‘Staging’: How conspiracy theories swirled around Trump’s press dinner shooting

Saturday’s shooting at the White House became fodder for conspiracy theories and misinformation on social media, with many users rushing to claim the alleged assassination attempt was staged for political gain.

The president, vice president and senior members of the Trump administration were evacuated and escorted to safety after shots were fired outside the ballroom on Saturday. This would be the third assassination attempt on Trump in the past two years.

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The post spreading the claim was viewed 80 million times on X (formerly Twitter) in two days, according to disinformation watchdog NewsGuard.

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Most of these accounts made similar claims about earlier assassination attempts against Trump in Pennsylvania and Florida, AFP reported.

AFP quoted NewsGuard’s Sofia Rubinson as saying: “Many anti-Trump accounts baselessly claimed that the WHCD (White House Correspondents’ Dinner) shooting was carried out after an assassination attempt in 2024 and made the same claim.”

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She added: “Some of the viral posts we’ve seen explicitly cited these early incidents as ‘evidence’ that the shootings were part of Trump’s playbook — to gain sympathy and distract from unfavorable coverage.”

These claims are largely driven by the left-wing conspiracy movement BlueAnon.

There is no evidence to support the notion that the White House press dinner was staged.

The White House blamed the shootings on what it called a “left-wing cult of hate.”

The conspiracy theory does not stop at the statement that the shooting was carefully planned, but also further includes assertions that the suspect has ties to the Israeli military. The London-based Institute for Strategic Dialogue said state media in Russia and Iran allegedly exaggerated the claims.

However, it’s not just so-called left-wing users on social media who make and support such claims, with AFP reporting that a growing number of MAGA influencers believe the assassination of Trump at a 2024 campaign rally in Pennsylvania was staged.

Mike Rothschild, a researcher who studies conspiracy theories, said Circle-wing users have begun to believe such theories because they have “lost faith in Trump.”

“The theory sees him (Trump) as a master manipulator … and it uses misunderstandings, other viral videos, or things that people just made up as ‘evidence,'” he said.

Especially as Trump faces backlash from critics and supporters over his war with Iran, which has been going on for two months with no credible sustainable plan to stop it even in a temporary ceasefire.

(With input from AFP)