Fact Check: Sam Hyde NOT Identified As The Man Who Shot At Donald Trump

Fact Check

  • by: Maarten Schenk
Fact Check: Sam Hyde NOT Identified As The Man Who Shot At Donald Trump Joke Meme

Was comedian Sam Hyde identified as the man who shot at Donald Trump in Pennsylvania on July 13, 2024? No, that's not true: The comedian is routinely blamed for being the perpetrator of shootings or other violent incidents as part of a bizarre internet in-joke. The FBI has identified the gunman as Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, from Bethel Park in Pennsylvania.

An example of the claim can be seen in this tweet (archived here) published on July 14, 2024 that reads:

39 year old Sam Hyde has been identified as the man responsible for shooting at Trump.

This is what the tweet looked like:

hydetweet.jpg

(Source: Twitter screenshot taken on Sun Jul 14 06:51:56 2024 UTC)

According to The Associated Press, The FBI has identified the shooting suspect as Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania.

"Sam Hyde is the killer" meme

As part of a bizarre internet in-joke, comedian Sam Hyde gets blamed for almost every mass shooting or headline-grabbing assasination that happens, often within minutes of the event. The joke originally started on 4chan and has been perpetuated for years by various troll accounts.

You can read our previous fact checks mentioning his name here.


  Maarten Schenk

Maarten Schenk is the co-founder and COO/CTO of Lead Stories and an expert on fake news and hoax websites. He likes to go beyond just debunking trending fake news stories and is endlessly fascinated by the dazzling variety of psychological and technical tricks used by the people and networks who intentionally spread made-up things on the internet.

Read more about or contact Maarten Schenk

About Us

International Fact-Checking Organization EFCSN Meta Third-Party Fact Checker

Lead Stories is a fact checking website that is always looking for the latest false, misleading, deceptive or inaccurate stories, videos or images going viral on the internet.
Spotted something? Let us know!.

Lead Stories is a:


WhatsApp Tipline

Have a tip or a question? Chat with our friendly robots on WhatsApp!

Add our number +1 (404) 655-4223, follow this link or scan the image below with your phone:

@leadstories

Subscribe to our newsletter

* indicates required

Please select all the ways you would like to hear from Lead Stories LLC:

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. For information about our privacy practices, please visit our website.

We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By clicking below to subscribe, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing. Learn more about Mailchimp's privacy practices here.

Most Read

Most Recent

Share your opinion