The Trump rally shooter’s appearance in a 2022 BlackRock ad is fueling conspiracy theory talk online.
The FBI named 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks as the gunman who fired at former President Donald Trump as he spoke to a crowd on Saturday.
Trump says his ear was pierced by a bullet in the shooting but otherwise is doing fine. One spectator was killed and two others were critically injured. Crooks was killed by law enforcement.
The shooting immediately spurred a range of conspiracy theories, ranging from left-wing claims the assassination attempt was staged by Trump himself to right-wing assertions that the Secret Service was in on the plot.
Now, another conspiracy theory is taking hold on the internet.
That conspiracy centers on the multinational investment firm BlackRock, which filmed an ad at Crooks’ then-high school, Bethel Park High School.
BlackRock has been at the center of a sprawling conspiracy that posits it is behind myriad woes within the U.S. It has faced accusations ranging from pushing the “COVID agenda” to claims that the firm is buying every single family home in the U.S. as a way to squeeze citizens.
Given its massive scope and portfolio, worth over hundreds of billions of dollars, conspiratory theorists believe the firm has a guiding hand across all of society.
The ad highlights an economics teacher at the school talking about what “financial well-being” means to him and his hope that when he retires he is remembered for helping the community. The ad shows supercuts of a classroom where Crooks is visible.
“Invested in the future of teachers,” text reads at the end.
BlackRock confirmed in a statement to Reuters that Crooks is indeed in the ad and that the company had since pulled it.
“In 2022, we ran an ad featuring a teacher from Bethel Park High School, in which several unpaid students briefly appeared in the background, including Thomas Matthew Crooks,” the company said, calling the assassination attempt “abhorrent.”
The ad has drawn a flurry of conspiracies, with some alleging without evidence that BlackRock was in on the plot.
“A wise man once said in politics there are no coincidences,” replied one user about the BlackRock ad.
The ad appears to have quickly resurfaced after being shared by one of Crooks’ former high school classmates.
“This to me stinks of MKULTRA…” one person said of the ad, referencing the covert CIA mind-control experimental program.
“Probably nothing,” remarked another user, before commenting that “as of 2022, Blackrock poured over $1b into various political campaigns both across both parties.”
“THE DEEP STATE DID THIS,” one person then replied.
Another person took the theory a step further, saying: “Check out what is written on the whiteboard behind the teacher. Unit #3.”
“Building 3 location of shooter,” they added, referencing the location Crooks shot from. “Created by BLACKROCK Funds & Controls our government; Commercial on retirement/funding Trump stated he will dismantle the Department of Education. Once you know you know.”
Another account theorized that Trump’s comments at a UFC event about stopping the war in Ukraine conflicts with BlackRock’s interests—a claim that Russia itself has promoted.
“BlackRock and JP Morgan are leading a $15 billion investment to rebuild Ukraine, with BlackRock alone potentially profiting $1 trillion from sole-source reconstruction contracts,” the account wrote. “UN experts warned that asset managers like BlackRock and Wall Street banks may be profiting from Israel’s war on Palestine.”
Noting the BlackRock ad showing Crooks, it added: “Connect the dots.”
While the conspiracy has managed to draw some people in, part of the reason it exploded on social media is also due to the number of people mocking the idea.
“love the idea that BlackRock uses their MKUltra sleeper cell deep state assassins in their promotional videos as a cost saving measure. $124B in assets but streamline redundancies by having their patsy shooters play wide-eyed high school students in YouTube content with 639 views,” quipped one person.
“I like how they think real life is like a video game and Easter Eggs are left around to give clues,” joked someone else.
The internet is chaotic—but we’ll break it down for you in one daily email. Sign up for the Daily Dot’s web_crawlr newsletter here to get the best (and worst) of the internet straight into your inbox.
