Was Matthew Livelsberger a Trump Supporter? What We Know

A post claiming that Matthew Livelsberger, the reported suspect in the Cybertruck attack in Las Vegas, was a supporter of President-elect Donald Trump has started to circulate on social media.

Newsweek has reached out to the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department via email for comment and to the social media account Matt Berg.

Why It Matters

Investigators are trying to determine whether the explosion outside the Trump International Hotel on New Year's Day could have been politically motivated.

They are also investigating whether it has links to the New Orleans atrocity, where a truck drove into a crowd killing 15 people. That crash is being investigated as a terrorist attack, and police believe the driver did not act alone.

Left: An image from LinkedIn shows Matthew Livelsberger, a 37-year-old former army veteran who has been named in reports as the suspect in the Las Vegas Cybertruck explosion. Right: An image from Getty shows the... LinkedIn/Getty

What To Know

Reports have named the one person killed in the Las Vegas attack—who police say was behind the wheel of the explosives-filled Tesla Cybertruck—as Matthew Livelsberger, a 37-year-old former army veteran.

A social media post claimed he was a supporter of Trump.

The account AF Post, which says it shares "news and alerts from around the world, from an America First perspective," posted on X, formerly Twitter: "The man who exploded himself in the Tesla Cybertruck at Trump's Las Vegas hotel, Matthew Livelsberger, was a Trump supporter with a love for fireworks."

The post, which had had more than 40,000 views at the time of writing, included screenshots of comments seemingly made by a user named Matt Berg on a Facebook post.

The comments were dated June 2020, and it is unclear what post they were from. They show Matt Berg wrote: "Bet Bolton got a hefty chunk from the DNC and other slimy donors to put the book out."

This may refer to the publication that year of the memoir of former national security adviser John Bolton.

Another person in the comment section appears to have responded, referring to Berg as Matthew Livelsberger and calling him a "conspiracy theorist," to which he responded: "It's not conspiracy when it's pretty obvious guy made money from the dems."

The person in the comment section then refers to the President-elect as Berg's "Bromance buddy Trump." It's not clear from this interaction if the two people know each other.

In a separate post, Berg responds to a comment where a woman complained about illegal fireworks and said, "good. It was awesome Karen."

However, while the AF Post post seems to be presenting these comments as being made by Matthew Livelsberger, there are many discrepancies which suggest that Berg and Livelsberger may not be the same person.

There are three social media accounts that have received attention since the attack: a LinkedIn account linked to Matt Livelsberger, a Facebook account linked to a Matt Berg, and a Facebook account linked to what appears to be a wife or girlfriend of Livelsberger, named Sara Livelsberger.

As well as the surnames being different, the man in the pictures on the Berg Facebook profile looks different from the man in the pictures on the Matt Livelsberger LinkedIn accoun, and on the Sara Livelsberger Facebook page.

These posts overall do not indicate support for President-elect Trump, although they do reflect criticism of the Democrats.

Newsweek has not been able to independently verify any social media accounts with purported links to the Cybertruck suspect, or his relatives.

At the time of reporting, there has been no confirmed information about how Matthew Livelsberger identified politically, or which party he supported. Although a woman who is thought to be is wife shared multiple Facebook posts which were critical of Trump.

What People Are Saying

Police Department Sheriff Kevin McMahill said on Wednesday when asked about possible connections: "This is a Tesla truck, and we know that Elon Musk is working with President-elect Trump, and it's the Trump Tower.

"There's obviously things to be concerned about and it's something we continue to look at."

What's Next

Las Vegas police are investigating the explosion and subsequent fire. During Wednesday's news conference, Schwartz confirmed that the FBI is also involved in the investigation. The FBI is investigating potential links to the New Orleans attack.

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