MAGA is bursting with conspiracy theories regarding the motivation for a shooting at a Mormon Church on Sunday.
Authorities have identified Thomas Jacob Sanford, 40, as the gunman who opened fire at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Grand Blanc, Michigan, and later set it ablaze, killing at least two people and wounding eight others.
Sanford, a Marine veteran, was killed after a gunfight with two officers. Authorities are investigating the shooting and the motive remains unknown.
But MAGA had already drawn conclusions before law enforcement released new details Sunday afternoon.
“Hate against Christians is widespread in places like Michigan because the entire state is being taken over by Muslims who refuse to assimilate,” far-right influencer and noted 9/11 Truther Laura Loomer wrote of a state where less than 3 percent of the population identify as adherents of Islam, citing zero evidence the shooter was Muslim.
“Beware Michigan!” she added. “Only you can stop the Islamic invasion of your state before it becomes uninhabitable for Christians and Jews.”
Incendiary statements weren’t just coming from the outer fringes of Donald Trump’s circle. A Truth Social post from Trump himself decrying “yet another targeted attack on Christians in the United States of America,” was shared just hours after the tragedy.
The “targeted attack on Christians” refrain was echoed by a number of accounts—including avid pro-Trump poster Gunther Eagleman, far-right filmmaker Robbie Starbuck, and conservative podcaster Bennie Johnson.
“I live up here in Michigan and it’s never gotten up to where we are before now, this is starting to become a nationwide crisis,” one person wrote in the comments under Johnson’s post. “If it turns out to be some crazy liberal and honestly I’d be shocked if it didn’t someone has to deal with them, militarily. These are terrorist cells.”
Others, meanwhile, were quick to point the finger at the LGBTQ+ community, or the Democratic Party, or both. “Mere Weeks after Charlie Kirk’s assassin—Tyler Robinson, raised in a Mormon home—gunned him down, attackers now target a Mormon Church in Michigan, leaving multiple shot,” one self-styled “Mom Fighting Marxists for Every American’s Right to Read” wrote.
“Deep ties to the Trans Cult? Or something darker at play, Democrats?” they added.
One more account offered little by way of speculation as to the identity or possible motives of the shooter, only going to some pains to insist there was no possibility whatsoever the person responsible could have heralded from the right of the political spectrum.
“Patriots go to Church, they don’t shoot them up!” Natsari Nazarite, who identifies as “Prepper” and a “TradCon,” wrote. “This is a setup to frame MAGA conservatives. There is no way a conservative did this act of evil.”
FBI Director Kash Patel did not share any details about the shooter or the motive for the attack in a statement posted on X.
“Violence in a place of worship is a cowardly and criminal act,” the statement said. “Our prayers are with the victims and their families during this terrible tragedy.”
