BOERNE, TX — "We don't vet the people who buy our shirts, obviously. Nike doesn't vet people who buy their shoes," said Matt Carriker, the founder and influencer behind the YouTube channel "Demolition Ranch."
When the shooter in the Trump assassination attempt was seen on social media platform X, some identified the shirt he was wearing as merchandise from Carriker's YouTube channel.
"What the hell," Carriker posted to his Demolition Ranch Facebook page with a photo of the deceased shooter next to a U.S. Secret Service agent dressed in fatigues and armed with a machine gun.
"This brand is much more personal to me than 'Nike' is to its executives," Carriker said in a YouTube video addressing the shooter's attire.
He emphasized that his channel, Demolition Ranch, was not intended to spread violence and hate.
"I have a wife and kids, and I want them to be safe forever," he added.
Carriker has 11.6 million subscribers and nearly 2.5 billion video views. He has been creating content for 13 years.
"He bought a shirt online," Carriker said. "I know nothing about the shooter."
"We're here and we're still going. This is not what we stand for and not what we want to stand for," he said.
"When you see a CNN chyron with the shooter's name, Trump, and mine... Well, that was not what I thought was on my 2024 bingo card."
Carriker also runs Bunker Branding, a T-shirt e-commerce business in Boerne. He is an Aggie, class of 2008, and graduated from Texas A&M's vet school in 2012.
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