Donald Trump's would-be assassin reportedly used "they/them" pronouns on a website known for hosting explicit "furry" content. Thomas Crooks, the gunman who shot Trump at a 2024 campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, has been linked to two DeviantArt accounts under the names "epicmicrowave" and "theepicmicrowave."
DeviantArt is known for hosting adult artwork featuring "furries," or human-animal hybrid characters. The profiles linked to Crooks reportedly used "they/them" pronouns, and his activity on the site pointed to an interest in cartoon-style characters with muscular male bodies and female heads. The revelation comes more than a year after social media remained abuzz with conspiracy theories surrounding Crooks and his motive behind shooting Trump.
Mystery Unraveled
The renewed focus on Crooks follows Tucker Carlson's deep dive into his online activity — including his violent posts and his shift from a Trump supporter to an extreme left-wing stance. Before Tucker's investigation, almost nothing was publicly known about Crooks, leading some to accuse the FBI of hiding information.
That lack of transparency helped fuel a wave of conspiracy theories, including claims that he might have been supported by a foreign government.
One of the most striking revelations in the new reporting is that Crooks had contacted a Norwegian national who is allegedly connected to a neo-Nazi terrorist group.
Despite this, the FBI maintains that Crooks acted entirely on his own in the assassination attempt and that there is no evidence he had help from others or received foreign direction.
The agency said it still hasn't identified a clear motive, but confirmed that Crooks planned the attack and had explored extremist ideas online.
Last week, Carlson's investigative team released a 34-minute video revealing YouTube comments believed to have been posted by Crooks between 2019 and 2020.
In the final stretch of his YouTube activity in 2020, Crooks began responding to a user named "Willy_Tepes," who appeared to push him toward committing politically motivated violence.
He wrote to Crooks on August 4, 2020, "If a gun and a badge is all that is needed, then authority obviously comes from the barrel of a gun. We have more guns than they do ;)"
"There is no way we can avoid a war at this point, so you just better get used to the idea," he added.
Norwegian Connection
Carlson says the name "Tepes" appears on a foreign Antifa website that links the user to the Nordic Resistance Movement — a neo-Nazi organization based in Scandinavia that the U.S. State Department has designated as a terrorist group.
"The FBI hasn't made any mention of him in public, although they certainly know he exists. Just days after the shooting, somebody screenshotted Tepes's YouTube account page despite the fact that he has very few followers," Carlson said.
"To the extent that he can be traced online now, you can find his username being used on a foreign Antifa website, those sites link him to the Nordic Resistance Movement ... that's all we know."
In another message to Crooks, Tepes commented on what he described as government attempts to take firearms away from citizens.
"The more guns that are out there, the less likely a gun confiscation will be possible. Nope, guns do not guarantee a victory anymore than jet fighters, tanks and drones do. It is the fighting spirit and brains that wins."
"We have nothing to lose and everything to win... and the alternative, a global police state, is unacceptable. Nothing in life is simple but that is no argument against doing it :)"
Tepes' YouTube conversation abruptly stopped after Crooks's exchanges. Around the same time — in early 2020 — Crooks's political views appeared to swing sharply to the left.
In January 2020, he reportedly lashed out at Trump in a YouTube comment, calling him "stupid," and mocked Trump supporters as behaving like a "cult."
Crooks then went even further, allegedly urging anti-Trump activists to carry out "terrorism-style attacks" against the U.S. government.
Crooks even described methods for sneaking a bomb into a government building and detonating it without being seen, according to Carlson.
"[In my opinion] the only way to fight the [government] is with terrorism style attacks, sneak a bomb into an essential building [and] set it off before anyone sees you, track down and important people/politicians/military leaders etc and try to assassinate them. Any sort of head-to-head fight is suicide, and ambush/surprise attacks likely aren't going to end well," Crooks allegedly wrote on YouTube.
MAGA influencers and several lawmakers reacted with outrage to Carlson's new findings, calling them alarming and demanding that the FBI release far more information about the case.
"They programmed this kid. You got a kid who's got access to guns or has some simple knowledge of a firearm, he was programmed," Burchett told conservative influencer Benny Johnson.
"The facts have been buried or burned or whoever knew is either sitting on a beach somewhere and, uh, enjoying a fruity drink or they're dead."
"When the CIA says, 'We don't have this thing,' and then their asses are brought into a court of law and they say, 'Well, we have it, but we don't use it anymore.' Apparently, somebody's using it."
"I've said that all along," Burchett added. "I've said that. Look at the history. Look at where we're at in this country, the Deep State. It's disgusting. Trump's right. They're not after, they're not after him. They're after us. He's just standing in the way."
Kash Patel, meanwhile, released a statement that appeared to push back on Carlson's reporting, saying the FBI had gathered a substantial amount of data from Crooks.
But the FBI director has yet to share specifics about what was uncovered or offer any explanation for Crooks's motive. Patel has also continued to insist that Crooks didn't spend much time online.
"The investigation, conducted by over 480 FBI employees, revealed Crooks had limited online and in-person interactions, planned and conducted the attack alone, and did not leak or share his intent to engage in the attack with anyone," Patel wrote.
