Wearing a white cotton shirt unbuttoned to his navel, superfluous gold chains, rose-colored glasses and a red MAGA cap, he epitomized the douchebaggery he’s become infamous for.
Sadly, the 25-year-old internet personality is at his hate-filled best during the month-long celebration of LGBTQ+ pride that comes around every June. This year, he has already reaffirmed his plans to “hunt” gay people and taken down pride flags at retailers, including a Glendale Sephora on June 9.
“The rainbow flag is literally the flag of Satan,” Schmidt-Crockett said on a June 8 InfoWars show called “Why I Destroyed Target Pride Displays.”
On that show, Schmidt-Crockett discussed his first of many viral videos in which he harasses employees and gets himself kicked out of local businesses that fly the pride flag. That video, which was created in 2021, regained traction after it made national headlines in May.
In the video, Schmidt-Crockett punches and stomps on a cardboard rainbow display inside a Phoenix Target store. The 43-second video was watched more than 200 million times across different platforms, Schmidt-Crockett told InfoWars. He also said that he has been permanently banned from Target stores in the U.S.
Target has pulled some of its Pride Month merchandise from stores or moved the seasonal displays to less visible areas to avoid conservative backlash.
Justin Sullivan / Getty Images
‘War on Target’
On May 24, Target released a statement regarding backlash over its 2023 Pride Collection. “Since introducing this year's collection, we've experienced threats impacting our team members' sense of safety and well-being while at work,” the statement said. In response, the big box store removed some of its pride-themed items that the company said “have been at the center of the most significant confrontational behavior.” The move was something for which Schmidt-Crockett tried to take at least partial credit.
“I started the whole crusade against Target,” Schmidt-Crockett claimed on June 13 during a podcast called “The War on Target” with host Matt Baker. You may remember Baker from his November 2022 tirade at the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors meeting, during which he peddled “stolen election” propaganda.
In the June 13 interview with Schmidt-Crockett, Baker was just as outlandish. “They want to cut your kid’s dick off,” Baker said of Target. He later issued a plea for monetary handouts.
Schmidt-Crockett responded, “We are in the end times. The pride flag is the flag of Satan.”
$10,000 Nikes
It has been two years since Schmidt-Crockett first posted a video on Twitter declaring that he would "hunt LGBT supporters" at Target. He was later banned from most conventional social media platforms but recently regained Twitter access. However, he remains banned from all major payment processing platforms, which is a problem for a guy who’s unemployed and relies on donations from his fans for income.On June 5, Schmidt-Crockett asked his social media followers for a “$10,000 dono." Two days later he asked for an additional $1,000. He then declared in a June 11 Twitter post that he has a net worth of $15 billion.
But maybe the cash from his followers didn’t come through, because, on June 12, Schmidt-Crockett upped the ante on his plea for donations by selling the very Nike Jordan 1 shoes he used to trample Target’s pride display in 2021. The price tag? A modest $10,000.
"These are historical shoes," he said. "They need to be in a museum."
Two days after putting the shoes up for sale, Schmidt-Crockett told Phoenix New Times that he’s “working on some deals right now.”
Employees at Sunny's Hair and Wigs in Mesa described in court how Ethan Schmidt-Crockett targeted them in May 2021.
Elias Weiss
The troll gets trolled
Even though he was sentenced to three years of probation in March, Schmidt-Crockett still hasn’t stopped trolling metro Phoenix. He will face 60 days in jail if he violates his probation, but that hasn’t stopped him from causing chaos.In the past, he’s been charged with assault and criminal damage, disorderly conduct, extreme DUI, violating a restraining order, violating probation, failing to appear in court, driving with a suspended license and more, according to the Arizona Republic.
On May 29, Schmidt-Crockett got a taste of his own medicine after a tweet by Travis Akers went viral. "Ethan Schmidt, the right-wing activist who went viral for destroying Pride merchandise in Target, has been active on gay dating apps for several years," Akers' Tweet read. Included in the post was a screenshot of Schmidt-Crockett presumably messaging an individual on the app.
The screenshot — criticized as a fake in social media debates — drew a response from Schmidt-Crockett. He said he only used Grindr — an app primarily used by men seeking sex with other men — for “predator catches.”
Akers' tweet was viewed more than 10.2 million times. A TikTok claiming the same thing amassed nearly 250,000 likes.
