President Trump’s would-be assassin, Thomas Matthew Crooks, was born without making a sound on Sept. 20, 2003, a trait that would follow him right up to the end of his short life when the 20-year-old died in a hail of Secret Service gunfire seconds after missing Trump’s head with a bullet by a hairsbreadth.
“When Thomas was born he did not scream and he was always quiet from that point on,” his father, Matthew, told feds in newly unearthed documents about the July 13, 2024, assassination attempt in Butler, Pa.
AP
The fresh documents were provided to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) as part of his ongoing inquiry into the Butler assassination attempt and exclusively reviewed by the New York Post.
The trove of files includes FBI interviews with Thomas’ father, Matthew, who revealed he “never really had a father/son bond” with the gunman, and that his stoic son rarely expressed strong emotions, hardly laughed and was very difficult to read.
A troubling childhood
Thomas occasionally acted out in elementary school because “he was bored,” his father said, recalling one instance in which he damaged a desk and other school property in a bid for attention.
By the time he got to middle school, Matthew said both he and his wife, Mary, “thought Thomas had ADHD” and were concerned he had fallen in with a “bad” group of kids for a brief period.
Matthew’s frustration with his son’s dispassionate nature once boiled over at home after Thomas dumped an entire container of fish food into his sister’s betta tank after an argument.
He said he “pushed” Thomas to the point he started crying, just trying to elicit some kind of an emotional reaction from the boy.
Between his freshman and sophomore year of high school, Matthew noticed a shift in his son’s behavior — he had grown “a little more quiet and reserved” and started having “issues with speaking to his teachers.”
He said he frequently caught Thomas talking to himself, however, a quirk that “became more noticeable over the years.”
Matthew lamented the fact that “work schedules” hampered his ability to pick up and drop Thomas from extracurricular activities, expressing sadness that if he had done so, it may have been a positive social outlet for his lone-wolf son.
Thomas threw himself into college prep courses because he “feared he may not get into college,” Matthew said. “He was putting a lot of pressure on himself.”
Despite his lack of social graces and “street smarts,” as Matthew described, Thomas could have been a promising student.
He scored a 1400 on his first attempt at the SAT without studying, and later improved to a near-perfect 1500.
Matthew said Thomas expressed vague interests in certain professions over the years, but with little, if any, real commitment.
“At one point, Thomas wanted to join the military to work in nuclear submarines, but this was more of just an idea as Thomas thought it would be ‘cool,’” according to FBI notes from an interview with the gunman’s father.
Thomas never seemed to have a love interest, and “never showed interest in girls.” He “repeatedly denied” being gay over the years, Matthew said.
Growing obsession with guns
Thomas started getting into shooting and guns as a teenager, though he had little interest in the outdoorsman life — Matthew said he briefly took interest in hunting but said he couldn’t envision him actually killing an animal. He also “hated” fishing.
Matthew said his conversations with Thomas during this period were usually brief and gun-related, such as the then-teen wondering if “he would have to do a background check” to buy his dad’s Glock, a question he told investigators he considered “odd.”
He also asked if he could have his grandfather’s guns.
Thomas started going to the gun club around the time of the pandemic and was a “terrible” shot — “he could not hit the paper [target],” Matthew told investigators, estimating it took 4-5 years of practice before he could even do that.
Eventually, with practice, Thomas became a better marksman, coming home with range targets showing off to his dad how well he did with a target placed over 100 yards away.
After he questioned his son about why he was “going out so far,” Thomas explained, “he wanted to see how far he could shoot with rudimentary sights.”
He found he was able to shoot even further distances after he bought a prism sight, eventually becoming “very knowledgeable” about how to measure and zero-in on a target, and knew exactly how many clicks it would take to change the specific angle on the sight.
Mad inventor era and Amazon packages for ‘Bob Dole’
As Thomas’ interest in guns grew, he started buying large numbers of Amazon packages, including “parts, tools and items to increase the capacity of his rifle.”
He took to using the pseudonym “Bob Dole” for his delivery address, a bit of misguided paranoia he picked up after his father’s Citizens Bank checking account was hacked and several fraudulent BetMGM charges were made on his account.
Matthew said Thomas believed if one were to purchase items under a pseudonym, such as the ex-GOP presidential candidate’s moniker, the buyer could never be hacked. The father explained that wasn’t how it worked, and that even under an assumed name for deliveries, the charge is still being made to a bank account under his name.
Thomas dismissed his dad’s logic and continued using pseudonyms to make his online purchases, believing he was shielding his accounts from being compromised.
He also coached Matthew how to use identity-obscuring software like CyberGhost VPN and the Bravenet Browser — which Thomas would argue made them “less likely to be compromised by outside actors.”
Matthew further recalled Thomas using multiple different, privacy-focused encrypted email providers, including GMX and Mailfence.
It was around this time Thomas obtained a 3D printer, and once brought home a large container of an unknown substance he claimed was needed to clean it.
Matthew said he once tried to fashion his own handgun, which nearly ended in disaster.
“Using carbon fiber plastic, a dryer and a toaster oven, Thomas did once create a Glock 19,” Matthew told investigators.
But he said after he discharged a single round from it, he feared the frame would explode, and would not allow Thomas to use it.
Thomas also built a gaming PC, after dismissing his father’s suggestion that a laptop would serve him better, and a security camera using a Raspberry Pi — a simple, low-cost microcomputer.
Asked by investigators about Thomas’ role model, Matthew indicated it was likely the Marvel Character Iron Man.
Conflicting political views
Someone interviewed by the feds whose name was redacted described Thomas as being a “big history buff” who was “interested in politics,” although he tended to discuss it in a “nonchalant” fashion.
The interview subject said Thomas “spoke often about Trump and [former President Joe] Biden back when Trump initially got elected,” such as the things he “liked and disliked” about Trump and other candidates, and would reportedly often talk about Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
Matthew concurred in his own interview dated two days after the shooting, saying Thomas didn’t feel particularly drawn to one party or the other, and that they would end up “making fun of the politicians” they did discuss.
“Thomas called himself a Republican. Thomas did not like the welfare state and was against the ‘woke’ ideology but never really espoused the Republican ideology,” Matthew said of his son, who instead preferred debating “government policies in a general sense.”
