Kyle Rittenhouse Would ‘Threaten’ Classmates Who Criticized Donald Trump, Report Claims

A new report from Vice News outlined comments from former classmates of Kyle Rittenhouse, the 17-year-old who is facing charges for allegedly shooting and killing two people at the Kenosha, Wisconsin, protests on Tuesday. The accused, who was spotted in the front row of a rally for Donald Trump earlier this year, reportedly used to threaten his Lakes Community High School peers who were critical of the president.

“If you said anything bad about Trump, he’d threaten you,” said Joe, a minor who asked for his last name to remain private. “Kyle was the type of kid to wear a MAGA hat or other apparel just for attention, or to ‘trigger’ people.”

Elsewhere in the report, Joe again touched on Rittenhouse’s purported aggression.

“When he got mad or offended he would always say he could ‘f*ck me up,’ but everyone would just laugh because he was like a 5-foot-4 chubby freshman boy who we thought wasn’t capable of harm.”

Joe claimed that he and many others at his school believed that Rittenhouse could become a shooter. According to Vice, some of his classmates joked about the possibility.

“I personally believe he went to Wisconsin with the intent to kill,” one anonymous former classmate said.

Although another classmate said Rittenhouse was “shy,” they also claimed he was forthright about his personal and political views.

“Like one of those kids that liked ‘triggering libtards,'” they said.

After the shooting, Rittenhouse’s social media came under the microscope, as it was revealed that the teen was a supporter of the Blue Lives Matter movement that has arisen in parallel to the Black Lives Matter movement. His classmates claim that he was often absent at school and believed it was due to his enrollment in the Grayslake Police Department’s Public Safety Cadet Program, which is a youth program for aspiring police officers in Lake County, Illinois.

As The Inquisitr reported, Rittenhouse identified with the militia that appointed itself as a protector of people and property amid the Kenosha protests. In a video of Rittenhouse taken before the killings, he and other members of the militia were seen interacting with law enforcement. One appeared to claim that the local officers appreciated their presence at the protests.

Rittenhouse is facing a charge of first-degree intentional homicide. According to Kenosha Police Chief Daniel Miskinis, many facets of the case are still unclear. Amid the uncertainty, some have taken to social media to defend Rittenhouse, while others have condemned his alleged crimes.