Inside Would-Be Trump Assassin’s Secret Life

Thomas Matthew Crooks attempted to kill Donald Trump during a rally in Pennsylvania, an incident that rocked the country and led to a famous photo op featuring a bloody ear.

The mysterious 20-year-old lived a lonely and secretive life that spiraled into madness in the months leading up to the July 2024 shooting, which almost took out Trump and changed the political landscape, Knewz.com can reveal.

“It doesn’t appear that he had any particular political allegiance,” an investigator not tied to the case said. “It looks more like he wanted a famous target, or a large gathering to attack, and Trump was in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

Mental health expert Dr. Gilda Carle, author of Real Men Don’t Go Woke, also said Crooks’ latent mental health problems likely exploded once he began college.

“I’ve seen this happen before,” the expert, who never treated Crooks, revealed. “Kids go to school, and whatever malig­nant forces they are struggling with begin to overwhelm a fragile psyche.”

Crooks walked into the Trump rally with a rangefinder and was spotted lurking outside the secured perimeter about an hour before shots rang out amid a crowd of thousands.

Despite Crooks, who was killed by law enforcement counter-snipers, being flagged as a suspicious person upon entering the rally in Butler County, Pennsylvania, he managed to scale a nearby building and fire an AR-15 style rifle, narrowly missing Trump and killing one attendee instead, Corey Comperatore.

After Crooks was taken down by law enforcement counter-snipers, he was found with a bulletproof vest and remote control detonators in his pocket.

Two remote-controlled bombs were also discovered in his vehicle.

Crooks’ motive remains a mystery.

A months-long investigation followed, as authorities discovered Crooks, who once earned near-perfect grades in school, saw his life and mental state unravel after Thanksgiving 2023. According to excerpts from a Pennsylvania State Police report cited by CBS News, Crooks’ father, Matthew, recalled several instances of seeing his son dancing alone in his room at night and talking to himself with his hands moving.

The report states that one of Crooks’ few pals, Tristan Radcliffe, also began seeing his personality change, and recalled Crooks would “always move his legs around a lot, and he would kind of talk pretty fast.

According to the FBI, the student was also building deadly bombs in his bedroom and sharpening his skills as a marksman at a local firing range with a rifle he’d bought from his dad in 2023.

Authorities also revealed Crooks would use an encrypted email service to hide his email deeds, but a review of his online searches turned up visits to weapons forums and as well as queries such as “DNC convention” and “when is the RNC in 2024?”

“The guy’s a ghost who kept to himself,” an insider previously said. “It’s likely we’ll never know for sure what drove this young man to try to commit a historic murder.”

Two months after the attempted assassination, a man named Ryan Wesley Routh set up a “sniper’s nest” on the fence at Trump’s West Palm Beach golf course before he was stopped by Secret Service and arrested.

In a note “to the world,” following the attempt, Routh wrote: “This was an assassination attempt on Donald Trump, but I am so sorry I failed you.

“I tried my best and gave it all the gumption I could muster. It is up to you now to finish the job, and I will offer $150,000 to whoever can complete the job.”