MAGA now thinks Trump’s assassination attempt was a hoax
In 2024, Donald Trump narrowly avoided death when a madman shot at a rally he was speaking at in Butler, Pennsylvania.
The moment after the bullet ‘grazed’ his ear, Trump triumphantly pumped a fist and shouted ‘fight’, a moment which was immortalised in a famous photo.
Now, an increasing number of MAGA politicians and supporters appear to be questioning whether the assassination attempt was actually real.
Marjorie Taylor Greene is the latest to accuse Trump’s administration of a ‘cover-up’ of the Butler assassination attempt in July 2024.
This is despite the FBI concluding that gunman Thomas Crooks acted alone when he shot towards the President and killed attendee Corey Comperatore.
But not every question has been answered for some of Trump’s former allies, including Greene.
Posting on X this week, Greene said: ‘I’m not calling the Butler assassination a hoax, but there are a lot of questions that deserve public answers. I’m asking why won’t Trump release the information about Matthew Crooks?’
‘Did he actually act alone? If not, who is behind him and who helped him? Why the cover-up?’
The White House said that only a ‘fool’ would believe that the shooting was a hoax, but other MAGA allies are stepping forward to question the events of that day as well.
‘January 6 activist’ Trisha Hope replied to Greene and said: ‘Corey Comperatore’s wife and daughters deserve to know why Corey, a true American patriot and hero, was murdered in Butler.
‘Trump said repeatedly, ‘I am your retribution.’ Where is the retribution?’
Who was Corey Comperatore?
Although Trump survived the shooting unscathed, Corey Comperatore was killed while shielding his family from the bullets during the rally.
Retired firefighter Comperatore, 50, was shot and killed by Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, at a rally for Trump that wounded the former president and two others caught in the crossfire.
Comperatore was described as an ‘avid supporter’ of former President Trump by Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, who hailed him as a hero.
Comperatore’s widow, Helen, still has unanswered questions of her own.
She told the New York Post earlier this year: ‘All I’ve wanted this entire time was to sit down with the men who screwed up that day and find out why.
‘Why? Why at that rally? Why at that one in Butler?’
Who was Thomas Crooks?
Crooks, 20, was a resident of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, a predominantly white and relatively affluent city, located in the southern reaches of Pittsburgh, roughly 40 miles south of where the Butler rally was.
As a student, Crooks had tried out for the school’s rifle team but was rejected because he was a poor shot, according to Frederick Mach, a current captain of the team who was a few years behind Crooks at the school.
Crooks may have been turned away from his school’s rifle club, but he was a member of the local shooting club, Clairton Sportsmen’s Club, for at least a year.
Crooks sat alone during lunch and ‘bullied almost every day’, including for wearing hunting outfits, said Jason Kohler, who said he attended the same high school but did not share any classes with Crooks.
‘He was just an outcast, and you know how kids are nowadays.’
Crooks was registered as a Republican, according to state voter records.
But he also made a single $15 donation to the liberal ActBlue political action committee, a Democrat fundraising platform, on January 20, 2021, the Intercept reported.
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