Crime /

Man Who Set Fire To Trump Sign Identified By Bicycling GPS Data

The Man, Who Has Been Reported To Authorities, Was Identified As James White Jr.

Published: August 21, 2023
  |   By Christopher Bertman

A bicyclist who vandalized and later set fire to a “TRUMP WON” yard sign in a viral video over the weekend was identified by internet sleuths.

On Aug. 18, John Kane posted footage of the vandalism and arson to his Trump sign at his Raleigh, North Carolina home to X offering a $1,000 reward for anyone who could identify the man in question.

Footage of the initial vandalism begins on Aug. 12 shortly after 7 a.m. EST and features a bicyclist riding up and kicking the lawn sign five times before riding out of view. The video transitions to 4:19 a.m. on Aug. 15 and features what appears to be the same bicyclist approaching the sign before lighting it on fire before hurrying away.

The video transitions once again to Feb. 18, which Kane later corrected as Aug. 18, at 4:20 a.m., when what appears to be the same bicyclist once again sets another Trump sign on fire. Kane’s video provides a still image of the bicyclist who appeared to have a distinct tattoo on his inner forearm.

The video garnered the attention of several prominent X users including Timcast owner and CEO Tim Pool, podcast host Benny Johnson, and iVoteAmerica. Pool and Johnson shared Kane’s video and both offered an additional $5,000 to the original reward while iVoteAmerica similarly tacked on $500 to the reward bringing Kane’s total offering to $11,500.

The man was later identified by internet sleuths according to several identifying factors including the man’s tattoos, bicycle, and helmet. Internet sleuths tracked down the man, later identified as James White Jr., who is also reportedly a registered Democrat, by his account on hiking, cycling, and run tracking app Strava.

White reportedly tracked three bicycle rides between Aug. 12, 15, and 18 — which match dates in which the sign was vandalized and set on fire. White’s GPS data uploaded to his Strava account also reportedly confirm the bicyclist rode past Kane’s residence.

White’s Strava account has since been set to private following his identity being revealed by X users.

Kane confirmed the identity of the arsonist had been revealed by a California man who requested to remain anonymous in a Monday X thread.

The anonymous man reportedly emailed Kane’s lawyer James R. Lawrence III with the bicyclist’s Strava profile, GPS data, and timestamped maps of White’s rides corresponding with Kane’s video timestamps.

“I sent him $1,000 as promised a few minutes ago and will be sharing his information with Tim Pool and Benny Johnson so that they can do the same,” Kane wrote. “I am truly grateful to each of you for lending your audience and money to catching this arsonist.”

“I have been asked, why put up a sign that is effectively putting a target on your back for the radical leftists,” Kane wrote in another post. “The answer is embodied in an Alexandr Solzhenitsyn quote: ‘The simple step of a courageous individual is not to take part in the lie.'”

He added:

Donald Trump won in 2020. Joe Biden did not get 81M votes. Staying silent to this fact is a choice. It’s a choice with catastrophic repercussions, turning again to Solzhenitsyn: “In keeping silent about evil, in burying it so deep within us that no sign of it appears on the surface, we are implanting it, and it will rise up a thousand fold in the future. When we neither punish nor reproach evildoers, we are not simply protecting their trivial old age, we are thereby ripping the foundations of justice from beneath new generations.”

Kane confirmed to This Week in the Triangle that evidence of White’s vandalism and arson had been sent to authorities.

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