We don’t know a lot about Tyler Robinson, the man arrested for shooting Charlie Kirk last week. Until he was caught, the narrative on the right was that it must be a leftist extremist, or maybe a trans person; the idea that trans people are prone to violence, despite evidence to the contrary, has really taken hold in MAGA circles.
After Robinson was arrested, that narrative failed to stick. He was raised in a Trump-supporting family, seemed to be a gun enthusiast, and the messages he carved into his bullets - which were first cast as anti-fascist and pro-trans - were actually memes and video game references from someone who is extremely online.
These facts have not swayed the MAGAs. They are on a mission to use the shooting to punish groups that they already consider enemies.
The Governor of Utah said, "I was praying that it was an immigrant.” Immigrants are certainly the focus of MAGA hate right now but, since there does not seem to be any way to tie this shooting to them, MAGA is coming for the left.
They are going through the accounts of trans people and looking for “clues” that they were part of a conspiracy.
The posts that they are citing as evidence are all extremely vague like, “something big is coming”. Then, if the trans poster says something negative about Charlie Kirk post-shooting, the MAGA hunters take that vague post as evidence of a plot.
FOX news quoted an anonymous law enforcement source who says Robinson was in a romantic relationship with his male roommate who, they said, is transitioning. There is no other evidence of this besides the anonymous source. The roommate is cooperating with the FBI. He presents himself as a man online and does not claim to be trans. But the MAGAs are seizing on this to call Robinson gay and trans-adjacent.
Robinson went to one semester of college, and MAGA believes he was radicalized there into leftist extremism (again, despite the evidence); they see universities primarily as institutions of indoctrination. They also suggest that universities may have been involved in planning the shooting. One person wrote, “I said faculty is in on this. Being that its. Utah. Mr Romneys turf. I'd check for connections to him. Theres a conspiracy that goes beyond the university. A puppermaster controlling the puppets”.
But more than anything, they are angry.
MAGA is an ideology rooted in victimhood. It exists to oppose forces in power who they see as oppressing them. With Trump in office, this falters a bit, but they still search for oppressive forces and they take advantage of their power to punish them. The Kirk shooting has been a gift to this worldview and has resurrected the narrative that took hold after the Trump assassination attempt in Butler, PA last year.
We have seen a return of “THEY are shooting at us” in their discussions (without defining who “they” are). MAGA will simply not accept that the shooter was not an ideological opponent. Even if the evidence becomes strong and indisputable that the shooter was right-wing, MAGA will go after people on the left who behaved in ways that MAGA did not like.
They are already on a campaign to find anyone who said something uncharitable about Charlie Kirk after his death and get them fired or otherwise punished. Elon Musk has even retweeted a spreadsheet that lists people who shared tweets that MAGA disapproves of.
This is all developing, but I see this as a moment where we are on the precipice. This may fade away as more information comes out, but it may become a rallying point that Trump uses to justify state and MAGA violence against perceived enemies. I am not going to guess at what happens, but I am waiting with a sharp eye.
Side note: I did an interview with Reuters about this last week and the MAGAs on one of the forums I monitor got mad that I read their posts. So they made a post about me, including implying I might work for the CIA, and I could not be more amused or thrilled!
