During Donald Trump’s presser with the El Salvador’s president yesterday, he claimed Cody Balmer, the man who set fire to Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro’s residence was “no fan of his.” This, in an effort to whitewash any connection the arsonist had with the anti-government sentiment prevalent within the MAGA cult.
So the first thing on Trump’s mind was to make sure HE wasn’t to blame? Weird.
“Have you attributed a motive through the FBI investigation behind the attack on Governor Josh Shapiro over the weekend?” a reporter asked.
“No, I haven’t, but the attacker was not a fan of Trump, I understand, just from what I read and from what I’ve been told,” Trump lied. “The attacker basically wasn’t a fan of anybody, it was probably just a whack job. And certainly a thing like that cannot be allowed to happen.”
In many news articles I read, Balmer never mentioned he was a Trump hater and in fact, NBC reported he made many disparaging remarks against Pres. Biden and Democrats in general.
“He posted negative content about President Joe Biden and seemed to reject Biden’s 2020 presidential win. He shared posts on Facebook criticizing Biden during his term, including a picture with the text “Joe Biden owes me 2 grand” and a post that said, “Biden supporters shouldn’t exist.”
Trump on the arson attack on Gov. Shapiro: “The attacker was not a fan of Trump I understand. Just from what I read and what I’ve been told … probably just a whack job.” pic.twitter.com/IB0NFrcW9k
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) April 14, 2025