with fraud. She voted for that bill because it was the only way to avoid a government shutdown. She had seen the impact of shutdowns: people lose their health care, their jobs, and in some cases, from a story she told me, have taken their own lives.
“She was in a very tough position on that vote. She had never really voted against her conscience like that. It was emotional and extremely difficult. Her struggle with that vote makes this conspiracy all the more painful for me,” Colin wrote.
Sophie echoed Colin in her statement, saying the video shared by Trump is “a painful, false twisting of my mother’s final vote.”
“The vote she made was incredibly difficult for my mother; it was not a vote made lightly or with malice in her heart. She made the decision to prevent a government shutdown because she believed our great state protects and helps Minnesotans.
“We must create a society in which we do not harbor hatred and violence toward our political opponents, and this video promotes a false narrative which fuels the flames of political division,” Sophie wrote.
Vance Boelter in a June 16, 2025, booking photo. (Courtesy of the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office)
Another part of the video discusses a false theory about Walz having involvement in the assassination, which partially stems from accused assassin Vance Boelter’s confession letter. Assistant U.S. Attorney Joe Thompson called the letter “delusional” in July and said it “seems designed to excuse his crimes.”
Boelter served on a board under Walz, but it’s since been clarified that the appointments for the 60-person board are much different than Cabinet-level appointments; they are routine, indirect, and Walz’s office has said Walz did not know Boelter or interview him.
Colin and Sophie Hortman both asked Trump to remove the post.
Sophie asked Trump to “please consider the pain and sadness we have faced, and to honor the spirit of the holidays we have just spent without our parents by taking down the post on Truth Social.”
“I am asking President Trump to remove the video that he shared and apologize to me and my family for posting this misinformation and for using my mother’s own words to dishonor her memory,” Colin said.
Several Minnesota politicians, from both political parties, have also condemned the post.
“I hope my kids turn out like the Hortman’s. We shouldn’t take the nutbag assassin’s lunacy as fact,” Rep. Nolan West, R-Blaine, said on X Monday. “The murders were senseless and clearly had nothing to do with some grand conspiracy and suggesting otherwise is irresponsible of a leader. President Trump, take down the bs video.”
Speaker of the House Lisa Demuth, R-Cold Spring, on Monday said the posts aren’t something she would ever share or repost, and that she doesn’t believe the conspiracy theories.
“We know that there was a very unhinged person that horribly took the lives of two people and their dog and changed forever the lives of the Hoffmans and our state overall,” Demuth said.
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