Context

Following the assassination attempt on former U.S. president Donald Trump during a Pennsylvania rally on July 13, 2024, many have taken to social media to speculate on its authenticity. One such person was U.S. actor Amanda Seales, who posted a viral video (archived here) claiming, "that sh*t was more staged than a Tyler Perry production of Madea runs for president." 

In the video, she questions whether the gunshots were real and asks where the blood on Trump's face came from. 

"So in theater, in movies they have what's called blood pellets. They even, you know, people use them in Halloween. It's basically a pellet of fake blood that's in your mouth and when you crush it the blood comes out," she says, implying that this was the true origin of Trump's blood. 

Seales is best known for her recurring role in the HBO show Insecure and has since used her social media platforms, Instagram and TikTok, to discuss political matters. The video is no longer available on her social media pages but has been reposted by other users on X (formerly known as Twitter) and Instagram (archived here and here). The video has been viewed over 21.7 million times and reshared over 15,000 times on X. 

"Family, y'all agree with Amanda Seales?" says the caption on the Instagram account that reshared Seales' video. 

But a closer look at photographs of the event shows the source of Trump's blood is his right ear, where he was shot.

What we found

The Associated Press published a collection of photos on July 14 showing the aftermath of the shooting from multiple angles. These photos make it clear that the blood on Trump's face is coming from his right ear, where a bullet struck him after a gunman opened fire.

Signs of trouble at Trump rally were evident in minutes before gunman opened fire https://t.co/XDmPQIJlSh

— The Associated Press (@AP) July 15, 2024

Examples of fake blood pellets sold show that, when used, the pellets give the appearance that someone is bleeding profusely from the mouth. While there are streaks of blood around Trump's face, the lack of blood on his chin, collar, and left side of his mouth does not support the blood pellet theory. Instead, given the trajectory and pattern of the streaks, it's likely that the blood around his mouth came from the ear.

Seales later posted a second video (archived here) on July 14, 2024. In this video, she admits that Trump's ear was shot but still insists the shooting was staged.

At this point, there is no evidence to support this theory. 

The verdict

U.S. actor Amanda Seales claimed that the assassination attempt on former president Trump's life was staged and implied that the true source of the blood on his face was fake blood pellets used in stage makeup. However, photos taken in the aftermath of the attempt show that the source of blood was Trump's ear, where he had been shot. We have, therefore, rated this claim as false.