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Suspect in Killing of Storeowner Over LGBTQ Flag Was Far-Right Conspiracist Who Promoted Christian Nationalism: Report
The 27-year old man suspected of shooting and killing a 66-year old California store owner and mother of nine after confronting her for the LGBTQ pride flag outside her shop has been identified as a right-wing conspiracy theorist who promoted Christian nationalism and shared anti-LGBTQ content on social media.
“Travis Ikeguchi, 27, shot Laura Ann Carleton, 66, on Friday after ‘yelling many homophobic slurs’ about the store’s pride flag, San Bernardino County Sheriff Shannon Dicus said at a news conference Monday,” VICE reports Tuesday, calling the suspect “a far-right conspiracy theorist who shared deeply anti-LGBTQ and antisemitic content on his social media accounts.”
Police tracked Ikeguchi after he fled the scene. He was shot in a “lethal force encounter,” according to police.
“When deputies confronted Travis Ikeguchi on foot about a mile from the store Friday night, he opened fire on them, striking multiple squad cars, San Bernardino County Sheriff Shannon Dicus told reporters,” the Associated Press adds. “Deputies returned fire and shot Ikeguchi, who died at the scene, Dicus said. No deputies were hurt.”
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“An LGBTQ group in nearby Lake Arrowhead said Carleton didn’t identify as a member of the LGBTQ+ community,” the AP also reports. “But she spent time helping and advocating for everyone, and she was defending her Pride flags placed in front of her shop on the night of the shooting, the group said.”
VICE reports it reviewed the suspect’s “social media accounts on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, and the far-right social network Gab.”
They “show that the shooter had fully embraced a wide range of conspiracy theories—from claiming the 9/11 attacks were staged to suggestions that former first lady Michelle Obama is a man to denying climate change. He also posted content opposing gun control measures.”
He also shared “anti-LGBTQ content, reposting and responding to content shared by right-wing figures like commentator Matt Walsh and fringe networks like One America News.”
While social media platforms often shutter accounts of those suspected of engaging in shootings or other killings, an account bearing Ikeguchi’s name, created in 2015, is still active on X. Its pinned post from June 13 shows an LGBTQ pride flag in flames. Atop the post is the question, “What to do with the LGBTQP flag?”
That social media account also posted or reposted anti-abortion, anti-vaccine, and anti-police comments.
The Texas Observer’s Steven Monacelli noted that the account that bears the suspect’s name on X “shared anti-LGBTQ content online including a post from Protect Texas Kids, an anti-LGBTQ activist group led by a self-described Christian Fascist.”
Watch CNN’s report from Monday night below or at this link.
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MS NOW producer Steve Benen says the FBI faces serious questions following the reported raid on the offices of Virginia Democratic Senate President Pro Tempore L. Louise Lucas, because “the hyperpartisan leaders of the Justice Department and the FBI have made it impossible to give them the benefit of the doubt.”
Benen finds multiple issues with the execution of what is reportedly a search warrant, including that Fox News was on the scene reporting almost immediately — an issue raised by online commentators as well.
The Bulwark’s Sam Stein quipped: “some pretty remarkable instincts by Fox News to have its London correspondent placed in Portsmouth, Virginia right in time for the FBI raid of Louise Lucas.”
The Bulwark’s Bill Kristol warned of an “awful lot of credulous quoting of ‘federal law enforcement’ sources in the coverage of the Louise Lucas matter. Given the manifest politicization of Trump’s DOJ and FBI, why should media agree to quote any of these sources on background?”
“Not to put too fine a point on this,” Benen continued, “but this is why we don’t politicize federal law enforcement. Because even if the underlying case is legitimate, it’s impossible to avoid the larger context and the degree to which this looks like a retaliatory investigation against a Democrat, launched by a weaponized department known for its retaliatory investigations against Democrats.“
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Benen slams both the FBI and DOJ, saying they “have, over the last 16 months, set their collective credibility on fire, corrupting federal law enforcement to a degree unseen in generations. There have simply been too many abuses, launched too often, against too many Trump targets.”
He notes that Senator Lucas is the face of the Democrats’ successful redistricting of Virginia. Benen calls it “something very different, although possibly related.”
Benen also points to an Associated Press report:
“Though the exact nature of the investigation was unclear, the search comes as the FBI and Justice Department have opened a spate of politically charged investigations into perceived adversaries of President Donald Trump.”
He adds that he has “not seen or heard a word about any of the evidence against Lucas, if such evidence exists,” but allows that it is “entirely possible that investigators have worked in good faith.”
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Image via Reuters
The Trump Department of Justice will ask the U.S. Supreme Court to allow it to intervene in President Donald Trump’s appeal of the E. Jean Carroll defamation case, which Trump lost and was ordered by a jury to pay $83.3 million. The DOJ wants SCOTUS to allow it to substitute itself for Trump — which effectively would result in the defamation case being dismissed because the federal government cannot be sued for defamation under federal law.
The DOJ, Bloomberg News reports, will claim Trump was acting as a government employee when he denied Carroll’s sexual-assault claims.
“A panel of appeals court judges previously denied the government’s request to invoke the Westfall Act in the case,” Bloomberg notes. “Carroll alleges Trump sexually assaulted her in the 1990s and then defamed her by calling her a liar when she went public with the claim in 2019.”
Critics blasted the DOJ’s decision to go to the Supreme Court.
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“This is outrageous. This has nothing to do with Trump as a public official or president. More corruption in the Justice Department in service of the Cult Leader,” charged The Atlantic’s Norman Ornstein, a prominent political scientist.
“Of course they have. They’re the president’s personal law firm at this point,” said MS NOW legal analyst Joyce Vance, a former U.S. Attorney.
“Most corrupt president ever,” alleged HuffPost White House correspondent S.V. Dáte.
“This is insane—the DOJ is not the president’s personal law firm,” noted Democratic strategist Mike Nellis.
“In case you have any doubt that the DOJ is just Trump’s personal lawyers now,” wrote journalist Franklin Harris.
“There really needs to be a lot more alarm about the level of fascism and corruption unfolding right now,” observed former Obama and Biden official Jesse Lee.
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Image via Shutterstock
Kevin Hassett, the director of the White House’s National Economic Council, is boasting that rising consumer spending — including on gasoline — proves the economy is thriving, even as Americans put those costs on their credit cards.
“And so the consumer is really, really firing on all cylinders, just like the corporate sector you’re seeing in the earnings reports, and they’re doing that because they have so much more money in their pockets,” Hassett told Fox Business.
Bragging that “credit card spending is through the roof,” Hassett said, “They’re spending more on gasoline, but they’re spending more on everything else, too.”
The data shows a different story.
Polls show that the majority of Americans are worried about their finances, more now than at any time in decades.
Late last month, Gallup reported that 55 percent of Americans say their finances are getting worse.
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“That percentage is the highest Gallup has recorded since it began asking Americans about their finances in 2001, showing consumers are less optimistic than they were during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and the Great Recession in 2008,” CBS News reported.
Since President Donald Trump was sworn into office in January 2025, Americans are paying roughly 45% more for gas — with the national average hitting $4.53 per gallon today, per AAA, up from $3.13 that week.
“Almost 3 in 10 Americans now have less savings than they did a year ago, and for many, the safety net they once relied on is already gone,” reports MoneyWise. “According to a recent DepositAccounts survey, 37% of Americans have less than $500 set aside, and nearly half (45%) wouldn’t be able to cover more than a month of essential expenses if their income stopped.”
Kevin Hassett: “The consumer is really, really firing on all cylinders…Credit card spending is through the roof. They’re spending more on gasoline, but they’re spending more on everything else too.” pic.twitter.com/QHxcpIyQJT
— The Bulwark (@BulwarkOnline) May 6, 2026
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Image via Reuters
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