Trump Rally Shooting: Alternative Social Media & Dark Web Intelligence Reveals New Insights 

Former President Donald Trump was injured in an assassination attempt at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania on July 13, 2024. The attempted assassination of Donald Trump has sparked significant discourse across various platforms, including the deep and dark web. 

With alternative social media and the deep and dark web being such an important place where discussions and threats are happening we wanted to examine how this happens. For dark and deep web intelligence, we used Lunar, by Webz.io, to dive into discussions about the event. We observed a notable increase in discussions surrounding the assassination attempt. Our goal is to identify key patterns, actors, and methods of disseminating sensitive information related to the event to show how it relates to VIP and executive protection. 

Trends in discussions of violence against Trump

In order to track the history of potential threats against Trump, we analyzed the trend of people talking about him in conjunction with newsworthy events. We searched alternative social media networks and the deep and dark web for discussions of Trump and radical keywords such as “shooting,” “kill,” “murder,” and “assassination.” The graph below shows a distinct trend, with the first notable peak occurring in August 2023. 

In August 2023, the U.S. federal court and the state court of Georgia indicted Trump for multiple criminal conspiracy and fraud charges. These indictments were highly publicized, including a mug shot for the jail in Atlanta, Georgia where he was taken in.

Since then, there has been a gradual increase in the frequency of these topics being mentioned, with a significant spike starting in March 2024 and another spike after the rally on July 13th. 

In the context of VIP protection, it is important for the cyber security team to remain vigilant and detect if their VIP has been doxed, what information was leaked, and where. Armed with this information, security professionals can do a more thorough job. 

Actor profiling: Thomas Matthew Crooks

Actor profiling is the next step after identifying the threat and threat actor. Search for other posts attributed to the same threat actor or others who seem to know him, to profile the person and his motivations. 

This is why we monitored discussions about the identity of the shooter, Thomas Matthew Crooks – a 20 year old man from Pennsylvania. Many users on the deep and dark web are attempting to find identifiers related to him. Some users anonymously shared his personal phone number, home address, and information about his relatives on paste sites. This indicated a high level of interest and activity surrounding the shooter’s identity. His family is being targeted since the shooter was killed by the Secret Service during the attack.

In the context of VIP protection, it is important for the cyber security team to remain vigilant and detect if their VIP has been doxed, what information was leaked, and where. Armed with this information, security professionals can do a more thorough job. 

Expanding the actor profile 

During our investigation of potential users associated with Crooks, we identified a user who referred to himself as Crooks who writes radical content about Trump and specifically about assassination attempts. This user mentioned the assassination attempt on Trump back in August. By profiling such users, we aim to understand the network and motivations behind these discussions.

In another thread, we found a user who mentioned a username that might be associated with Crooks. We could use Lunar to search for the poster’s username to see where that thread leads. We want to search for anyone who is linked to the threat actor and expand our radius of knowledge. 

Alternative social media and dark Web Monitoring for VIP protection

In our digital world it can be difficult and time consuming to detect threats to a company executive. For that reason, security teams need powerful tools for physical and technological protection. Arm yourself with Lunar to keep track of emerging potential threats before they become too dangerous. 

VIP/executive monitoring using Lunar can be incredibly useful in cases involving high-profile individuals like Donald Trump. A good dark web monitoring tool can help you in these ways: 

Early Detection of Executive Threats

• Dark web monitoring tools like Lunar can help you monitor mentions of VIPs across deep and dark web as well as alternative social media platforms and alert you of indications of potential threats. 
• Lunar generates real-time alerts that help observe spikes in relevant discussions, allowing for swift response measures. 
• Detailed reports can aid law enforcement and security agencies in their investigations.

Identification of Threat Actors

• Through actor profiling, Lunar helps in identifying individuals and groups discussing harmful activities. In this case, identifying Thomas Matthew Crooks’s user and users associated with him could have provided crucial intelligence for preemptive actions.

Sensitive Information Monitoring

• Lunar can track the dissemination of sensitive information such as personal addresses, phone numbers, and other identifiers. This is critical for safeguarding the privacy and security of VIPs and their relatives.
• Find incidents of doxing 

Trend Analysis

• Analyzing the trends in discussions on alternative social media and the dark web.
• Lunar provides insights into the intensity and spread of threatening rhetoric to better understand the potential scale and impact of threats.

Stronger VIP protection with dark web monitoring

The attempted assassination of Donald Trump has generated a significant amount of discussion on the deep and dark web. By utilizing tools like Lunar to track these conversations, we can gain insights into the trends, key actors, and the spread of sensitive information. Continued monitoring and analysis of these discussions are crucial for understanding and mitigating the risks associated with such radical activities. VIP monitoring using Lunar proves to be an indispensable tool in safeguarding high-profile individuals by providing early warnings and actionable intelligence.