DUELING IKNERS

What follows is a prime example of the blatant disinformation far-right propaganda outlets like Newsmax disseminate on a regular basis. Here's what Newsmax correspondent Rob Schmitt reported about the Florida State University shooter, Phoenix Ikner, during his show last night: 

We don't have a motive [for the shooting] yet. We can tell you that a school newspaper article from FSU in January reports Ikner as a Political Science major. He had quotes about being very anti-Trump, very worried about Trump coming back into power.

Meanwhile, in the real world, CNN has reported the following:

Phoenix Ikner was a member of the sheriff’s Youth Advisory Council, which is designed to “provide an open line of communication between the youth of Leon County and local law enforcement,” according to a news release from 2021. McNeil described him as a “longstanding member” of the council.

On Instagram, an account with Ikner’s name and photo that was taken offline after he was publicly identified included a biblical quote on its profile: “You are my war club, my weapon for battle; with you I shatter nations, with you I destroy kingdoms.”

Ikner is a registered Republican, according to Florida voter registration records. He was quoted in January in an FSU student newspaper article about anti-Trump protests in advance of the president’s inauguration.

“These people are usually pretty entertaining, usually not for good reasons,” Ikner, who was described as a political science major, was quoted as saying. “I think it’s a little too late, he’s (Trump) already going to be inaugurated on Jan. 20 and there’s not really much you can do unless you outright revolt, and I don’t think anyone wants that.”

Investigators are looking at the possibility of a connection between the shooting and a protest scheduled for 2:45 p.m. by the university’s Tallahassee Students for a Democratic Society, according to the law enforcement official, but the investigation is still in its early phases. The suspect was previously critical of the student group.

As you can readily see, Rob Schmitt's summary ("He had quotes about being very anti-Trump, very worried about Trump coming back into power.") does not match the actual words attributed to Ikner. This is only a single example out of numerous such distortions regularly reported as "news" via Trump's Reich Ministry for Public Enlightenment and Propaganda (i.e., "Newsmax").

Here's a brief excerpt from a 4-18-25 article about the FSU shooter published by the conservative newspaper NEW YORK POST:

Alleged Florida State University shooter Phoenix Ikner touted vile “white supremacist” views, according to his classmates — including that “Rosa Parks was in the wrong” and that black people were destroying his community.

Ikner, who allegedly killed two people and wounded six others when he opened fire on campus Thursday, horrified other students with his “gross” racial rhetoric.

One classmate from Ikner’s former school, Tallahassee State College, recalled how he was asked to leave a “political roundtable” club over his hate speech [...].

Another classmate said Ikner was vocal in their federal politics class, promoting his disturbing views about black people, as well as far-right conspiracy theories, such as that former President Joe Biden was fraudulently elected.

It appears that Ikner is yet another in a long line of easy marks who fell for Trump's fascist version of Operation Mindfuck, an asymmetrical PsyOp explained and deconstructed in my 2022 nonfiction book, OPERATION MINDFUCK: QANON & THE CULT OF DONALD TRUMP.