Over a month after the try on former president Donald Trump’s life, left-wing conspiracy theories claiming that the capturing was staged nonetheless pervade social media on platforms like X — the place they’re racking up tens of millions of views.
Hashtags like “#Staged,” “#StagedbyTrump,” or “#StagedAssassinationAttempt” proceed to see tons of of deranged posts throughout social media each day — a lot of them posted by proudly anti-Trump and left-leaning accounts.
One anti-Trump poster asks merely “Who else thinks the Trump marketing campaign staged this?” with a video of the aftermath of the capturing. It has 8.4 million views and greater than 20,000 feedback — most of them agreeing with the premise.
“The Actual Story … Trump marketing campaign employed the child to fireplace into the gang however keep away from hitting Trump to stage a faux assassination try after which blame Democrats, probably to begin a civil conflict … They knew the child wouldn’t survive to inform the story,” reads one picture that’s been repeatedly reposted throughout X.
“Info,” wrote one of many many customers who reposted the picture.
One other widespread publish exhibits video taken from behind the stage the place gunman Thomas Crooks could be seen working throughout a rooftop outdoors of the Butler, Pennsylvania, rally. The video claims Trump is following the shooter’s motion, and prepares a packet of pretend blood to smear over his face as soon as the gunfire rings out.
“Watch him observe the shooter and drop the crimson dye pack,” one poster wrote — although no such blood packet could be seen.
Numerous wild-eyed posts characteristic a Spirit Halloween itemizing for a $12.95 faux blood packet that may be discretely saved behind your ear.
“Suits snugly behind the ear, simply slap along with your hand to scare mates with probably the most reasonable bloody ear ever!” the itemizing reads, with posters claiming Trump certainly used such a product to faux his wound.
Others have targeted on Trump’s hat, claiming it was there that he saved a faux blood packet — and zeroed in on a suited agent who collected the hat after Trump was whisked away by the Secret Service.
Images of Trump’s ear for the reason that bandages have been eliminated additionally play a central position within the conspiracy theories — and are continuously paired alongside pictures of grisly ear wounds as supposed proof that he wasn’t actually shot.
“What sort of assassination of an ex president means that you can straighten out your wig, scream to your shoe lifts and stand lengthy sufficient for images. Pretend faux faux; not combat combat combat,” one X poster — who describes themselves as “woke AF” — wrote on Sunday.
The FBI, nevertheless, has confirmed that Trump was in actual fact shot within the ear.
“What struck former President Trump within the ear was a bullet, whether or not complete or fragmented into smaller items, fired from the deceased topic’s rifle,” the company stated in a press release in July.
That bullet got here inside an inch of a fatally placing him — and solely missed as a result of he occurred to show his head on the exact second Crooks pulled his set off about 130 yards away.
A hero firefighter within the rally crowd was fatally struck however Crooks’ gunfire, and two extra have been significantly wounded. Crooks himself was shot lifeless by Secret Service snipers inside moments of opening fireplace.
X didn’t reply to requests for remark.