The assassination attempt on Donald Trump wasn't some random act by a troubled kid.
A Tennessee Congressman just connected the dots everyone else missed.
And a top Republican exposed the CIA's sick plot to program the Butler shooter.
Burchett drops bombshell: "They programmed this kid"
Tennessee Republican Congressman Tim Burchett told conservative influencer Benny Johnson what the FBI doesn't want you to know about Thomas Crooks.
The 20-year-old who shot President Trump at that Butler, Pennsylvania rally on July 13, 2024 didn't act alone.
"They programmed this kid," Burchett declared.¹
Not radicalized online. Not inspired by left-wing rhetoric.
Programmed.
"You got a kid who's got access to guns or has some basic knowledge of firearms, he was programmed," Burchett explained. "The facts have been buried or burned. Whoever knew is either on a beach sipping a fruity drink or they're dead."²
The Congressman accused the CIA of using modern versions of MKUltra — the agency's notorious mind-control program — to turn Crooks into what he called a "disposable patsy."
Think about that for a second.
Your tax dollars may have funded a program to assassinate a sitting President.
The same intelligence agencies that lied about Russian collusion, suppressed the Hunter Biden laptop, and called concerned parents "domestic terrorists" allegedly programmed a 20-year-old to murder Donald Trump.
The CIA's darkest secret just came back to destroy them
MKUltra wasn't some conspiracy theory cooked up by paranoid conservatives.
It was real. It was evil. And the CIA got caught.
From 1953 to 1973, the agency subjected thousands of Americans to psychological torture and drug experiments without their consent.³
Mental patients. Prisoners. Drug addicts. Even ordinary citizens minding their own business.
The CIA dosed one Kentucky mental patient with LSD for 174 consecutive days.⁴
Let that sink in.
174 days of forcing mind-altering drugs into a helpless person.
Notorious gangster James "Whitey" Bulger was experimented on while imprisoned in Atlanta in 1957.
"We experienced living nightmares, even blood coming out of the walls," Bulger recalled. "Guys turned into skeletons in front of me. I saw a camera change into the head of a dog. I felt like I was going insane."⁵
Sidney Gottlieb, who ran MKUltra, destroyed most program records when he retired in 1973.⁶
Why would someone destroy evidence unless they had something to hide?
The CIA claims MKUltra ended in the early 1970s.
Burchett isn't buying it.
"When the CIA says they don't have this thing, then they admit they have it but don't use it anymore," Burchett stated. "Apparently, somebody's using it."⁷
Crime scene cover-up proves they're hiding something
Burchett pointed to something that should alarm every American.
Authorities cleaned up the Butler crime scene with suspicious speed.
"I live in Knoxville, Tennessee, brother," Burchett said. "If there's a murder out here, our sheriff's department's got that thing blocked off. They got a tarp over it."⁸
But in Butler? They washed away the evidence of an attempted Presidential assassination like they were hosing down a sidewalk.
The FBI claims Crooks acted alone.
No co-conspirators. No foreign direction. Just a troubled kid who happened to get on a rooftop with a clear shot at a former President.
Does anyone actually believe that?
Recent reports revealed Crooks used "they/them" pronouns on sites featuring adult "furry" content.⁹
The same intelligence agencies pushing gender ideology throughout government and schools may have found the perfect patsy — an isolated kid they could manipulate online.
Burchett suggested modern MKUltra techniques exploit social media to radicalize vulnerable individuals.
"They know to contact these people," Burchett explained. "If you look at the Muslim radicals and how they recruited them — that kid was programmed."¹⁰
Burchett has been exposing deep state corruption for years
This isn't the first time the Tennessee Congressman has called out intelligence agency crimes.
In June 2024, Burchett demanded an investigation into Secretary of State Antony Blinken and 51 intelligence officials for suppressing the Hunter Biden laptop story before the 2020 election.¹¹
"If this isn't election interference, then I don't know what is," Burchett stated. "We don't give our intelligence community all these taxpayer dollars for them to undermine our democratic process."¹²
He voted against the FY2025 National Defense Authorization Act after the Pentagon failed its seventh consecutive audit while demanding $9 billion more in spending.¹³
Burchett called former Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle a "DEI horror story" after the first Trump assassination attempt.¹⁴
He's demanded transparency on UFOs, accusing the Pentagon of hiding evidence from the American people.¹⁵
The man has made a career out of exposing lies from Washington, D.C. elites.
Now he's thanking Tucker Carlson for bringing credibility to the MKUltra claims after Carlson released a 34-minute investigation.¹⁶
"I'm glad somebody with Tucker's credibility has brought it out," Burchett said. "Because I yell this stuff all the time, and people just always dismiss it."¹⁷
Here's what should terrify every conservative in America.
The intelligence community has spent decades perfecting techniques to manipulate human behavior.
They experimented on American citizens. They lied about it. They destroyed the evidence.
MKUltra supposedly ended in 1973, but nobody knows what programs replaced it because Gottlieb burned the files.
Now we have a 20-year-old kid who nearly killed a President, and the FBI wants everyone to believe it was just bad luck and poor security.
Burchett connected dots the mainstream media won't touch.
The deep state has the motive — Trump threatens their power.
They have the means — decades of mind-control research.
They have the history — documented crimes against American citizens.
And they have the cover-up — a crime scene cleaned faster than a McDonald's bathroom.
The CIA tortured Americans in the name of fighting communism.
What wouldn't they do to stop Donald Trump from draining the swamp?
¹ Daily Mail, "CIA mind-control project 'programmed Trump shooter', congressman claims," November 17, 2025.
² Ibid.
³ National Security Archive, "CIA Behavior Control Experiments Focus of New Scholarly Collection," December 23, 2024.
⁴ Wikipedia, "MKUltra," November 2025.
⁵ Daily Mail, November 17, 2025.
⁶ History Channel, "The CIA's Appalling Human Experiments With Mind Control," 2025.
⁷ Mediaite, "Tim Burchett Spins Wild Trump Shooting Conspiracy Theory," November 14, 2025.
⁸ Ibid.
⁹ Daily Mail, November 17, 2025.
¹⁰ Mediaite, November 14, 2025.
¹¹ Representative Tim Burchett, "Rep. Burchett requests investigation into Secretary Blinken and intelligence officials," June 11, 2024.
¹² Ibid.
¹³ Representative Tim Burchett, "Congressman Burchett votes against FY2025 NDAA," December 11, 2024.
¹⁴ WBIR, "Republican Congressman Tim Burchett speaks on his Secret Service concerns," September 2024.
¹⁵ The Hill, "Rep. Tim Burchett on UFOs: 'Yeah, I think there's a cover-up,'" April 18, 2024.
¹⁶ Pravda EN, "Trump shooter was CIA programmed assassin — Rep," November 15, 2025.
¹⁷ Mediaite, November 14, 2025.
