As narratives spin in the media about the Biden administration and the FBI covering up details on the Butler assassination attempt on then-candidate Donald Trump, newly unearthed online details show the would-be assassin embraced violent fantasies, "they/them" pronouns, and a "muscle mommy" fetish.
Suspected social media accounts linked to Thomas Matthew Crooks reveal political radicalization to the left and away from Trump during the 2020 COVID pandemic, years before the 20-year-old's high-powered rifle bullets hit Trump in the ear, killed rallygoer Corey Comperatore, and injured two others.
Crooks allegedly operated several hidden online profiles that documented a dramatic ideological shift and deepening obsession with political violence, according to sources who shared the digital evidence with the New York Post.
Crooks used "they/them" pronouns on at least one DeviantArt account and frequently posted or interacted with violent artwork, including depictions of shootings, executions, and gore, according to the Post.
One piece, titled "How he lost his eye," showed a masked figure executing another in front of a backdrop matching the trans pride flag colors.
Another, "Killing pedos," portrayed a rifle-wielding figure standing over two bodies.
His DeviantArt activity also included reposts of images featuring "muscle mommies" — heavily built female bodybuilders paired with smaller men — reflecting what sources described as a fetish.
The account, active for roughly five years, listed Crooks' birthday and location consistent with publicly known information, though the FBI has not confirmed the authenticity of the profiles.
In addition to artwork, Crooks' apparent YouTube and Google activity between 2019 and 2020 showed repeated searches related to mass shootings, bomb-making techniques, and assassinations.
Searches reportedly included the Oklahoma City bombing, the Pulse nightclub massacre, and the killing of Lee Harvey Oswald by Jack Ruby. He also looked up how to fire an AR-15 "as fast as possible," how to construct a fertilizer bomb, and how to make a Molotov cocktail.
The online footprint suggests Crooks experienced an ideological whiplash. Early posts, believed to be from his high-school years, were pro-Trump and laced with racist and antisemitic rhetoric.
In 2019 he posted that being patriotic meant "lining up a bunch of socialist Jews ... and blasting their useless brains out," according to screenshots reviewed by the Post.
But by early 2020, during the COVID pandemic, Crooks began expressing anger toward Trump's handling of the crisis, calling the president "too slow" on social distancing, and claiming there was "no reasonable defense" for his actions.
His comments grew increasingly nihilistic, and by August 2020, he was openly discussing how to "fight the government" using "terrorism-style tactics," writing that political violence was likely to end in "suicide."
Investigators are still working to confirm whether all the accounts belong to Crooks. The FBI declined to comment to the Post on the digital evidence described by sources.
Newsmax writer Eric Mack contributed to this report.
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.