(Ken Silva, Headline USA) Last year’s assassination attempts on President Donald Trump have sparked numerous conspiracy theories—and for good reason.
When it comes to the July 13 assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania, the FBI hasn’t released any new information about alleged shooter Thomas Crooks since last August. Lawmakers say they were stonewalled by the bureau during their investigation. Officials have said that Crooks had a large online footprint, but haven’t released any details on who he may have been communicating with.
As for the Sept. 15 attempt on Trump at his Florida golf course, the alleged would-be assassin, Ryan Routh, has been revealed to have bizarre connections to U.S. intelligence agencies. Routh previously travelled to Ukraine in early 2022 to volunteer in the warfighting efforts against Russia’s invasion, and he was reportedly attempting to recruit fighters up to days within his Sept. 15 assassination attempt.
Chelsea Walsh, a nurse who had several encounters with Routh in Kyiv, reported him to Customs and Border Protection in June 2022—telling agents that “Routh was among the most dangerous Americans she met during her month-and-a-half-long stint in Ukraine.”
Walsh again reported him to the FBI and Interpol in 2023, after she heard that was attempting to recruit Syrian refugees to fight in Ukraine.
“She filed an online report with the FBI and Interpol outlining her concerns about Routh and others, she said. Neither Customs nor the FBI followed up with her,” the Wall Street Journal reported in September.
Nevertheless, Trump says he believes the FBI’s assessment that Crooks and Routh both acted alone in their respective alleged attempts. Trump told Newsmax that he was recently briefed on the attempts on his life. He sidestepped Newsmax reporter Greg Kelly’s question about whether an independent commission should be formed to investigate them.
“They don’t seem to think there was anything other than abnormal people,” he said, referring to Crooks and Routh. “I’ll assume that’s true.”
Trump told Newsmax he was briefed on the assassination attempts on him, and that he believes the official story.
"They don't seem to think there was anything other than abnormal people," he said, referring to Crooks and Routh.
"I'll assume that's true." https://t.co/eGQKXloSu1 pic.twitter.com/EsFsuXTe9x— Ken Silva (@JD_Cashless) March 28, 2025
Trump also mentioned a “third case,” which is likely a reference to Asif Merchant, the Pakistani man busted for trying to hire two undercover FBI agents as “hitmen.” The FBI has claimed that Merchant’s actions were part of a larger Iranian conspiracy to assassinate Trump, but its case against Merchant appears to have been a highly controlled sting operation that never posed a threat to the President.
Trump has indicated that he also believes the FBI when it comes to the Iranian conspiracy.
Trump said last month that he’s given his advisers instructions to obliterate Iran if it assassinates him.
“If they did that they would be obliterated,” Trump told reporters while signing an executive order calling for the U.S. government to impose maximum pressure on Tehran. “I’ve left instructions if they do it, they get obliterated, there won’t be anything left.”
Trump ordered the 2020 killing of Qassem Soleimani, who led the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ Quds Force.
Ken Silva is the editor of Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/jd_cashless.
