Assassination bid on Donald Trump fuels conspiracy theories across ideologies

An attempted assassination bid on former U.S. President Donald Trump at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday, July 13, is spawning conspiracy theories. Since the incident that was captured on video, online users are spreading false and unverified claims in the run up to the U.S. presidential race later this year. The claims range from the incident being an “insider job” to allegations that the attack was “staged”. 

The Secret Service described the incident as an assassination attempt and the Department of Homeland Security has acknowledged it as a security “failure.” The federal investigators have identified the shooter as 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, and said he acted alone. As they continue to investigate the motive and new details emerge, social media platforms are abound with unverified information. 

Democratic strategist Dmitri Mehlhorn floated the possibility that the assassination attempt may have been staged. Elon Musk through a post on X (formerly Twitter) asked the leadership of the Secret Service to step down calling the attack either “extreme incompetence” or “deliberate”. 

Screenshot of Elon Musk’s post. (Source: X)

In other cases, several handles with millions of followers alleged Trump is being targeted by Democrats and the “deep state.”

QAnon-style ‘deep state’ links 

Among the claims that began circulating almost immediately online were those speculating or claiming that Trump’s attempted assassination had been carried out by his political opponents on the left. Similar to Mehlhorn’s s statement, some of these claims were made by other leaders further stoking hyperbole and aiding extreme narratives.  

Republican Congressman Mike Collins from Georgia tweeted, “Biden Sent out the Orders,” attaching a screenshot quoting Biden. The comment was made during the U.S. President Joe Biden’s July 8 meeting with his biggest donors, which was held after his June 27 debate’s shaky performance. Biden later apologized for his choice of words and clarified that he meant to say that one should focus on what Trump is doing. However, Collins’s post amassed 16.8 million views.

Screenshot of post alleging “Biden sent the orders”. (Source: X)

Another post by an account known as Wall Street Apes had garnered 726,700 views and 5,000 likes as of July 16. This account routinely spreads misinformation and conspiracy theories, and is also followed by Trump. 

Screenshot of post alleging “Democrats are looking for a green light to kill Donald Trump now”. (Source:Screenshot/X)

However, X was not the only platform seeing a rise in such narratives. Don Huffines, former Texas Senate member, whose public-facing Facebook page has 84,000 followers, went public with a post alleging the “deep state” tried to kill Trump.

Screenshot of post alleging the Deep State tried to kill Donald Trump (Source: Screenshot/Facebook)

The post carried a video, where Huffines opened with, “Hello, Patriots, as you probably know by now, the deep state tried to kill our hero, Donald J. Trump.” His video had nearly 31,000 views at the time of publishing this story. 

The theory about the deep State originates from QAnon, an alt-right wing conspiracy theory group that believes the Democratic government and Hollywood are run by a “Satanic cabal of pedophiles.” In recent years, QAnon theories came to include the notion that Donald Trump was going to “save America” from the group. 

Other unfounded claims on platforms like 4chan allege the Secret Service sniper was ordered by “top brass” to not take down the shooter or by actor Amanda Seales. Some even claimed that Trump used blood pellets to fake an injury, or that a BB gun was used by the shooter have been debunked here and here.

‘Staged’

But the conspiratorial speculations were not limited to the Republican party. Theories sprung up from the left as well. Most of these centered around the notion that the assassination attempt was “staged”, which was intended to stir up sympathy for the former president and ire against the opposing party by positioning them as the perpetrators. 

For example: A user wrote on Twitter, “I’m calling it. Blanks, crisis actors, fake blood, and a claim to martyrdom.” The post, published on the day of the incident, had received nearly 300,000 views merely one day later.

Screenshot of a post alleging the assassination attempt was staged. (Source: X)

Countless other posts like this one abounded, claiming Trump’s supporters had organized a staged attempt on his life to boost his political popularity.

Screenshots of X posts (Source:X/Modified by Logically Facts)

‘Targeted for preventing World War 3’

Several handles are floating the conspiracy that Trump was targeted since he could stop an impending “World War 3”. 

For instance, blue-tick X user Jackson Hinckle with over 2.7 million followers posted, “Donald Trump is the only candidate that might bring peace with Russia; stop WW3. If he had been killed, our next President would’ve 100% started NUCLEAR WAR. If you’re upset that Trump wasn’t killed yesterday, you’re a genocidal, satanic, antihuman psychopath (sic).” The post garnered 556,000 views and was reposted over 3,000 times. 

Hinckle routinely posts pro-Trump and pro-Russia content, targeting Ukraine. The text from the post was copied by other handles that spread the narrative using copypasta techniques alleging Trump was targeted since he is anti-war. 

Screenshots of X posts using copypasta techniques (Source: X/Modified by Logically Facts)

Around three weeks before the assassination bid, Trump had reiterated at a campaign rally in Wisconsin that Biden’s election in November would result in the start of the third world war. 

Similarly, another verified handle with nearly 62,000 followers on X wrote, “Fico = shot. Trump = shot. Orban = next? Q. What do these leaders have in common? A. They are all trying to STOP NATO from starting WW3 in Ukraine against Russia.” The post got 588,000 views and over 650 reposts.

X post on world leaders being targeted (Source: X)

The May 15 shooting of Slovakia's Prime Minister Robert Fico triggered theories that he was initiating stopping weapons deliveries to Ukraine. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban met Trump, and made surprise visits to Kyiv, Moscow, and Beijing as part of his attempt to broker a peace deal, angering NATO allies.

Content moderation and the presidential race

In what is being deemed the year of elections, social media platforms are adopting various tactics to combat misinformation. While X focuses on user-based content moderation, Meta has stopped promoting news, politics and social issues in its curated content feeds. 

The U.S. presidential race may perhaps be the most pivotal for such platforms, considering the violent January 6, 2021, Capitol Hill violence following elections last time was fueled by vitriol and conspiracies online that the elections were “stolen”.

However, conspiracies linked to the shooting were promoted on X using keywords like “#falseflag” and “staged”. Meanwhile, Meta’s decision to refrain from showing news related to the incident may impede users trying to get verified and credible information. 

Logically Facts has previously reported on how an information void aids misinformation. The American elections have repeatedly been subject to wild conspiracy theories and regurgitation of narratives that have routinely impacted the race. 

While earlier these QAnon-style theories were rooted in right-wing ideology, researchers have seen a remarkable uptick in emergence of liberal-leaning BlueAnon conspiratorial theories, which espouse that certain forces are working to make Biden lose and get Trump elected. While the origins of both types of conspiracies may be poles apart, they share a common thread in “deep state” working to take down their respective choice of leaders. 

Remaining informed about the conspiracy theories springing up across the breadth of the political spectrum is one way citizens can stay ahead of misinformation. 

The shooting at Trump’s rally fell one day before the Republican National Convention (RNC), where the former president was formally nominated as the Republican candidate for president, and where he also announced his running mate for the race, J.D. Vance. 

Both the shooting and the RNC are set against rising political tensions in America in a highly contentious race for the presidency where Americans alternately question the viability of a convicted felon for president versus one whose performance at the first presidential debate left many questioning his cognizance. In an already tense political context, Americans fear continued violence, which could be stoked by misinformation from both political parties. 

Follow Logically Facts' coverage and fact-checking of the U.S. Election 2024 here.