In a moment that veered sharply from traditional presidential decorum, Donald Trump delivered a bizarre and circuitous response when questioned about the shocking “Coldplay kiss cam” scandal, juxtaposing it with the lingering “assassination mystery” surrounding the attempt on his own life a year ago. The unexpected exchange, captured during a White House press event, left many observers scratching their heads.
The peculiar interlude occurred on Tuesday, July 22, 2025, during President Trump’s bilateral meeting with Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. A reporter, drawing a striking parallel, posed a pointed question that seemingly caught the President off guard: “We know more about two people at a Coldplay concert, just hours after that viral video, than we know about Thomas Crooks — one year after attempting to assassinate you. What is holding back the investigation on Thomas Crooks?”
The reporter was, of course, referring to the “ColdplayGate” fiasco, where former Astronomer CEO Andy Byron and HR chief Kristin Cabot were caught in an intimate embrace on a stadium Jumbotron, leading to a swift corporate and personal meltdown that has captivated global audiences. In contrast, the motive and full background of Thomas Matthew Crooks, the 20-year-old who opened fire at a Trump rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, last July, remain largely a mystery, despite the incident being the first serious assassination attempt on a U.S. presidential candidate in decades.
Instead of a direct answer or a clear update on the Crooks investigation, Trump’s response meandered, at first seemingly dismissing the severity of the assassination attempt. “Well, they’ve reported to me and they’ve told me things, and they really say they haven’t found anything that was abnormal,” Trump stated, referring to federal investigators. “They say that it was just a nut job that was looking to do this.”
He continued, asserting that the Secret Service and FBI had “went into him in great detail” and fully briefed him. “They gave me the whole thing, and what can I do?”
However, the President then pivoted to critique the security failures during the rally itself, acknowledging the Secret Service’s bravery but pointing to lapses. “The Secret Service was very brave because they, you know, they were right there and they jumped on me. They made a mistake. They should have had somebody on that roof, and they should have had communication with the local police, who also. I mean, they did a very good job, but they made some mistakes,” he said, referencing Crooks’ elevated position from a nearby building.
Trump also used the opportunity to disparage the “old FBI” under former Director James Comey, claiming it was “crooked as hell,” while praising the “new FBI” as having “the best people anywhere in the world right now.”
The bizarre juxtaposition of a high-stakes assassination attempt with a celebrity cheating scandal, and Trump’s tangential response, immediately drew attention across social media and news outlets. Critics quickly highlighted the President’s apparent minimization of the threat to his life, even as he simultaneously used it to lambast political opponents and perceived institutional failures.
The incident underscores the lingering questions surrounding Thomas Crooks, whose motivations remain largely unknown despite extensive investigations. While the “Coldplay kiss cam” drama has played out in the public eye with unprecedented speed and detail, the more grave matter of a direct attack on a presidential candidate continues to be shrouded in a perplexing, and now politically charged, ambiguity.