The mystery behind why an Army Special Forces soldier blew up a Cybertruck outside Trump’s Las Vegas hotel on New Year’s Day has only grown deeper after police released their final report Monday.
Las Vegas police say 37-year-old Green Beret Matthew Livelsberger left a “manifesto” on his phone. But the 70-page report notes that the Department of War has locked it away, calling it classified and off-limits to the public.
Livelsberger — described by fellow soldiers as a “Rambo-style patriot” — packed the rented truck with fireworks, gas tanks, and camping fuel before blowing it up outside the lobby of Trump’s Las Vegas Strip hotel.
In January, Matthew Livelsberger detonated a Cybertruck outside Trump’s Las Vegas hotel, stunning onlookers on the Strip. LVMPD
Authorities say the attacker — believed to be a devoted Trump supporter — shot himself just as the truck burst into flames.
The explosion left six people inside the hotel injured, authorities said.
Although the War Department has kept Livelsberger’s manifesto under wraps, the Las Vegas police report points to several clues about what may have driven him.
He left a note saying the attack wasn’t an act of terror but a way to “cleanse” his mind — while condemning what he called the “feckless leadership” of a nation “on the verge of collapse,” according to authorities.
Flames shot out of the vehicle moments after the Jan. 1 explosion, lighting up the Vegas Strip. AP
“This was not a terrorist attack, it was a wake up call,” Livelsberger wrote in a notes app. “Americans only pay attention to spectacles and violence. What better way to get my point across than a stunt with fireworks and explosives.”
One of the attacker’s notes landed with Shawn Ryan, a former Navy SEAL and CIA contractor — but authorities have withheld the full text.
The local police report describes the explosion as "a premeditated attack involving a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device, with the potential to cause mass casualties and extensive structural damage."
Livelsberger had served in the Army since 2006, including a deployment to Afghanistan in 2009. At the time of the incident, he was on leave from an assignment in Germany.
Outside the hotel, the charred remains of the Cybertruck marked the aftermath of the explosion. Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department
Two sources familiar with the investigation told in January that his wife had left him six days earlier over an argument about his alleged infidelity, prompting him to leave his Colorado Springs home the day after Christmas.
Sources said his wife — with whom he had a baby daughter — reportedly confronted him, telling him she knew he had been cheating.
LVMPD reported that Livelsberger rented a Cybertruck through Turo after leaving Colorado and headed to Las Vegas.
The FBI looked into whether Livelsberger had singled out the iconic Trump hotel in Las Vegas with a politically motivated attack.
LVMPD officials say they have no authority over the release of Livelsberger’s manifesto.
“The Department of Defense has exercised control over the manifesto,” the department told the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
The local cops claimed, “[T]he manifesto does not record any public business and thus is not a public record. Instead, it is evidence collected by law enforcement pursuant to an investigation.”
Their after-action report outlines the police response and the investigation that followed, involving multiple agencies, including the U.S. Army Criminal Investigations Division, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and the FBI.
