Trump Shooter Thomas Crooks Used 'They/Them' Pronouns, Had Furry Fetish on DeviantArt: Report

Sixteen months after a bullet came within a quarter-inch of ending a presidency, new revelations about the man who pulled the trigger are forcing a reckoning with federal investigators who insist the full story remains untold.

Thomas Matthew Crooks, the 20-year-old gunman behind the July 13, 2024, assassination attempt on President Donald Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania, left a digital trail of violent threats and ideological flips that authorities overlooked or downplayed for over a year.

A private investigation has uncovered 17 online accounts linked to Thomas Matthew Crooks, revealing years of documented threats of political assassination, extremist rhetoric and an obsession with mass violence—all posted under his real name and ignored by federal agencies until after the shooting that killed one rallygoer and wounded two others.

The accounts, spanning platforms including YouTube, Discord, Snapchat, Venmo and DeviantArt, show Crooks, then a teenager, praising Trump as "the literal definition of Patriotism" in 2019 before flipping to virulent anti-Trump vitriol by early 2020.

He called for "MURDER THE DEMOCRATS" in December 2019, then labeled Trump supporters a "cult" and accused the president of racism amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

By August 2020, Crooks advocated "terrorism style attacks" and targeting politicians for assassination, writing: "Sneak a bomb into an essential building... track down any important people/politicians/military leaders etc and try to assassinate them."

On DeviantArt, profiles under "epicmicrowave" and "theepicmicrowave"—tied to Crooks' email — Crooks used "they/them" pronouns and featured artwork of muscular, anthropomorphic animal characters with sexualized female features, pointing to an interest in the "furry" subculture.

Crooks also interacted with "Willy Tepes," a profile linked to the Nordic Resistance Movement, a U.S.-designated terrorist group.

Tepes, who encouraged violence with Maoist slogans, claimed in an October 2025 post—post-shooting—to chats with Russian and U.S. intelligence, alleging they use indirect contacts to dodge entrapment.dailymail.co.ukCrooks went offline shortly after.

"The danger Crooks posed was visible for years... His radicalization, violent rhetoric and obsession with political violence were all documented," a source familiar with the probe told the New York Post. "He was flagged by other users who mentioned law enforcement, yet his accounts stayed active for over five years— until the day after the shooting."

None of this surfaced in the December 2024 congressional report.

In a 35-minute video released Friday on X, former Fox News host Tucker Carlson accused the FBI of a cover-up, unveiling Crooks' YouTube comments — 737 in total from a 2019 account "Tomcrooks2178"— and footage purportedly from his Google Drive showing firearm practice.

Carlson, citing the source's tools like web archives, claimed Crooks was "not some unknowable lone actor" but a radicalized figure whose pro-Trump zeal turned to assassination fantasies, possibly triggered by unknown influences.

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He alleged the FBI "stonewalled" Congress on gun range footage, autopsy reports and full digital records, questioning why trump appointee Director Kash Patel's team hasn't disclosed more.

The FBI swiftly rebuffed Carlson via its new Rapid Response X account, stating: "This FBI has never said Thomas Crooks had no online footprint."

Yet, in a July 2024 congressional testimony, then-Director Christopher Wray said the bureau found "nothing in Crooks’ online history that pointed to a motive or political ideology."

Deputy Paul Abbate clarified days later that a 2019-2020 social media account linked to Crooks contained over 700 comments reflecting "antisemitic and anti-immigration themes to espouse political violence," described as "extreme in nature"—but stressed verification was ongoing and no clear ideology emerged.

By August 2024, the FBI reiterated Crooks acted alone with a "mixture of ideologies," no manifesto and limited online activity pointing to motive.

Current Director Patel, in a recent statement, claimed Crooks "had limited online and in-person interactions, planned and conducted the attack alone, and did not leak or share his intent."

The bureau maintains its probehas been transparent, dismissing Carlson's claims as distortions of past statements under prior leadership.

Columnist Miranda Devine, writing in the New York Post, blasted the FBI and Secret Service for "butchering" the case, fueling conspiracies through omissions about Crooks' 2020 ideological "backflip."

The Crooks case that continues to yield disturbing new questions about what authorities knew—and when—before a gunman came within inches of killing a former president and current presidential frontrunner.