Newly Surfaced Videos Show First Trump Assassin Practicing In Bedroom
Chilling videos have surfaced showing attempted Donald Trump assassin Thomas Crooks dry-firing a handgun in a tactical stance inside his bedroom, according to footage shared this week.
The undated clips, reportedly posted online by Crooks before being scrubbed from the internet, were obtained by conservative commentator Candace Owens and played on her podcast on Wednesday.
Crooks, 20, opened fire on Trump during a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, in July, nearly killing the then–Republican presidential nominee before being fatally shot in the head by law enforcement, The New York Post reported.
One video shows Crooks recording a handgun lying across a quilt on his neatly made bed. He flips the camera to reveal himself—thin, pale, and dressed in athletic wear—in a sparsely decorated room with a Marvel superheroes poster on the wall. Crooks then picks up the gun, assumes a tactical stance, and dry-fires at an unseen target off-camera.
WATCH:
Candace Owens released this footage of Thomas Crooks practicing with a ln unloaded handgun in this bedroom. Why do we still know nothing about him? pic.twitter.com/KtZWWEL5SO
— Retard Finder (@IfindRetards) September 26, 2025
In a second clip, Crooks stands motionless before what appears to be a sheet of target paper marked with blue circles. Holding the same handgun, he again takes aim in a practiced stance, his demeanor even more chilling than before.
Owens said the videos reveal a disturbing glimpse into Crooks’ obsession with guns and assassinations, a fixation investigators say extended far beyond his own bedroom.
According to the FBI, Crooks’ laptop showed a July 6, 2024 search for “How far away was Oswald from Kennedy?”—just one week before he attempted to assassinate Trump.
His internet history also reportedly included searches for “Deadliest Mass Shooting in World,” “Pulse nightclub police body camera,” “Fertilizer bomb,” and “How to make a Molotov cocktail.” Owens said her team corroborated those details with FBI records.
Crooks allegedly left violent comments on YouTube dating back years. In one 2019 post, he advocated for chopping the heads off “Trump hating democrats,” Owens reported.
Despite the online trail, former FBI Director Chris Wray told Congress that Crooks was not flagged by federal law enforcement prior to the assassination attempt.
Investigators also say Crooks researched Ethan Crumbley, the Oxford High School shooter who killed four classmates in 2021, along with other mass casualty attackers. He reportedly searched how to build explosives and studied terror attacks, a U.S. official told CNN last year.
The FBI said Crooks’ final search on his encrypted Samsung phone was for pornography, made just moments before he was killed by a sniper after firing multiple shots at Trump.
Crooks’ digital footprint, investigators say, paints a portrait of a young man consumed by a fascination with violence, weapons, and mass murder, culminating in his attempt to assassinate a former U.S. president on live television.
On Friday the Department of Justice celebrated the conviction of another attempted Trump assassin, Ryan Routh.
“This verdict sends a clear message. An attempt to assassinate a presidential candidate is an attack on our Republic and on the rights of every citizen,” Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said. “The Department of Justice will relentlessly pursue those who try to silence political voices, and no enemy, foreign or domestic, will ever silence the will of the American people. I want to thank and congratulate the trial team and our law enforcement partners for their outstanding work and dedication in bringing this case to justice.”
“Ryan Routh’s attempted assassination of President Trump was a disgusting act — mere weeks before an election and only months after a separate assassination attempt came dangerously close to succeeding,” FBI Director Kash Patel added.
“FBI teams worked quickly and diligently with local partners and the Department of Justice to demonstrate a clear fact pattern of Routh’s planning and intent, and we are grateful to see a quick resolution. The FBI will continue working aggressively to take violent offenders off American streets and protect public officials from threats of all nature,” he said.
