It looked very fake. The circumstances are very sus (gigantic target missed). The timing is really perfect.
It's not a leap to think it's fake. It's way to convenient. A thousand SS and police, and this "comically bad shooter" with no manefesto and no reason is able to mount a rooftop 400 feet away!? The fact that there's an unsecured rooftop within any reasonable shooters eyes closed range is insanity.
Yea, my first impression upon seeing the image of him with the bloody ear in front of the flag was: Damn, this guy's really committed to his campaign to trust someone to shoot that close to him. I don't think it's reasonable
now to assume it was fake, though. The combination of videos, the guy's record, bystander death, etc.. it's too much. It does make it clear that SS is incompetent, but so is everyone else, so not really a surprise.
I will note that having a manifesto seems pointless in this case. If you shoot up a school or something, presumably you want to explain that you had some [absolutely *** in the head] reasoning besides killing a bunch of children. If you shoot a presidential candidate, I think most people will understand why you did it.
by one of his own supporters
I don't think any of us can fairly say who will win the election, but the fact the guy tried to kill Trump seems to make it pretty clear that he does not support him. He *might* support other republicans, but he might also have changed his ideology since registering to vote or registered republican to maximize use of his primary vote. He donated 15 bucks to ActBlue the day Biden was elected, which to me is at least as much a signal as registered party. I know plenty of people who have shifted ideology but not updated their party.. because it just plain doesn't matter unless you have a contested primary you care about. I don't think a typical 17 year old is donating money[$15 isn't a lot to us, but it's still something to a kid] to a party they don't support..