The Trump Assassin Steam Hoax Explained
On July 13, 2024, former President Donald Trump narrowly escaped an assassination attempt during a campaign rally in Pennsylvania. A lot of incorrect information has circulated since, and one piece involved a Steam message that turned out to be totally fake.
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00:00On July 13th, 2024, former President Donald Trump narrowly escaped an assassination attempt
00:06during a campaign rally in Pennsylvania.
00:09A lot of incorrect information has circulated since, and one piece involved a Steam message
00:14that turned out to be totally fake.
00:17On the morning of July 18th, reports began circulating that connected a Steam account
00:22to the gunman, 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks.
00:25Crooks was killed at the scene after critically injuring two rally attendees and killing another,
00:31as well as leaving Donald Trump with a wound to his ear.
00:34Fox News reported that an investigation into the shooting uncovered a Steam account believed
00:39to belong to Crooks.
00:40In the account's profile, which was shown in a briefing with multiple U.S. Senators,
00:44was an ominous warning.
00:46July 13th will be my premiere, watch as it unfolds.
00:49A report from CBS has now debunked this story, and it seems that this Steam account did not
00:54actually belong to Crooks, but rather an unidentified troll.
00:58On ex-formerly-Twitter journalist Eric Toller has drawn attention to the fact that the owner
01:03of this account seemingly changed their display name the day after the shooting occurred,
01:08according to Steam ID.
01:09Toller noted that the real Crooks didn't seem to have been very active on social media prior
01:14to the attack last weekend, adding,
01:16"...well, cross Steam off the list for now," with the FBI, or whoever contributed to that
01:21Senate briefing, getting fooled by an obvious fake.
01:24That said, I'm pretty certain he did have a Steam account, just not sure what the username
01:29is.
01:30"...I wasn't surprised, in fact, that they went to a gaming platform.
01:33I think they're gonna find more there, I think we're gonna hear more about that."
01:37The search for the gunman's actual Steam account continues, but it's very unlikely at this
01:41point that Crooks posted any real warnings to his account prior to the assassination
01:46attempt.
01:47The whiplash from the story has been felt all over social media.
01:51With onlookers baffled that someone would pounce on a deadly incident like this to make
01:55some cheap jokes on Steam.
01:57Others are shocked that this bizarre hoax made it as far as it did, while some gaming
02:01fans are confused as to why a government investigation into an attempted assassination is looking
02:07so closely at Steam.
02:09However, this last aspect actually makes a lot of sense, as multiple interviews have
02:13noted that Crooks was an avid PC gamer who often brought his gaming laptop to school.
02:19The search for the shooter's real Steam account is apparently ongoing, as federal law enforcement
02:24officials attempt to ascertain a motive for the attack on July 13th.
02:29As wild as this story is, it's also worth noting that this wouldn't be the first time
02:33that a gaming hoax has made its way into mainstream news.
02:37In 2022, a series of bad-taste memes resulted in gaming auteur Hideo Kojima being identified
02:44by several news sources as the gunman behind the assassination of former Prime Minister
02:49of Japan Shinzo Abe.
02:51Video game animation has also become so photorealistic in recent years that it's been mistaken for
02:56real-life footage in some cases.
02:59However, these types of hoaxes don't often reach the very top channels of a highly sensitive
03:04government investigation.