President-Elect Trump’s Renewed Opportunity to Tackle Glorification of Violence
Note: On 6/8/25, the NY Times published an article titled “The Quiet Unraveling of the Man Who Almost Killed Trump” to provide current information on the assassination attempt last July 13 in Butler, PA.
Overall, the analysis below represents an effort to generate discussion about this case that still lacks a discernible motive. It does not contain conspiratorial theorizing. Italicized words or sentences reflect additions to the 1/8/25 version of this blog post.
In August 2019, Donald Trump stepped to the podium to deliver a message in the wake of two recent mass casualty events: one in TX and the other OH. His demeanor was as serious as any time during his 45th American presidency.
After summarizing the incidents and issuing a reminder that the U.S. is a caring nation where children are entitled to grow up in a just, peaceful and loving society, he vowed to act with urgent resolve:
”We must stop the glorification of violence in our society which includes the gruesome and grisly video games that are now commonplace. It is too easy today for troubled youth to surround themselves with a culture that celebrates violence. We must stop or substantially reduce this and it has to begin immediately. Cultural change is hard, but each of us can choose to build a culture that celebrates the inherent worth and dignity of every human life. That's what we have to do.”
Fast forward to July 13, 2024 at a Butler, PA Rally
Four years out of the presidency and a half dozen since his remarks on the social ill of violence inspired by video gaming, Trump stands to deliver campaign remarks for the several hundredth time. Suddenly, from out of nowhere, the rally takes a frightening turn when several firecracker like pops can be heard.
As a bullets whiz by him, Trump swipes at his ear as if to shoo an annoying pest away. But the objects are well past him, traveling into a crowd of rallygoers who try to fend for their lives.
Eleven months have passed since the shooting, yet the FBI-led investigation has not turned up a motive behind the perpetrator’s actions, who died during the incident.
What is known: the shooter was believed politically neutral (suspect described as having been critical of political polarization- June, 2025) for having lightly supported both major parties at some point prior to the incident. And according to FBI reports, he had looked up events where both major party candidates would be appearing in the near future— further suggesting the scale of the venue chosen might be more important than its purpose.
One place where the suspect did show fervor and intent was with video gaming particularly [1], and computer technology generally. While news sources have not divulged the genre of games Crooks preferrred most, he was known to have spent entire weekends indoors on playing video games, in addition to playing them during lunch hours in which he was content to sit without accompaniment from friends.
Of course, the implication that random videogame activity of a young man partly explains an attempted assassination would be roundly dismissed by “consensus expert opinion.” (This same echo chamber digitally-shouted down President Trump shortly after the August 2019 remarks above.)
But lacking any other plausible explanations for the attempted assassination last July, maybe it’s time to put all possibilities back on the table as American society tries to ward off similar incidents from occurring in the future.
President Trump -45- was right when he called out the glorification of violence within interactive video gaming that can drastically impact a player’s real-world behavior.
Considering no motive has yet been provided in this high-profile shooting situation, further discovery in this bellwether case might result from probing the suspect’s video gaming trail.
[1] As early as 7/15/24, a report circulating that the suspected shooter previewed the attack on a popular gaming platform by saying he would make his “premiere” on 7/13. While a post was made, law enforcement agencies could not definitively connect it to an account of the alleged perpetrator.