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30 Hilarious Motorcycle Memes That Will Make You Screech With Laughter

by Safia Miletus · Published April 5, 2018 · Updated April 5, 2018

1. The Best Kind Of Biker Chick! 😀

2. Fortunately, I ride a 250. No need for my mom to worry 😛

3. I Wouldn’t Even Be Mad…

4. Definitely Not Like That!

5. another caption was “because posters are too mainstream” lol.

6. Pretty much 😀

7. Well, cats do have nine lives I guess!

8. I love loud pipes, but I love listening to music while riding even more 🙂

9. Pffft. I beg to differ…

10. I’m so tired of being this guy! I give up.

11. Look familiar? 😉

13. Messy hair is in fashion anyways (…I hope).

Credit: Liz Salisbury

14. Some of the best places don’t even have airports nearby!

15. This is actually a great attitude to have, some days!

16. I’d like to meet this guy…

17. Peaceful is overrated anyways 😛

18. Well, it’s true!

19. Mostly because I wouldn’t trust his riding…

20. I’ve ridden in the snow. Bad idea!

21. Well, erm, that escalated quickly!

22. *Avoids scrolling through Facebook feed*

23. Thank God Canada got rid of those distracting pennies!

24. Sorry, bud. She might’ve run off with the milkman.

25. I wish I could cuddle with my motorcycle 🙁

26. Especially when they start giggling while reading the stickers!

27. I was pretty lucky to get out of mine alive, actually!

28. I’ve actually moved boxes from my storage unit with my bike!

29. But…but… he looks so happy!

30. I COMPLETELY disagree, read why here 😛

Which one made you laugh the hardest? Let me know in the comments below!

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Tags: bikers funny memes

Safia Miletus

Safia is a thrill-seeking motorcycle nomad, travel blogger, aspiring photographer and artist. You can often find her shamelessly squealing over kitten pictures, probably camped at a truck stop in the middle of nowhere.

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LOL. I am laughing so hard.

21 for sure! Lol

#21 and #29 is so true.

I feel like #16 when I pack my bike.

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The one thing Kamala Harris must not do is embrace the memes

Katie Notopoulos , Senior Correspondent covering technology and culture

• For now, the coconut-pilled brat memes are great for Kamala Harris's momentum .
• But it can kill the vibe whenever a politician or brand leans too hard into organic memes.
• Young Democrats are still emotionally scarred from "Fight Song" by Rachel Platten.

Kamala Harris is enjoying a moment in the viral sun — with her #KHive surging into the mainstream, admitting they've been " coconut pilled ."

But Kamala's "brat summer" could end sooner than she'd like if Harris and the Democrats do the one thing that would kill the vibe: over-embrace the memes.

One coconut emoji too many, and Harris HQ could be veering into cringe, losing the coveted brain rot demographic.

They've already started to try to capitalize on the memes — a little : The Harris presidential campaign's official TikTok account posted Charli XCX's Sunday tweet that said: "Kamala is brat." The Kamala HQ bio also reads "ready to provide context," which is a reference to another Harris-related meme.

kamala IS brat — Charli (@charli_xcx) July 22, 2024

(If the coconut and brat references don't make sense to you, a brief explanation: Brat is a reference to Charli XCX's latest album, which has a girls-just-wanna-have-judgment-free-fun vibe. Saying something is "brat" is meant as a compliment in this case. And the "coconut" and "context" references refer to a clip of Harris retelling an anecdote her mother told her when she said, " Do you think you just fell out of a coconut tree? ")

Related stories

In all of these memes, the ratio of love to irony is difficult to parse — and if you're confused, don't worry; it's not just you.

Still, right now, the memes are flowing, and there's an organic buoyancy and joy to the coconut- and lime-green Charli XCX-themed posts.

Other politicians are getting in on it, too. Sen. Bryan Schatz of Hawaii posted a photo late Sunday of himself climbing a coconut tree.

Madam Vice President, we are ready to help. pic.twitter.com/y8baSx44FL — Brian Schatz (@brianschatz) July 22, 2024

For now, these subtle and immediate reactions haven't blown it (yet).

The Harris campaign and its supporters would miss a big opportunity if they completely ignored the organic internet buzz coming from some young voters. But leaning in much harder might backfire.

We saw how a viral moment can go flat with "Dark Brandon" — a meme that started as a joke about Joe Biden being secretly good at his job — a counter to the MAGA memes about Trump. But at some point, the Biden administration latched onto this meme and ran with it themselves. They killed it.

For The Atlantic, Charlie Warzel wrote about the "coconut-pilled" #KHive memedom and how it's a tactical moment:

… The semi-ironic "coconut-pilling" of leftists on X and TikTok reveals a larger opportunity for Democrats with Biden out of the race. Not only has the Trump campaign lost its most salient line of attack (that Biden is old and unfit for office), but it's now forced to compete for attention against a candidate who, should she become the nominee, can easily attract it in droves. Harris may not be extremely online herself—she lacks the genuine social-media prowess of somebody like Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez—but her age and vibrancy are still advantages online. Whereas the Biden campaign's Dark Brandon memes felt forced, Harris's efforts are likely to appear more authentic, maybe even fun .

The worst thing that could happen to the coconut-pilled momentum would be if Kamala Harris tweeted, "Let's work it out on the remix" — a reference to a track on the "brat" album — or a coconut emoji.

That would kill the vibes along the lines of one of the most cringe-worthy moments of Hillary Clinton's 2016 online strategy when she attempted to ride the internet zeitgeist .

Even still today, the chorus of Rachel Platten's "Fight Song" triggers a Pavlovian response of loathing and disgust among young liberals as a relic of the maximum millennial cringe.

Katy Perry, who performed at the 2016 Democratic National Convention, has found herself stuck in the millennial girlboss tarpits with her latest female-power-anthem single for these same reasons.

Corniness and cringe lurk around every corner. Sometimes, time is the only factor needed: Internet excitement ages like milk.

The @KamalaHQ account has now surged past 800k followers. Fast approaching 1 million-- let's gooo! pic.twitter.com/qMYVn1BOtV — Brian Tyler Cohen (@briantylercohen) July 22, 2024

Of course, politics isn't the only sphere where leaning into memes can be cringe.

The mid-2010s trend of big brands like Dennys or Arby's leaning into internet trend memespeak was charming at first but eventually met a backlash.

For now, there's a moment of playfulness and fun with the organically occurring Harris fan posts. Some of it is genuine enthusiasm about the candidate, some of it is nihilistic irony, and some is a little of both.

Memes are, by nature, like weeds — growing best when uncultivated. If the Harris campaign wants to let this internet goodwill keep flowing, it should be very cautious not to overwater the seeds.

• Main content

Internet warns JD Vance after video resurfaces implying Kamala Harris is childless cat lady

The ohio senator appeared on fox news 'tucker carlson tonight' in 2021, criticizing harris and other democrats as 'childless cat ladies.' harris has two stepchildren with husband douglas emhoff..

In the days after Sen. JD Vance completed the Republican presidential ticket and Vice President Kamala Harris moved to the top spot on the Democratic ticket , a video of Vance implying Harris is a miserable, childless cat lady resurfaced online.

Vance appeared on Fox News' "Tucker Carlson Tonight" in July 2021 while he was running for Ohio's U.S. Senate seat . The video shared by the editor-in-chief of the pro-democracy MeidasTouch Network has more than 18 million views on X less than 24 hours after posting.

Vance also argued in the interview that people without children don't have a "direct stake" in the future of this country.

Many self-proclaimed cat ladies have shared the video, ridiculing Vance's stance and affirming their interest in voting .

Others online warned that his comments might grab the attention of one powerful cat lady : Taylor Swift , who has three cats and proudly posts about them on social media.

Election live updates: Harris campaigns in Wisconsin after Biden drops out of 2024 race

JD Vance: US is run 'by a bunch of childless cat ladies'

Carlson brought Vance on to talk about his stance on the "childless left," as Vance was ramping up his campaign for his first political term as Ohio's senator.

The video shows Carlson welcome Vance on the show and asks him to explain his stance.

“We are effectively run in this country … by a bunch of childless cat ladies who are miserable at their own lives and the choices that they’ve made, and so they wanna make the rest of the country miserable, too,” Vance answers. "It's just a basic fact. You look at Kamala Harris, Pete Buttigieg, AOC (Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez), the entire future of the Democrats is controlled by people without children."

Harris has two stepchildren with her husband, Second Gentleman Douglas Emhoff . Transportation Secretary Buttigieg  and  husband Chasten welcomed twins weeks after Vance's interview.

Vance argued that people with children have a "direct stake" in the future of the country, and therefore are more worthy of votes and support.

Vance's office did not immediately respond to request for further comment.

Explaining the most viral Kamala Harris memes, from coconut trees to 'Momala' and Veep

You've likely seen the news that Joe Biden has pulled out of his re-election bid for the White House and has instead thrown his support behind Kamala Harris to be the next US president.

You might have also seen a bunch of memes about coconut trees, phrases like "unburdened" and "the context in which you live", and clips from a comedy series starring Julia Louis-Dreyfus.

And while it can be hard to keep up with US politics, keeping up with internet jokes can be harder.

So get comfy, find some shade under a coconut tree, and let us explain what it all means.

The coconut tree meme

This is the meme of the moment, and the one that is gaining the most traction with actual, real-life Democratic senators.

It started with a speech Harris gave last May at a White House event for advancing opportunities for Hispanic Americans.

The line that went viral is when Harris says "you think you just fell out of a coconut tree?"

She laughs before changing tone and delivering a particularly philosophical line: "You exist in the context of all in which you live and what came before you."

Ironically, all the context of this moment has been stripped, so here is an excerpt from Harris's speech:

"Part of the extension of the work you will do is, yes, focused on our young leaders and our young people, but understanding we also then have to be clear about the needs of their parents and their grandparents and their teachers and their communities, because none of us just live in a silo. Everything is in context. "My mother used to — she would give us a hard time sometimes, and she would say to us, "I don't know what's wrong with you young people. You think you just fell out of a coconut tree?" (Laughs.) "You exist in the context of all in which you live and what came before you."

This small section of her speech was clipped up and published in isolation by a YouTube account called GOP War Room which it says dedicates itself to "exposing the lies, hypocrisy, and failed far-left policies of Biden and the Democrat Party."

The account is managed by the Republican National Committee, and while their intentions were to cast Harris in a negative light, it had the opposite effect.

The clip went viral in February this year when it was picked up by an X user who wrote: "This video is literally like medicine to me. I watch it once every week or two and every time I do I get an enduring hit of light euphoria for the next 45 minutes."

The post, from user @evil_female, has had over 1 million views and inspired countless memes.

The coconut tree meme has since crossed the floor and gone from being an inside joke on X to becoming something of a loose symbol for Harris's campaign.

Hawaii senator Brian Schatz posted a photo of himself scaling a literal coconut tree with the caption "Madam Vice President, we are ready to help".

Meanwhile, Colorado Governor Jared Polis tweeted out three emojis: a coconut, a palm tree and an American flag.

The 'unburdened' meme

While the coconut tree meme was one single throwaway comment from Harris, the "unburdened" meme was born out of the fact the vice president has recycled this specific line countless times.

The meme began when John Cooper — a senior advisor to the House Committee on Homeland Security — posted a compilation on X of all the times Harris has said the phrase "what can be, unburdened by what has been."

The video is 4 minutes long and has been viewed more than 12 million times since it was posted at the end of June.

Similarly with the coconut tree meme, while the initial compilation was stitched together by the Republicans, it has had the opposite effect on younger social media users.

The Momala meme

The Momala meme is more straightforward.

In 2019, when Harris joined Biden on the ticket, she penned an essay for Elle magazine for Mother's Day about another important role in her life – being a step-parent to her husband Doug Emhoff's two children.

"A few years later when Doug and I got married, Cole, Ella, and I agreed that we didn't like the term 'stepmom.' Instead, they came up with the name 'Momala.'"

"Momala" became a term of endearment for Harris after she added it to her social media bios, with her description on X reading: "Fighting for the people. Wife, Momala, Auntie."

The term came back into our cultural consciousness this May when Harris was interviewed on Drew Barrymore's talk show.

Barrymore often sits incredibly close to her interviewees, and during her chat said to Harris: "We all need a tremendous hug in the world right now."

She then leans into the vice president and says: "We need you to be Momala of the country."

While we will never know what went through Harris's head at that remark, The Cut said it looked like the vice president was trying not to laugh.

The Veep memes

Before Harris was America's first female vice-president, there was the fictional Selina Meyer from Veep.

The satirical television series ran from 2012 to 2019 and was created by Armando Iannucci — he might not be a household name but you've likely heard of his British political comedy series The Thick of It.

The show starred Seinfeld actor Louis-Dreyfus as Meyer, who when we meet her is one heartbeat away from the most important job in the world.

The show follows her and her staff as they attempt to make a mark and leave a legacy, only to be mired in day-to-day political games.

The series ran for seven seasons, with Louis-Dreyfus winning six consecutive Emmy Awards for her role.

Now, there are plenty of clips at the internet's disposal in their bid to draw parallels between Meyer and Harris.

We won't tell you how Veep ends, though. And as for November? We'll have to wait and see.

• X (formerly Twitter)

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What coconut trees and Charli XCX’s ‘Brat’ have to do with Kamala Harris

A Vice President Harris line — “You think you just fell out of a coconut tree?” — is all over social media paired with a Charli XCX “Brat” song this summer.

“You think you just fell out of a coconut tree?”

This is the question that Vice President Harris is asking — in video clips posted all over social media.

A seemingly random line from a 2023 Harris speech and the coconut emoji have quickly become synonymous with supporting her as the party’s Democratic nominee after President Biden announced his exit from the presidential race — and the meme factory went into overdrive.

Audio and videos of the coconut tree line, many of them paired with a Charli XCX song from her album “Brat,” are taking off.

Even if you are chronically online, the discourse right now can be hard to understand. Here’s what to know about the Harris coconut tree memes as the memes proliferate — and potentially become a rallying cry for the critical youth vote.

As one creator on TikTok described the coconut tree and Charli XCX mashup: “If Kamala runs and wins historians will have to study the significance of what this edit did for America.”

What did Kamala Harris say about coconut trees?

In May 2023, Harris gave a speech at a White House event about creating educational and economic opportunities for Hispanic Americans, stressing the need to focus on young people while also understanding the wider community around them because “none of us just live in a silo.”

She explained how her mother, the late cancer researcher Shyamala Gopalan Harris, would also try to remind her children to be aware of the context that they were born into. “She would say to us: ‘I don’t know what’s wrong with you young people. You think you just fell out of a coconut tree?’” Harris said.

She let out a deep energetic laugh before adding: “You exist in the context of all in which you live and what came before you.”

Searches for “Kamala” and “coconut tree” were already spiking amid pressure for Biden to step aside. But after Biden’s announcement, it seemed many Democrats got on board — including Harris herself, whose rapid response team changed its bio to “ Providing context .”

What is the coconut tree meme and who is sharing it?

As the endorsements started rolling in for Harris, so did the coconut emoji, memes and remixes.

Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) posted that “we are ready to help” with a photo depicting the hustle to get coconuts from a tree.

Madam Vice President, we are ready to help. pic.twitter.com/y8baSx44FL — Brian Schatz (@brianschatz) July 22, 2024

Tiara Mack, a Democratic state senator in Rhode Island, posted “ Coconut Tree summer ” alongside a coconut and palm tree emoji. Emily’s List, the political action committee focused on electing Democratic women, and many other supporters have added the tree and the coconut to their social media handles.

Harris’s impromptu dance moves, her unbridled laughter and her repeated use of abstract phrases — such as “What can be, unburdened by what has been” — have already fueled an army of young online supporters (sometimes called the #KHive, short for Kamala Hive).

One of these supporters, Ryan Long, a 22-year-old college student, earlier this month spent hours remixing viral clips of Harris to a Charli XCX song. “In the current society, you feel really helpless,” Long previously told The Washington Post. “It’s hard to get politically engaged. All you can do is you can make edits, you can make tweets. It’s a way people can do their best to not support [Donald] Trump with the resources we have.”

To be sure, the fruit — yes, a coconut is a fruit — can also be used as an offensive term with racial overtones , though largely this does not seem to be the case in the viral meme. Divisive terms such as “coconut” are sometimes used by those outside and within Black and Asian communities to suggest that like a coconut, an individual is Brown on the outside but perceived as White or Eurocentric on the inside.

A British Asian woman was charged for a racially aggravated public order offense in London in November after holding a sign depicting Britain’s then-prime minister, Rishi Sunak, and Home Secretary Suella Braverman as coconuts at a pro-Palestinian rally.

What do Charli XCX and the ‘Brat’ album have to do with Harris and coconut trees?

In short, the summer’s hot trends — Harris’s rise and Charli XCX’s June album release — are converging.

Many of the videos of Harris’s coconut tree speech have been paired with a song from the album, “Apple,” which also has a dance called the #AppleDance that is popular on social media. Many content creators are likening Harris’s style to the ethos of “ Brat summer ” — which has been used to describe when people are being unapologetically themselves.

On Sunday, Charli XCX herself appeared to endorse Harris — declaring that “kamala IS brat.”

Harris’s official rapid response team quickly changed its Twitter account to the distinctive typeface and lime green shade ( known as “brat green” ) that’s on the album. The account also reposted a screenshot of a conversation on X between Trump supporters, discussing how the Harris campaign is spinning her quotes “over Charli xcx songs and Gen Z loves it.”

Graphic designer Hayley Gilmore said on X on Sunday: “If Kamala Harris doesn’t come out at the convention to the Brat Coconut Tree remix is it really worth it?”

If Kamala Harris doesn’t come out at the convention to the Brat Coconut Tree remix is it really worth it? pic.twitter.com/k1cEzZTSk7 — HAYLEY (@hayley_g) July 21, 2024

Lime green T-shirts — the color of the “Brat” album with the caption “Coconut Tree x Brat Summer” — have been spotted on Fire Island in New York.

@thejaredalexander Coconut Tree x Brat summer #kamalaharris #brat #fireisland #fyp ♬ som original - underworld

In an interview posted this month, Charli XCX broke down her own definition of what it means to be a “brat.”

“You are just that girl who is a little messy and maybe says dumb things sometimes, who feels herself but then also maybe has a breakdown but parties through it. It is honest, blunt and a little bit volatile. That’s ‘Brat,’” she said.

Taylor Lorenz contributed to this report.

Election 2024

A majority of Democratic delegates have pledged to support Vice President Harris , signaling she is likely to secure the presidential nomination next month. Follow live updates on the 2024 election .

Biden drops out: Here’s what happened in the hours before Biden said in a letter that he is ending his reelection campaign . This is how Democrats can pick a new candidate .

Trump VP pick: Trump has chosen Sen. J.D. Vance (Ohio) as his running mate , selecting a rising star in the party and a previously outspoken Trump critic who in recent years has closely aligned himself with the former president.

Presidential election polls: Check out The Post’s presidential polling averages of the seven battleground states most likely to determine the outcome of the election. Here’s how Harris performs against Trump in recent polls .

Key dates and events: Voters in all states and U.S. territories have been choosing their party’s nominee for president ahead of the summer conventions. Here are key dates and events on the 2024 election calendar .

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Memes, Texts and Other Jarring Ways Some Americans Heard the Biden News

When the president announced he was suspending his re-election bid, the news spread via some unexpected sources.

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By Madison Malone Kircher

Jordan Feldman found out that President Biden was ending his campaign for a second term from Liza Minnelli.

Well, kind of. Ms. Feldman, a 29-year-old retail worker who lives in Philadelphia, got the news via @LiZaOutlives, an unofficial X account that is not affiliated with Ms. Minnelli and regularly posts macabre updates about things and people she has outlived. (Ms. Minnelli has said through her manager that she is not a fan of the account.)

In this case, it was Mr. Biden’s re-election campaign that she had outlasted. The post appeared four minutes after Mr. Biden shared the letter announcing his decision on X.

Liza Minnelli has outlived Joe Biden's race for re-election. After weeks of pressure from fellow Democrats, he is stepping down as the party's nominee for President. — LizaMinnelliOutlives (@LiZaOutlives) July 21, 2024

“I get push notifications from them because they break news so quickly,” Ms. Feldman said. She started following the account after Larry King’s death in 2021 and decided to turn on its push notifications (receiving an alert any time the account posts) after James P. Spears was removed as his daughter Britney Spears’s conservator .

Ms. Feldman said she saw the meme account’s post before reports from major news outlets, adding that her friends did not believe her when she told them Mr. Biden was out of the race.

“We couldn’t find anything,” she said. “I was like, ‘It’s the truth! I know it’s true because @LiZaOutlives would not lie to me.’”

Ms. Feldman is one of many who got the news from an unexpected online source, highlighting a shift in the way many Americans consume news media. While plenty of people learned about Mr. Biden withdrawing from the race from push alerts, email newsletters and cable television, in an increasingly social media-dominated world other sources can beat them to the punch. Pew Research Center has found that about one-third of 18- to 29-year-olds say they regularly get their news from TikTok.

As people, particularly younger generations, treat social media platforms like TikTok as search engines , less traditional options, like meme accounts or content creators, are becoming a core part of the media landscape. Accounts like these are rarely beholden to the same standards and scrutiny as mainstream media outlets — and the creators who run them can move quickly, regardless of accuracy.

Allie Weill, a science writer in Sacramento, was participating in an online crossword competition on Sunday when the president made his announcement.

“In the middle of the tournament, people started posting the news about Biden in the chat,” Ms. Weill, 35, said in a direct message on X. “At least one person posted in a very fitting way; something along the lines of ‘former presidential candidate (5).’ Like you would write a crossword clue for a five-letter answer.”

Tina Wargo, 31, learned of the shake-up from a text inviting her to a party. “It’s Joever,” read the event name, said Ms. Wargo, who lives in Brooklyn and works for a theater ticketing company. She initially thought it was a joke, but was surprised to learn otherwise after seeing posts from Taylor Swift-related accounts on X using the same pun. (An ex-boyfriend of Ms. Swift’s shares a first name with the president.)

Elsewhere online, some people learned the news from meme accounts devoted to esoteric subjects, like a parody account of an American Girl doll.

Pranav Malhotra, a communications professor at the University of Michigan, said a post from the pop culture news account @PopCrave broke the Biden news to him on Sunday. He was not surprised that he learned of the development from such a source, given how political discourse has evolved to be digital and meme-oriented in recent years, he said. (Before suspending his campaign, Mr. Biden’s team posted a job listing for a meme manager . Republican candidates, including former President Donald J. Trump, have also deployed memes as an effective strategy .)

Each social media platform has a specific language to it, Mr. Malhotra, 33, said. “Over the years, how people talk about politics has gotten embedded within that logic and within those norms,” Mr. Malhotra added.

Omy Melo, a 32-year-old video editor who lives in Queens, heard Mr. Biden was leaving the race from a Discord server devoted to the videogame “World of Warcraft.” Another user posted a screenshot of the president’s announcement letter to the server. Like Ms. Wargo, Mr. Melo believed the post was a joke. “I thought it was a meme at first,” he said.

After checking Mr. Biden’s post on X and confirming that the letter was real, Mr. Melo informed his wife, Jessica. Ms. Melo, also 32 and a nonprofit worker, said her first stop was a Reddit page devoted to “ Emoji Pasta .”

Emoji pasta, better known as copypasta, is a type of internet message intended to be copied and pasted and shared over and over, like “the chain letters you’d get in your email in the ’90s and 2000s,” Ms. Melo explained.

The messages are known for being vulgar and for making liberal use of suggestive emoji, like the eggplant.

“They were up instantly,” Ms. Melo said, referring to the emoji pasta about the president’s announcement. She quickly forwarded the explicit messages to several friends who told her that this was how they had learned the news.

Madison Malone Kircher is a Times reporter covering internet culture. More about Madison Malone Kircher

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Multiple failures, multiple investigations: Unraveling the attempted assassination of Donald Trump

Video shows the shooter on a rooftop moments before former President Donald Trump was the target of an assassination attempt at a Pennsylvania rally on Saturday.

Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump is surrounded by U.S. Secret Service agents on stage at a campaign rally, Saturday, July 13, 2024, in Butler, Pa. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

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Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump is surrounded by U.S. Secret Service agents as he leaves the stage at a campaign rally, Saturday, July 13, 2024, in Butler, Pa. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

The Butler Farm Show, site of a campaign rally for Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump, is seen Monday July 15, 2024 in Butler, Pa. Trump was wounded on July 13 during an assassination attempt while speaking at the rally. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

This aerial photo of the Butler Farm Show, site of the Saturday, July 13, 2024 Trump campaign rally, shown Monday, July 15, 2024 in Butler, Pa. On Saturday, Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump was wounded during an assassination attempt while speaking at the rally. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

BUTLER, Pa. (AP) — The young man was pacing around the edges of the Donald Trump campaign rally, shouldering a big backpack and peering into the lens of a rangefinder toward the rooftops behind the stage where the former president would stand within the hour.

His behavior was so odd, so unlike that of the other rallygoers, that local law enforcement took notice, radioed their concerns and snapped a photo. But then he vanished.

The image was circulated by officers stationed outside the security perimeter on that hot, sunny Saturday afternoon . But the man didn’t appear again until witnesses saw him climbing up the side of a squat manufacturing building that was within 135 meters (157 yards) from the stage.

Video shows the shooter on a rooftop.

That’s where he opened fire, six minutes after Trump began speaking, in an attempt to assassinate the presumptive GOP presidential nominee. The gunman killed one rallygoer and seriously wounded two others. Trump suffered an ear injury but was not seriously hurt , appearing just days later at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee with a bandage over the wound.

(AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Now come the questions, and there are plenty. Multiple investigations have been launched, both into the crime itself and how law enforcement allowed it to happen. It’s becoming increasingly clear this was a complicated failure involving multiple missteps and at least nine local and federal law enforcement divisions that were supposed to be working together. Law enforcement has also warned of the potential for copycat attacks and more violence.

This story is based on interviews with eight law enforcement officials and four people familiar with a law enforcement briefing given to senators Wednesday, some of whom spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity to discuss the investigations into the attempt on Trump’s life.

Multiple agencies work together to secure events

The Secret Service always partners with local law enforcement when a president, political candidate or other high-level official comes to town, and Saturday’s rally was no different. An advance team comes early to scope out the scene and identify potential areas of concern. They order vehicles moved. They set up barriers. They block off roads.

In some larger cities, one or two local agencies may work alongside the federal teams. In more rural areas, one local agency won’t have enough manpower so multiple agencies are often involved. On Saturday, the show of force included members of at least six different agencies, including two sheriff’s offices, local police, state police and multiple teams within the Secret Service, plus fire and emergency rescue officials. Within those agencies are individual divisions that have different duties.

In theory, more manpower is better. But it can often create communication problems, and it’s unclear how the information about 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks was transmitted. For instance, it’s not clear how widely his photo was circulated or whether everyone was equally aware of the potential threat.

All the extra officers can be a drain on resources, leaving agencies stretched thin. The Secret Service at any given time is protecting the president, candidates and others, plus running point on major national security events. It’s the same for local police, who told the Secret Service they didn’t have enough people to station officers outside the building all day.

The Secret Service controls the area inside the perimeter, after people pass through metal detectors. Local law enforcement is supposed to handle outside the perimeter.

Reports of someone on the roof

The shooter, later identified as Crooks , disappeared from the crowds of Trump supporters decked out in red, white and blue. The stream of supporters entering through the metal detectors was slowing. Trump was getting ready to go on.

The rooftop from which Crooks fired is in a complex of buildings that form AGR International Inc., a supplier of automation equipment for the glass and plastic packaging industry. The building was closed for the day, except to law enforcement.

Crooks was spotted again when members of a local SWAT team, stationed inside the building complex, noticed him walking around and looking at the roof. One officer took a photo of Crooks and radioed to others to be on the lookout for a suspicious person looking through a rangefinder — a small device resembling binoculars that hunters use to measure distance from a target.

Not long after, witnesses reported seeing him scaling the squat building closest to the stage. He then set up his AR-style rifle and lay on the rooftop, a detonator in his pocket to set off crude explosive devices that were stashed in his car parked nearby.

Outside, a local officer climbed up to the roof to investigate. The gunman turned and pointed his rifle at him. The officer did not — or could not — fire a single shot. But Crooks did, firing into the crowd toward the former president and sending panicked spectators ducking for cover as Secret Service agents shielded Trump and pulled him from the stage. Two countersniper teams were stationed on buildings behind Trump, and the team further away from Crooks fired once, killing him.

Around 6:10 p.m. ET: Shots fired at the rally

In the congressional briefing Wednesday, FBI and Secret Service officials laid out a clearer timeline: Crooks was identified as a potential threat a full hour before the shots were fired, they saw him with the rangefinder roughly 40 minutes before the shooting, and then spotted him again looking through the rangefinder, about 20 minutes before the shooting.

Police snipers return fire after shots were fired. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

Many investigations, few answers

“We are speaking of a failure,” Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas told CNN . “We are going to analyze through an independent review how that occurred, why it occurred, and make recommendations and findings to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”

House Oversight Committee Republicans have subpoenaed Secret Service Director Kim Cheatle. House Speaker Mike Johnson said he would set up a task force to investigate, and some Republicans have called on Cheatle to resign.

Cheatle herself said the shooting was “unacceptable,” in an interview with ABC News. “And it’s something that shouldn’t happen again.”

Security has been stepped up for Trump and President Joe Biden, and independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. also received a protective detail.

Biden has ordered an independent review of the shooting. The Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general also opened an investigation into the Secret Service’s handling of the shooting.

The Butler Farm Show. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

But it’s a big task. There were special agents, presidential protective teams, counterassault and countersniper teams all there that day. There were also roughly 50 firefighters and emergency personnel, plus dozens of officers from the Butler Township police, deputies from Beaver County and Butler County and Pennsylvania State Police troopers.

It will take weeks — if not months — to interview all the officers involved and determine exactly how Crooks was able to pull off the most serious attempt to kill a president or presidential candidate since Ronald Reagan was shot in 1981.

The shooter had prepared for carnage. Investigators found he brought multiple loaded magazines. He also bought 50 rounds on the day of the shooting. The rifle was purchased legally by his father years earlier.

Investigators found a bulletproof vest in his car and another rudimentary explosive device at his home, where over the past few months he had received several packages, including some that had potentially hazardous material. The FBI gained access to Crooks’ cellphone, scoured his computer, home and car, and interviewed more than 100 people so far.

But much of his communication was done in encrypted messages; investigators were reviewing more than 14,000 images on his cellphone and have learned Crooks had also searched online to study bullet trajectory.

But the investigation has of yet failed to lift the mystery surrounding the biggest question: Why did he do it?

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Long and Jalonick reported from Washington, and Balsamo reported from Chicago. Associated Press writers Eric Tucker, Alanna Durkin Richer and Rebecca Santana in Washington and Maryclaire Dale in Butler, Pennsylvania, contributed to this report.