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stated on April 13, 2025 in a post on X:

Cody Balmer, the person charged with setting fire to Pennsylvania governor’s residence, posted a photo that said “F--- Trump.”

This image provided by Commonwealth Media Services shows damage after a fire at the Pennsylvania governor’s mansion while Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro and his family slept inside on Sunday, April 13, 2025, in Harrisburg, Pa. (Commonwealth Media Services v

By Madison Czopek April 14, 2025

Photo of PA arson suspect Cody Balmer was falsely edited to show anti-Trump sentiment

If Your Time is short

In April 2020, a Facebook post from an account that belongs to a "Cody Balmer" shared a photo of a bearded man wearing a face mask with a cigarette stuck in it.
The photo didn’t include red text that said "F--- Trump," as social media posts claimed.
Cody Balmer, 38, of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, was named a suspect in the April 13 arson at the Pennsylvania governor’s home. Authorities are still investigating and have not stated a motive in the attack.

See the sources for this fact-check

After authorities announced Cody Balmer, 38, was a suspect in the April 13 arson attack on the Pennsylvania governor’s residence, social media users combed through his online posts to find anything that might explain his motive.

Multiple social media users circulated an image of Balmer that included anti-Trump profanity as proof he held liberal political beliefs.

"This is the democrat who set Governor Shapiro’s house on fire," Philip Anderson wrote on X April 13, sharing a photo of a man wearing an industrial dust mask with a cigarette poked through it. Red text on the photo read "F--- Trump."

Anderson, of Smith County, Texas, was criminally charged for his actions on Jan. 6, 2021, at the U.S. Capitol. In January, the court dismissed the case at the Justice Department’s request. The photo was also shared on Facebook.

PolitiFact found a Facebook account for a person named Cody Balmer whose birthday matched the date of birth listed in the criminal complaint against Balmer.

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The last public post on the page was in July 2023. Years earlier, on April 16, 2020, the account shared the same photo of a bearded man wearing the face mask with a cigarette poking out.

The 2020 Facebook post did not include red, anti-Trump text, however. The only words that accompanied the photo were in the post’s caption, which read: "Stay safe out there."

Balmer’s political affiliations are unknown. The Pennsylvania Department of State website shows Balmer is an active voter but claims no party affiliation.

Social Media

stated on March 27, 2025 in social media posts

Image shows a “person dressed up as Pikachu to resist police violence” in Turkey.

Balmer’s criminal history included traffic violations, theft and forgery charges that resulted in a probation sentence and a pending 2023 assault charge for which he was set to appear in court this week, The Associated Press and USA Today reported.

His mother, Christine Balmer of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, told AP that Balmer had bipolar disorder and schizophrenia and she’d been trying to get him mental health help. She told CBS News that her son is "mentally ill and he went off his medication" before the attack.

Balmer faces charges including criminal homicide/attempted murder, terrorism and aggravated arson after authorities say he scaled a fence and intentionally set fire to the governor’s residence. Officials have not announced a motive for the attack.

We rate posts saying Balmer posted a photo of himself that said "F--- Trump" False.