The July 13, 2024, assassination attempt on President Donald Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania, left one rallygoer dead and exposed staggering security lapses. Shooter Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, was killed by Secret Service snipers after firing eight rounds and grazing Trump’s ear. While early reports noted Crooks was a registered Republican, newly uncovered social media accounts tell a far darker story of radicalization and severe identity confusion.
Investigators and independent researchers have linked Crooks to anonymous profiles on DeviantArt and Discord under handles such as “epicmicrowave.” These accounts openly used “they/them” pronouns, confirming Crooks identified as non-binary. The pages were steeped in the “furry” subculture and filled with sexualized artwork blending male and female characteristics—evidence of deep immersion in fringe gender ideology.
This revelation aligns with a growing, troubling pattern. Multiple recent mass shooters—including the 2023 Nashville Covenant School killer Audrey Hale (transgender), the 2019 STEM School attacker Alec McKinney (trans-identifying), and the 2025 Minneapolis Catholic school shooter—have struggled with gender dysphoria and consumed similar online content. Crooks’ rapid shift from pro-Trump YouTube comments in 2019–2020 to virulent anti-Trump hatred by late 2020 mirrors the radicalizing effect of these echo chambers.
The left’s relentless promotion of gender fluidity, especially among isolated young men, is not harmless “self-expression.” It is a documented pathway to alienation, mental instability, and, in the worst cases, murderous violence.America cannot afford to keep ignoring these warning signs. The blood spilled in Butler demands that we confront the cultural poison of radical gender ideology and protect the next generation from the online cesspools that groomed Thomas Crooks into a would-be assassin.
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