Kid was a pretty active/outspoken conservative according to independent reports by multiple people who went to high school with him. Wore hunting gear to school and hung out with MAGA hat kids, too. He was also a registered Republican his entire adult life and died wearing a guntube shirt.

You would think a mentally ill bullied kid fitting that description would have gone after Biden. So the motive is probably going to be more interesting. Timing makes Epstein files a likely candidate, but he could have thought Trump was ruining the Republican party or something.

He may have been a "real conservative" that wanted to cut the fascist rot out of the party. Or maybe he thought Trump was going soft, distancing himself from Project 2025. We'll probably find out when they get into his phone/Discord/4chan logs. But it could be a number of things.

re: His adult life... yeah... I guess I could say "since he was 18" but that also sounds weird. "For the last 2 years" makes it sound like he was registered as something else before that.

Why immediately unregister, then?

At least 3 different former students have said the same things about him independently to news and law enforcement. Nobody has gone on record to dispute it. Neighbors are saying he had Trump signs in the yard until just recently.

Considering that anyone who speaks out about Trump/Republicans receives tons of death threats, clout chasers could pick a safer take than "he was vigorously conservative all through high school". Lying to the FBI is also a federal crime.

He donated to an unaffiliated "get out the vote" effort that came in an email campaign. ACTBlue was the payment facilitator. And he unsubscribed immediately afterward. $15 and a 5 minute mistake, versus years and years of actual observed behavior as a conservative and Republican by innumerable independent witnesses.

Besides. Trump donated thousands of dollars to Hillary and Biden. He's still a Republican.

You're going to want to find a new excuse. FBI just got into the kid's phone and his Discord, Reddit, 4chan, and other communications are going to become public record shortly. No undecided/moderate/independent voters are going to buy that this kid was a false flag actor only LARPing as a Republican from ages 13-20 and never broke character.

Reddit and X/Twitter are run by conservative shills. They'll have it all tidied up before it goes public.

His Discord and 4chan history, on the other hand...

Donated to a "get out the vote" campaign through ACTBlue. The ACTBlue rep said he unsubscribed pretty much immediately afterward. Looks like an accident/oversight on his part.

Meanwhile there are numerous independent reports from people who went to school with the kid that he spent years coming to school in camo, hanging around the MAGA hat wearing kids, espousing conservative beliefs in government class, etc... etc... And of course as an adult he has only ever been registered Republican, never voted in any primaries, and only voted in the 2022 midterm.

Unless you think the kid has been some sort of antifa deep-state plant since he was 13 (no moderate/independent/undecided will believe this), this is obviously an internal Republican party issue.

Politics doesn't ban for policy disagreement, unlike arr conservative.

Of which part? The first paragraph is all known/confirmed from multiple independent sources who knew the kid and all had the same story for news and law enforcement. The second paragraph is my speculation.

He donated to a voter turnout cause once, based on an email campaign that wasn't obviously progressive. An ACTBlue rep said that he unsubscribed from their mailing lists pretty much immediately. Looks like it was a mistaken donation on his part. $15 and five minutes of oversight, versus an entire life already confirmed by numerous independent sources to be deep, deep in Republican/conservative circles. This was Republican on Republican violence. Internal party conflict.

Trump has donated thousands of dollars to Hillary Clinton and Biden. Does that make him a Democrat today? "Follow the money!" lmao

You can just Google. Most news sources are running similar stories at this point based on interviews with different former classmates.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/14/us/politics/trump-gunman-thomas-crooks.html

https://newrepublic.com/post/183829/trump-shooter-definitely-conservative-ex-classmate-says

https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-thomas-crooks-high-school-longer-shooting-1925376

It's possible, I guess. But if that's what you wanted, wouldn't you try to two-birds it?

Could be. He also may have been a "true conservative", or maybe he was mad Trump was going "soft" on Project 2025, or he could have been a pedo hunter come home to roost. Any number of things could have set off Republican-on-Republican violence at this point.

Looks like the FBI just gained access to his phone so maybe we'll get some additional info soon: https://www.fbi.gov/news/press-releases/update-on-the-fbi-investigation-of-the-attempted-assassination-of-former-president-donald-trump