FACT CHECK: Suspected Trump assassin was not Chinese

Claim: Former US President Donald Trump’s suspected assassin was Chinese.

Rating: FALSE

Why we fact-checked this: The YouTube video that contains the claim was posted by a channel with 426,000 subscribers on July 14. The video has 153,261 views, 4,500 likes, and 644 comments as of writing. 

At the 0:20 mark, the narrator states: “At ito na guys, ang nakakagulat sa lahat: ang nasabing suspect di umano, mga kababayan, ay isang Chinese.”

(And this, guys, is surprising to everyone. The said suspect, folks, is Chinese.)

The bottom line: Trump’s shooter was not Chinese, but a 20-year-old white man named Thomas Matthew Crooks of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania.

Crooks was shot and killed by Secret Service agents after he shot at Trump during a campaign rally on July 13, injuring the presidential candidate’s ear. Crooks also killed a spectator, Corey Comperatore, and critically injured two others—David Dutch and James Copenhaver.

The gunman was a a registered Republican, according to state voter records. As of writing, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has yet to identify a motive for the attempted assassination.

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Chinese blame: The video’s claim that the gunman was Chinese was based on an X (formerly Twitter) post made by lawyer and author Gordon G. Chang. In the post, Chang stated that the gunman who shot at Trump had been identified as “Chinese,” citing a New York Post article. 

However, a few hours after his original post, Chang made another post stating that the report wrongly identified the shooter. In the editor’s note, the New York Post article said the identity of the shooter was mistakenly reported due to wrong information obtained from sources. In the edited article, the Post identified the shooter as a “white male.”

The South China Morning Post and the San Francisco Chronicle also reported that anti-Chinese conspiracy theories circulated following the incident.

China-Taiwan relations: The video also claims, without providing proof, that the supposed Chinese gunman’s motive for the assassination attempt was China seeing Trump as a potential hindrance to its interests on Taiwan, particularly in relation to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd. (TSMC), the world’s largest producer of semiconductors.

Trump had been quoted as saying that Taiwan “took” the semiconductor business from the US.

Fact-checked: Rappler has fact-checked numerous claims involving China-Taiwan relations and US involvement:

• FACT CHECK: US did not call China’s war games around Taiwan ‘an invasion’
• FACT CHECK: Video does not show Chinese invasion of Taiwan

– Katarina Ruflo/Rappler.com

Katarina Ruflo is a Rappler intern. She is currently pursuing a degree in Political Science with a major in International Relations and Foreign Service at the University of San Carlos, Cebu.

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