Did Someone Just Try to Trump-Proof NATO?
July 14—As he was addressing a campaign rally last night at the fairgrounds in Butler, Pennsylvania, former President Donald Trump narrowly escaped assassination when a gunman was given a clear shot at his head from a building about 130 yards away. The presumptive Republican Presidential nominee was hit in the right ear by one of the would-be assassin’s five to eight automatic rifle shots hurled at Trump, who upon being hit, turned his head, went to the floor, and was covered by Secret Service agents, who later ushered him off the makeshift stage to safety.
The alleged gunman, first identified by the New York Post from law enforcement sources as Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, from nearby Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, was shot dead by Secret Service snipers positioned on a building behind Trump. The FBI and Secret Service have offered no motive for the shooting, which claimed the life of one rally-goer, and the wounding of two others. At first, the FBI, the lead agency in the investigation, refused to confirm identity of the shooter, but have since named Crooks. They have yet to state that the gunman was operating alone. At an early morning press conference, law enforcement officials would only say that they are pursuing all leads and that the investigation was in its early stages. Law enforcement sources say that the investigation and the search for motives has been slowed by explosive booby traps that were placed in Crooks' car parked near the shooting site and at his Bethel Park home, which he shared with his father, who is reported to have purchased the gun used in the assassination attempt.
Sources contacted said Trump was lucky to be alive. They said that the quick turn of his head after the initial shot, which caused the grazing wound, likely prevented one of the shots that followed from being a kill shot, as did his quick drop to floor, which is a trained response to shots being fired; in some cases, the bunting that drapes the podium is shielded to resist gunfire. They said that they were surprised that the alleged young gunman was able to get off so many shots, before being taken out by a team trained to react instantly to such gunfire and to take out shooters at even greater distances than the 400 feet involved here.
These sources said, in preliminary evaluation, that there appeared to be a “massive security lapse" which they blamed on the Secret Service. Despite the building being beyond the security perimeter for the rally, since it was within range of a high-powered rifle with sniper scope with a clear headshot at the speaker’s podium, at around only 400 feet, its roof should have been secured and patrolled. There were also several reports of rally-goers frantically telling local police and security that they could see the shooter on the roof, pointing to him, yet no one responded until after the shots were fired.
Initial reports of the incident carried by major new outlets spoke of two shooters with rifles. After the lone gunman was killed, there were no explanations of where those reports came from, which had been attributed to security sources who were not identified.
It is far too early to make a full evaluation of the incident, but if these source reports are accurate, the assassination attempt had all the characteristics of a “professional” job, with possible inside assistance: The quality of the shots at the distance attempted, and the rapidity of fire, as well as the choice shooting perch, from a suspiciously unsecure roof. While the FBI and local authorities would not comment on motive, they also immediately claimed that the gun recovered, an AR-type weapon, was the weapon and likely fired by Crooks. The sources cautioned that such statements do not constitute proof of their veracity. And, since Crooks was shot dead, he’s not talking.
These same sources had warned over the last three months that a NATO-linked faction in the U.S. Establishment believed that Trump had to be stopped from regaining the Oval Office, at any cost. They said that his opposition to NATO and NATO policy represented a threat to the existence of the alliance. Trump has, on the campaign trail and in several interviews, questioned whether the United States needs to defend Europe, and has asked that Europe defend itself from threats which it seems to conjure up and provoke, including the current war against Russia in Ukraine. He has questioned Article 5 of the NATO Charter that would have the U.S. go to war, were a NATO member attacked, and has stated his opposition to Ukraine joining NATO.
Trump has also repeatedly demanded that Ukraine negotiate with the Russians and stated that, had he been returned to office in 2021, the war would never have started, and that between the time he is elected in November this year and when he assumes office Jan. 20, 2025, he will end it. He has also expressed his support for the peace initiative of his friend, Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, who earlier this month travelled to Kyiv, then Moscow, and then Beijing, after assuming the Presidency of the European Union Council. Three days ago, Orbán left the NATO summit in Washington to brief and confer with his friend Trump at Mar-a-Lago in Florida; he had made a similar trip to Florida in March to speak with Trump. Orbán met with Donald Trump, Jr. June 12 in Budapest.
The sources pointed out that during the recent period there had been an intensification of hate directed at Trump in the establishment media, as well as in social media posts. Such voluminous hate provides credibility to launder a hit coming with direction from NATO and its assets, with approval of factions of the Western global financial and military establishment, as a politically motivated "hate crime" by a "lone assassin."
“Trump is the biggest threat to the existence of NATO to come down the pike in years,” said a source today. “He was barely constrained from pulling the U.S. out of the Alliance during his last administration. Now, he sees that Sleepy Joe Biden has thrown hundreds of billions into a losing war against Russia in Ukraine, with no end in sight. His opposition to continuing the war puts him in NATO’s cross-hairs, just as it did for Slovakia Prime Minister Robert Fico, who has also spoken out against continuing the war and for a negotiated peace. Fico found himself narrowly surviving assassination when he was shot at close range May 15. Fico, like Trump, has been labelled as 'divisive,' and the media tried to say that the shooter had operated alone. But an investigation conducted by Fico's allies has found a vast potential conspiracy, with possible links to the NATO-controlled Ukrainian secret services and its Nazi assets.
“With Sleepy Joe in office in ego only and after the credibility of his candidacy was shattered by the thrashing Trump gave him in the June 27 debate and his bumbling performance since,” said the source, “the NATO warhawks and their assets in the U.S. see little hope in stopping Trump, especially after it appears that all the legal persecutions and prosecutions will fail to do the job. NATO and the dirty elements of the U.S. intelligence maintain a worldwide assassination bureau for such purposes. If you want to look for who is behind the bullets hurled at Trump, start looking there. And, although luckily those bullets failed to accomplish the mission this time, who is to say there won’t be other attempts?
“I had warned Trump to say that he was under threat from NATO and its assets, but he said nothing" the source stated. "Now, he may speak up.”
This and other sources pointed to one person with knowledge on this subject who might speak up: Independent Presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. “He knows who could be behind this,” said a source: "The same people who killed his father and uncle.”
“Their motive goes beyond the elimination of particular political figures. It is an assault on the American Presidency itself. It is not about Trump, per se. If they take out Trump, these same forces might seek to provoke what amounts to a civil war in this country, hurling the various left and right counter-gangs they control against each other. With Biden weak and not running his own government, with the Republican Party shattered were Trump to be removed, they could use the ensuing chaos and violence to create some sort of government of national unity, with a severely weakened President.
"Maybe, we don’t even have elections this fall!" the sourced warned. "We need to stop this in its tracks, and right now. No more NATO, period! Let's get this assassination attempt properly investigated, something not likely to happen under the FBI's direction."