The Thomas Crooks Conspiracy Theories Aren’t Going Anywhere

A would-be presidential assassin with no clear motive, shot dead at the scene; accounts from witnesses who’d warned police to no avail; video taken from a bewildering variety of angles. Minutes after Thomas Crooks came within an inch of killing Donald Trump, it was already clear what would happen next, and in the subsequent days a number of conspiracy theories indeed emerged, each more baroque than the last. Famed hedge fund manager Bill Ackman wrote in a since-deleted X post, for example, that an anti-vaccine influencer’s video purporting to show that there were two shooters made "a powerful case." The Heritage Foundation, the think tank currently best known for its role in coordinating Project 2025, used cell phone location data to intimate the FBI was involved, while everyone from QAnon influencers to Ackman has invoked fictional CIA assassin Jason Bourne when not pointing the finger at the actual, real-life CIA. Ackman, for instance—who did not reply to a request for comment—was reportedly part of a network of rich people who coordinated via a secret WhatsApp chat to influence public opinion on the war between Israel and Hamas; after, Ackman says, he stopped participating, members privately pressed New York mayor Eric Adams to crack down on peaceful student protests.