San Diego mosque shooting suspects' manifesto repeatedly mentions Trump

Two teenagers, Cain Clark, 17, and Caleb Vazquez, 18, who are accused of carrying out the fatal shooting at the Islamic Center of San Diego on Monday, May 18, 2026, left writings describing an ideology aligned with religious and racial extremism. The FBI’s top agent in San Diego, Mark Remily, said in a press conference that investigators identified writings outlining an extremist religious and racial ideology. The 75-page document, uploaded online, is being validated as potentially detailing the suspects’ motives. The writings contain hate rhetoric against Muslims, Jews, the LGBTQ+ community, Black people, women, and people across the political spectrum from left to right. The attackers refer to themselves as Sons of Tarrant, in reference to Brenton Tarrant, the Christchurch mass shooter in New Zealand in 2019. Vazquez states he is not a supporter of either left or right wings, including the MAGA movement or Trump. He even wrote a provocative line suggesting attacks on Trump or JD Vance. Meanwhile, Clark describes the president as a Jewish puppet in part of his writings. Investigators believe Clark and Vazquez connected online before realising they both lived in San Diego. Clark had been enrolled in online schooling since 2021 and was a member of Madison High School’s wrestling team in the 2024-2025 academic year. Vazquez also stated his hatred of women and identified as part of the incel (involuntary celibate) community. In addition to praising Tarrant, he praises Adolf Hitler as an ideological inspiration. The three victims, Amin Abdullah, Mansour Kaziha, and Nadir Awad, were described as heroes for slowing the assailants and preventing them from reaching 140 schoolchildren inside the mosque complex. Imam Taha Hassane described the three men as martyrs. He said, ‘If Amin had not acted, the suspects would have readily accessed every classroom.’ To date, fundraising launched by the mosque for the victims’ families has surpassed US$2.7 million (about Rp43 billion), nearing the US$3 million target. The funds will be used for funeral costs, education for the victims’ children, and trauma counselling for the families left behind.