NEW: Alleged Trump Hotel Bomber’s Uncle Makes Jaw-Dropping Statement

The uncle of an Army Special Forces officer who killed himself in a Cybertruck explosion outside of the Las Vegas Trump International Hotel opened a new can of worms on Thursday, offering an explanation for why his nephew might have detonated the bomb.

The Independent spoke with Dean Livelsberger, uncle of 38-year-old Matthew Livelsberger, a Green Beret who was recently promoted and appeared to have a bright future ahead of him before he was found dead inside the charred remains of a rented vehicle on New Year’s Day. The recognizable Cybertruck was filled with gasoline tanks, camping fuel, and fireworks mortars though contained most of the blast, according to FBI investigators who questioned why an elite soldier would use that vehicle if he intended to inflict mass destruction. According to Dean Livelsberger, his nephew was distressed and only intended to make a political statement through his suicide.

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The young man “could have fashioned a bomb that would have obliterated half of that hotel if he seriously wanted to hurt others. Think of Oklahoma City… [ex-Army soldier Timothy] McVeigh was just a normal soldier. Not a Tier 1 operator like Matt,” Dean Livelberger explained, referencing the 1995 bomber who killed 168 with a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device. Evidence from the Las Vegas scene indicates that Matthew Livelsberger shot himself in the head with a firearm before the truck exploded, injuring seven bystanders.

The U.S. Army soldier had served since 2006, deploying twice to Afghanistan and serving in Ukraine, Tajikistan, Georgia and Congo, according to the Army. For his courage he was awarded two Bronze Stars, including one with a valor device for courage under fire, a combat infantry badge and an Army Commendation Medal with valor. Livelsberger was on approved leave when he died, according to the Daily Mail.

Livelsberger’s uncle described him as “100 percent a patriot” and a “Rambo-type” who supported President-elect Donald Trump. “He used to have all patriotic stuff on Facebook, he was 100 percent loving the country,” he continued. “He loved Trump, and he was always a very, very patriotic soldier, a patriotic American. It’s one of the reasons he was in Special Forces for so many years. It wasn’t just one tour of duty.”

As investigators work to piece together a motive for the attack, it was revealed that Livelsberger recently separated with his wife, with whom he shares a small child. The couple lived in Colorado where Livelsberger used the Turo app to rent the Cybertruck before driving it to Los Angeles, FBI investigators announced at a press conference on Wednesday. Also discovered was evidence that Livelsberger trained at the same U.S. military facility as the ISIS-inspired veteran who attacked a crowd of New Orleans revelers just hours earlier, ramming a rented truck into the crowd and killing 15 before he was shot and killed by officers. On Thursday, the FBI said there is “no definitive link” between the attacker, Shamsud-din Jabbar, 42, and Livelsberger, despite the coincidence.

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