On 28 September, Sunday, 40-year-old ex-Marine Thomas Jacob Sanford ran his car into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) during mass in Grand Blanc, Michigan, and opened fire, killing four and wounding eight, before setting the church ablaze. The horrible tragedy was immediately condemned by US President Donald Trump, who said that ‘it appears to be another targeted attack against Christians.’ ‘THIS EPIDEMIC OF VIOLENCE IN OUR COUNTRY MUST END, IMMEDIATELY!’ Trump stressed in a post on Truth Social. Mainstream media, however, had already begun the blame game.
Many legacy media outlets—from The Times, to The Guardian, The Daily Beast, and even Fox News—characterized the perpetrator, who was killed in a shootout with authorities at the scene, as a ‘hardcore MAGA lunatic’, trying to link the incident to President Trump and frame it as politically motivated. The situation was even worse in progressive echo chambers like Reddit, where users poured scorn on the MAGA community, calling out the supposed hypocrisy of the Trump administration and comparing reactions to Charlie Kirk’s assassination with the current incident.
Now, let us take a look at the facts and why the left’s argument is flawed in this case. Public records show that Sanford registered to vote in July 2017, shortly after Trump’s inauguration, but with no party affiliation. Some older social media posts, however, do indicate that Sanford might have leaned towards supporting Trump: in one, dated September 2019, Sanford is seen wearing a Trump 2020 T-shirt with the slogan ‘Make Liberals Cry Again’. Immediately after the shooting, a Google Street View image circulated widely, showing Sanford’s yard in Burton with a Trump–Pence 2020 sign in the background. Moreover, Sanford’s mother and wife shared several pro-Trump posts online. This, in essence, is the mainstream media’s argument for blaming Trump and the MAGA movement for the tragedy.
What is left out, however, are the details that undermine this narrative. A closer look at the yard shows that the Trump–Pence sign was deliberately placed behind a STOP sign—not something a die-hard MAGA supporter would do. Furthermore, as Right Journalism pointed out, other photos reveal a 2022 campaign sign for Democrat Danny Wells, Burton’s mayor, prominently planted in front of his property. Records also show that Sanford supported pro-union candidates in 2019. Finally, Kris Johns, a candidate for Burton City Council, confirmed that Sanford had ‘zero interest’ in ideologies when he spoke with him as a potential voter on 22 September—less than one week before the shooting. ‘He was not political,’ Johns stressed.
This assessment aligns with the investigation’s findings so far, which suggest that Sanford harboured a particular animosity toward the Mormon community rather than any political motive. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt stated on Monday that Sanford ‘was an individual who hated people of the Mormon faith.’ Johns also described him as ‘extremely friendly’, but noted that he often referred to Mormons as the ‘Antichrist’.
Reports indicate that Sanford’s hatred may have been rooted in personal grievances. He once dated a Mormon woman while living in Utah and at times considered converting or becoming involved in the LDS community. However, Sanford reportedly objected to requests from church members that he cover or remove his tattoos, and he felt judged by Mormon cultural standards. Acquaintances recalled that he became ‘agitated when talking about the Mormon faith’ and would ‘go unhinged’ in conversations about religion.
Another factor cannot be ignored: Sanford served in the Marines from 2004 to 2008, including seven months in Iraq. Although no official records confirm PTSD or mental illness, this background cannot be dismissed when a veteran commits such a brutal attack. Earlier reports also suggest that Sanford struggled with drug addiction, a point highlighted by Steve Bannon on his show.
‘For years, both mainstream media and Democrats have demonized MAGA supporters, Republicans, and Christians, branding them Nazis simply for holding different political or religious views’
The conclusion is clear: the LDS church shooting was committed by a man struggling on many fronts—he also had a 10-year-old son with a rare genetic disorder—and who harboured deep, personal hatred toward Mormons. It has nothing to do with him being—supposedly—a MAGA supporter. This case differs entirely from other recent assassinations and shootings that mainstream media and the left cite to back their argument and put the blame on Trump for the Mormon shooting.
In the cases of Charlie Kirk, the ICE shooting in Dallas, the transgender Catholic school shooting in Minnesota, or even Iryna Zarutska’s murder, there was a clear political motive—or, in Iryna’s case, the consequence of Democrat policies—that can be tied to the left. For years, both mainstream media and Democrats have demonized MAGA supporters, Republicans, and Christians, branding them Nazis simply for holding different political or religious views.
Unsurprisingly, this demonization has helped fuel tragedies: Tyler Robinson’s ‘anti-fascist’ slogans scrawled on the shells he used to murder Charlie Kirk; the anti-ICE inscriptions found on ammunition used by Joshua Jahn; and the Minnesota school shooter, who was transitioning and considered a classic ‘trans regret’ case—an outcome of relentless LGBTQ+ and gender propaganda. Zarutska’s killer was a career criminal arrested 14 times but repeatedly released under Democrats’ soft-on-crime policies. The links are undeniable in each of these cases.
By contrast, neither Trump nor the MAGA movement has ever propagated anti-Mormon rhetoric—neither in the past nor recently. In fact, Trump even ran a campaign in 2024 aimed specifically at gaining support from the Mormon community. For the media and the left to claim that this shooting was connected to Trump or MAGA is not only disgraceful to the victims and their families, but it also exposes how they are still trying to spin every tragedy into an attack on Trump—when, ironically, they are the actual bad guys.
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