Fact-averse radical leftists are taking to social media to claim the third attempt on President Trump’s life by an armed lunatic was all part of an elaborate hoax.
X has become a cesspool of armchair sleuths — many of them sporting blue hair and septum rings — confidently declaring suspect Cole Allen’s botched attempt to mow down Trump administration officials at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner on Saturday night is fake.
The fringe’s conspiracy theories for why the assassination attempt was staged range from it aiming to be a distraction from the Iran war or the Epstein files, to clearing the way to build Trump’s proposed $400 million White House ballroom.
“Stop. Staging. Fake. Assassination. Attempts,” an X user wrote, mimicking a pro-Trump post by conservative activist and podcast hose Riley Gaines.
Another person posted, “This is backfiring on Trump. Nothing is gonna work. People aren’t buying it anymore.”
Someone else sneered, “Yep that is why Trump staged the event last night. To get his supporters yelling to build his f–king ballroom.”
One hateful X user wrote in response to a photo in which White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt and White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller’s wife, Katie, were comparing baby bumps, “You’re both a couple of fat ugly pigs.
“The staged assassination attempt was pitiful. Your time is coming, piggy.”
The comments continued a disturbing pattern of callous indifference that has followed every assassination plot against the president.
The term “staged” has been trending on both Google Trends and social media, with more than 300,000 posts on X by midday Sunday using the term, the New York Times reported. Search interest for the word on Google quickly spiked in the immediate aftermath of the shooting.
“60 Minutes” correspondent Norah O’Donnell even jumped into the fray during the president’s Sunday night appearance on the embattled CBS news magazine program.
“I hesitate to ask you about this, but as you know there’s conspiracy theories out there on the left and on the right that the event was staged or it didn’t happen,” O’Donnell asked the president.
Trump shot back, “Last night didn’t happen?”
O’Donnell replied, “Yeah, because it was your first time there” at the correspondents dinner.
“Or that Butler didn’t happen, these conspiracy theories that are gaining traction on the internet,” she added, referring to the assassination attempt on Trump’s life at a July 2024 campaign rally in Butler, Pa., that left one attendee dead and several others wounded.
Trump replied sarcastically, “Yeah, October 7 didn’t happen, and World War II didn’t happen, and the Holocaust didn’t happen, and many things didn’t happen.
“I don’t know — I think they’re more sick than they are con people, but there’s a lot of conning that’s going on,” he said of the conspiracy theorists.
“I hadn’t heard that last night didn’t happen. Usually it takes a little bit longer, usually they wait about two to three months to start saying that,” he said.
In a victory for sanity, an equal contingent of X posters were quick to bat down and even mock the hysterics-prone lefties who claim the WHCD attack was staged.
“You would have celebrated if it happened and you’re screaming staged because it didn’t happen. You are some sick people,” someone wrote.
Another person asked, “So now the liberal cult members are now part of some grand conspiracy about this being staged?”
Political commentator and podcast host Michael Knowles wrote, “It was staged…by a California Democrat teacher who donated to Kamala Harris and will now spend the rest of his life in prison in order to help Trump?”
Even the left-leaning news commentary cable channel MS NOW threw cold water on the conspiracy theories in a rare display of common sense for the network.
“One thing I’m disturbed by as we woke up this morning is seeing folks on the Internet saying this is a false flag, that we are basically al in cahoots, to say this was staged,” said MS NOW host Eugene Daniels, who was at the gala at the time of the attack.
“And I think as someone who was in the room, who had to jump on the ground, who had to text our family and friends to tell them we’re OK, calling their moms … to see people say those kind of things, it’s frustrating, it’s disturbing, and it shows the kind of issues we have to fix in this country.”
