Uninvolved Trans Woman Accused of Trump Shooting
A random trans woman’s photo is being spread by conservatives along with misinformation about the gender identity of the shooter behind assassination attempt at a Trump election rally on July 13.
In addition to the transphobic rhetoric and blatant misinformation presented here, the claim was quickly disproven as the trans woman, named Rose, is alive, while the shooter, Matthew Thomas Crook, is dead (he was immediately shot by Secret Service snipers after shots were fired.) Additionally, Crook was a registered Republican in the state of Pennsylvania, despite a singular $15 donation to ActBlue the day President Biden was inaugurated.
The original X post by Paul Hookem, now deleted, contained a picture of the shooter and Rose side by side with the text, “Anyone wondering why they aren’t using this photo of the shooter?” The post went viral, receiving attention from the host of the far-right podcast Infowars, Alex Jones, who attributed the supposed “hiding” of Crook’s nonexistent trans identity to “(a) government-run cult.” Hookem’s account states that it was banned for four years until Elon Musk’s Twitter buyout last year.
Rose, the trans woman accused, spoke to Erin Reed about how the viral post has affected her life, saying, “I’m just an artist, I enjoy drawing and writing, and occasionally playing video games. I’m literally the most average, random person.” Unfortunately, this is not the first time that the right has attempted to identify a mass shooter as transgender—It happened with the Uvalde shooting in 2022, the Texas megachurch shooting earlier this year, and even as far back as the 2015 Planned Parenthood shooting in Colorado Springs. Rose was asked for her opinion on why this happens and cited likely engagement bait, but also said “a lot of people just went along with it simply (because) I’m trans.”
This is another attempt by conservatives to demonize the community further and ultimately push for anti-trans legislation. Implicating the trans community, in not only the attempted assassination of a presidential candidate but also the death of a firefighter present at the rally, seems to only elevate this condemnation.
Photo courtesy of social media
