Weapons & Guns

Cheryl Tyler, a former Secret Service Special Agent, is defending her female peers from a wave of criticism following the assassination attempt on Donald Trump.

In addition to protecting 2 presidents herself, Cheryl trained other agents, and she joined us Tuesday on "TMZ Live" -- in the wake of Saturday's attack -- to counter those hating on female agents, and to explain how difficult it is for any agent to get that detail ... whether they're female or male.

As Cheryl put it ... being a part of the Secret Service is no easy thing -- it's an elite group of specialists who are put through rigorous training and probation to earn the detail.

Thomas Matthew Crooks was branded a "shooter" by his peers years before his assassination attempt on Donald Trump ... so says a former classmate.

Julianna Grooms -- who attended Bethel Park High School with Trump's would-be assassin -- has shed more light on the bullying Thomas faced before his deadly attack at Trump's rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.

As Julianna told The New York Times ... Thomas was labeled "the school shooter" by his fellow students -- who apparently often teased him for his poor hygiene and body odor.

A private call between RFK Jr. and Donald Trump just hours after the assassination attempt was made public, and RFK Jr. is horrified his son is the culprit who posted it.

During the call, Trump talked about his phone conversation with President Joe Biden just after the shooting. Trump says Biden was inquisitive as to how he chose to turn his head to the right -- a move that probably saved his life.

Trump says he told Biden he turned because he was referring to a chart, although he was not specific. The chart was an indictment of Biden's immigration policies.

Thomas Matthew Crooks -- the would-be assassin who tried and failed to take out Donald Trump -- now has an official cause of death in the books ... if it wasn't already obvious.

The Butler County Coroner tells TMZ ... Crooks died from a gunshot wound to the head, and the coroner is ruling his death a homicide. Of course, he was shot and killed by a Secret Service agent after he opened fire into the crowd in Butler, PA this weekend.

To be clear, "homicide" is the manner of death, and not a crime ... like murder or manslaughter. The coroner's ruling in no way suggests the Secret Service snipers were in unjustified in taking out Crooks ... who had not only opened fire on a former President, but also shot and killed a citizen in the crowd.

Tenacious D singer Kyle Gass' birthday wish about taking out Trump has turned into his worst nightmare -- 'cause his management team is cutting him off ... TMZ has learned.

Michael Greene of Greene Talent -- which was repping Kyle of late -- tells TMZ ... they've parted ways with Kyle, and no longer represent him as a direct result of his incendiary comments.

This comes shortly after Jack Black announced they're pulling the plug on the rest of their tour ... so it looks like Kyle's career has taken a hit, for now, following his "Don't miss Trump next time" comment ... which pissed off a helluva lot of people.

Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle is speaking out for the first time following the assassination attempt on Donald Trump ... calling the whole ordeal "unacceptable."

The longtime member of the Secret Service -- who became director in September 2022 -- addressed Saturday's shooting with ABC News correspondent Pierre Thomas on Monday. As Cheatle put it ... she has taken full responsibility for the attack, making it clear the incident should've "never happened."

She added ... "The buck stops with me. I am the director of the Secret Service, and I need to make sure that we are performing a review and that we are giving resources to our personnel as necessary."

Jack Black has pulled the plug on his tour after his Tenacious D bandmate made a birthday wish ... grousing that the would-be-assassin didn't take out Donald Trump.

Jack says he was blindsided by Kyle Gass' remark on the heels of the shooting. KG made the comment at their show in Sydney over the weekend, as he celebrated his birthday onstage, saying he hoped another would-be assassin not miss the target next time. As you can imagine, the remark caught a ton of backlash.

Black says he would never condone violence, hate speech or encourage political violence of any sort.

The mystery behind Donald Trump's shoes after he was nearly assassinated has now come into full focus -- thanks to a new video that surfaced.

WBEN News in Buffalo, New York, obtained the 10-second clip shot from a different angle behind the stage where the Republican presidential nominee was giving his stump speech at Saturday's campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.

Trump fell to the stage after getting shot in the right ear and Secret Service agents rushed to his aid, protecting the 45th President by covering him with their bodies. In doing so, Trump lost his shoes and repeatedly asked for them back.

While some pundits suggest the assassination attempt on Donald Trump will resonate with Black voters, Omarosa says that's bull crap ... and not just that, it's racist.

We talked to the former 'Apprentice' contestant -- who worked with Trump back in his NBC days, and in the White House -- and while she's certainly no fan of DT these days, she makes it clear from the jump that she condemns the violence against him.

That said, she also weighed in on a since-deleted Forbes article floating a theory -- namely, that Trump might use his shooting, and the fact he survived it, to pander to African-Americans.

Retired U.S. Secret Service Agent David Hoffmann, a 2x All-American football star, is weighing in on whether his former agency dropped the ball during the attempted assassination of Donald Trump, saying the tragedy never should've happened.

"I'll tell you it's very frustrating," Hoffmann told Babcock on the "TMZ Sports" TV show (airs nightly on FS1) ... "it just really pisses you off that this happened."

The longtime USSS special agent added ... "Sometimes everybody says 'things happen,' but this is something that just can't happen. This is inexcusable. And it's something that everybody needs to take a real hard dive at and look into this."

The horrifying moments surrounding Donald Trump's attempted assassination and the shooter Thomas Matthew Crooks, Richard Simmons' death, and Jerry Rice's threat to reporters ... all this on today's TMZ TV Hot Takes.

On "TMZ Live" Harvey and Charles detail the timeline of the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump and break down all the known facts about the 20-year-old shooter Thomas Matthew Crooks.

Donald Trump Jr. says his dad was having a bit of a chuckle after he got shot this weekend in what the feds say was an assassination attempt ... which is very uniquely DT.

The ex-Prez's son was at the Republican National Convention Monday and he talked to CNN about the immediate aftermath of the shooting -- when Thomas Matthew Crooks opened fire on Trump but missed ... only to be shot and killed himself almost immediately after.

Here, Don Jr. explains what was happening from his end of things -- saying he tried getting a hold of his father directly ... but couldn't get through at all for about an hour and a half.

Ex-UFC star and former American sniper Tim Kennedy says many people need to answer for the disaster that was the Trump shooting ... and he thinks folks need to lose their jobs.

Tim -- who was once a U.S. Army Special Forces sniper -- tells TMZ he believes the training of those immediately around Trump during the Pennsylvania rally Saturday was most definitely not up to par for protecting him against the shooter, Thomas Matthew Crooks.

He says the site survey team was supposed to identify any locations that could pose a threat to Trump, which he believes they utterly failed to do ... and now, he thinks key people at the Secret Service and beyond should have to pay for it with their careers.

Thomas Matthew Crooks -- the shooter who tried and failed to take out Donald Trump -- clearly had a raunchy, sophomoric sense of humor ... as seen in new video obtained by TMZ.

In the clip we got from a former pal of Crooks, you can see him joking about being endowed with 10 inches, and also claiming he's a 6'4" student at Stanford. In reality, Crooks was just a 10th grader when this was shot, and we're told he was making funny videos with classmates while they were all in a computer tech class.

His buddy tells us the video was shot in Feb. 2020 at Steel Center Career and Technical Education in Jefferson Hills, PA -- which provides career and technical education to students attending several public school districts in PA. We have reached out to the school to confirm Crooks' enrollment ... but haven't heard back.

The 20-year-old who tried killing Donald Trump is said to have been a black sheep and a loner who would get bullied in school -- and now, we have video showing exactly that.

Thomas Matthew Crooks was filmed on camera a few years ago while he was in high school -- and the footage, which has surfaced online, shows him being hassled in class by another student. TMC is sitting at his desk ... and you can see somebody yanking on his pant leg.

The person who's tugging at his pants seems to be trying to straight up pull him out of his seat -- and although it looks playful in nature ... you can even hear someone off-camera saying "stop" repeatedly.

12:24 PM PT -- DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas just announced that after speaking with President Biden, the Secret Service would be assigning a detail to Robert F. Kennedy Jr. ... so Donald Trump's plea worked!

11:59 AM PT -- RFK Jr. just took to X to comment on Trump's remarks saying, "It is a hopeful sign for our country when a political opponent calls for one's protection. Maybe our country can unite after all."

Donald Trump is now echoing what Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has been calling for throughout his entire campaign -- saying the presidential candidate needs Secret Service protection ASAP.