Mother Jones illustration; Bob Daemmrich/Zuma; Walton County Sheriff's Office

Earlier this year, it looked like the world had perhaps heard the last from Kyle Rittenhouse. After a jury acquitted him in November 2021, the famous teenage shooter, who killed two people and wounded a third in Kenosha, Wisconsin, during the Black Lives Matter protests, had tried to rebrand himself as a Second Amendment influencer. But in the summer of 2025, observers noted that he had quietly deleted all his social media accounts and disappeared from public life.

But not for long. Rittenhouse has returned this month, a resurrection that has only served to remind people of why he should have disappeared in the first place.

On December 10, Rittenhouse, now 22, reemerged from his self-imposed exile to announce on social media that he’d married his “best friend” and that he was back with big plans. “I stepped out of the public eye back in January— I needed peace, a fresh start, somewhere far from the constant noise and chaos. That decision changed my life,” he continued. “I met & married my best friend, and found more peace and purpose than I ever thought possible.” (His wife, it must be noted, is not the same girlfriend whose beauty he was gushing over while making cringey music videos three years ago.)

Rittenhouse then described how the assassination of Charlie Kirk “shook me to the core,” and he came to a momentous realization: “I couldn’t sit on the sidelines anymore. So, I’m back. Not quietly. Not halfway. I’m coming back in a big way.”

I stepped out of the public eye back in January — I needed peace, a fresh start, somewhere far from the constant noise and chaos. That decision changed my life… I met & married my best friend, and found more peace and purpose than I ever thought possible.

Then came the… pic.twitter.com/WPJpaQSmzL

Rittenhouse promised a “big” announcement that would kick off his return from the sidelines. That announcement, however, proved to be as embarrassing as many of his previous attempts to call attention to himself.

Two days later, Rittenhouse posted a video of himself in a suit, standing outside the Walton County, Florida, jail where, according to Rittenhouse, Michael Rediker was being held without bond “for defending himself against three violent criminals who tried to take his life from him.” Claiming that Rediker would be exonerated because of Florida’s “Stand Your Ground” law, Rittenhouse insisted that “Michael did nothing wrong and he deserves all of our........

© Mother Jones