Report Thomas Matthew Crooks Flew Drone Over Trump Rally Sparks Outrage

The would-be assassin of former President Donald Trump reportedly conducted drone surveillance on Trump's Butler, Pennsylvania, rally site in the hours before taking aim at the former president.

An avalanche of outrage erupted on social media after a Wall Street Journal article citing "law-enforcement officials briefed on the matter" claimed on Friday evening that Thomas Matthew Crooks flew a drone and captured footage of the site shortly before the rally began. One rally spectator was killed, two were seriously injured and the former president's right ear was grazed by a bullet in the shooting.

The drone was reportedly programmed by Crooks to fly over the site on a "predetermined path," likely gathering information that would allow the gunman to make a detailed plan for the deadly shooting, the WSJ reported.

Trump supporters, including the former president's son Donald Trump Jr. and multiple Republican lawmakers, reacted to the report with outrage on X, formerly Twitter. Many also amplified recent GOP calls to fire Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle.

"Just to underscore how crazy this all is, I was once prevented flying MY OWN drone off of the beach at Mar-a-Lago by USSS because my father was inside the house ... ," Trump Jr. wrote. "Now we have one literally scouting his speech!!!"

"Yet Secret Service did NOT use drones themselves on the day," wrote Senator Josh Hawley. "The shooter was prepared. They were not."

"So a would-be-assassin advanced Trump's rally with a drone, yet the @SecretService didn't use a single drone to protect the former president?!" Senator Rick Scott wrote. "This isn't just failure, it's dangerous incompetence. We need full transparency and accountability for the American people NOW! If the buck stops with Cheatle, why hasn't she resigned?"

"How!? Did this kid get to fly a drone before Donald Trump spoke to the crowed [sic] !!!?" wrote Luke Rudkowski, co-host for pro-Trump podcaster Tim Pool.

"The predetermined path suggests Crooks flew the drone more than once as he researched and scoped out the event site," @ShadowofEzra wrote. "He was researching other Trump events as well. Somebody needs to get arrested."

"You have absolutely positively got to be sh*tting me," wrote Jim Hanson, chief editor for conservative Middle East Forum. "The sick boi flew a drone over the speech site just hours before Trump's speech? Fire every single person involved in this total and utter failure."

Newsweek reached out for comment to the Secret Service via email on Friday night.

A motive for the assassination attempt remains unclear. An investigation has revealed that Crooks searched his phone for information on both Trump and President Joe Biden, as well as the time and location of the coming Democratic National Convention, set to take place in Chicago next month.

The absence of Secret Service drone usage before and during the shooting is among several security questions that have prompted Republicans to call for the resignation of Cheatle, a Biden appointee. GOP Senator Ted Cruz said on Wednesday that Cheatle was asked during a Senate briefing why no drones were deployed.

"You had one senator who asked, 'Were there drones, yes or no?'" Cruz said on his podcast Verdict. "And the answer from the head of the Secret Service was, 'We determined that the risk from that rooftop was mitigated by counter-snipers.'"

While Crooks was shot dead by a Secret Service counter-sniper after firing his AR-15-style rifle, questions remain over how the gunman was allowed to climb on the roof of a nearby building and carry out the attack. Crooks was reportedly identified by the Secret Service as "suspicious" at least one hour before the shooting.