ANTIFA, WOMEN IN the secret service, and Trump himself have all been blamed for the attempted assassination of the former-US President last Saturday.
While conspiracy theories and wild accusations have become commonplace in the American political sphere, the shooting at a Pennsylvania rally that killed one rally attendee, critically injured two others, and left Donald Trump with a minor injury has been particularly fertile material for speculation.
On the social media platform X alone, conspiracies around the shooting were viewed more than 215 million times, according to the Centre for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH), a British research group.
You can read a summary of the information immediately available in the wake of the shooting in our rundown here.
More recently the US Department of Homeland Security’s Inspector General has launched a probe into the Secret Service’s handling of security for the former president. Latest FBI updates reveal the shooter had searched for images of Trump and Biden, but evidence of extreme political opinions was not found.
Many questions about the attack remain unanswered, almost one week on.
Of these, perhaps the two most pressing are: how did a lone gunman carrying a rifle get onto a roof so close to where Trump was giving a speech, and why did it take so long for authorities to respond?
The shooter’s roof was, according to US reports, under the responsibility of local police as it was outside the Secret Service’s security perimeter — though it is unclear why this was the case.
Footage from the rally also shows that bystanders had spotted the shooter on the roof and had warned police officers, minutes before the shooting began.
The shooter himself presents another puzzle — a gun enthusiast with bad aim and a registered Republican, though who had apparently donated to a Democrat case. His motive remains a mystery.
A huge amount of speculation has also been fueled by the actions of the Secret Service, who some claimed were slow to get Trump from the stage, and even allowed the former president to raise his head out into the open again — though this time to be shot by a photographer, as the would-be assassin had been killed.
All this, when, supposedly, Trump’s security team was on high alert due to an unrelated threat on Donald Trump’s life from Iran. (The Secret Service denied claims that it rejected a request for more security ahead of the rally as “absolutely false”, while the Iranian government rejected accusations it was involved in any plots to assassinate Trump.)
Trump himself was caught on microphone saying “let me get my shoes” while apparently struggling with his security just after the shots.
Amid these questions, many commentators – both online and elsewhere – have filled the gaps with explanations of their own.
To give an idea of how desperate some people are for an explanation, take the example of a woman in sunglasses and a black cap behind Trump when the shots rang out.
“This video of a woman located behind Donald Trump during his attempted assassination is HIGHLY suspicious,” one video shared on X reads. “Her body language & behavior seem to indicate she knew that something was coming.”
The video, which appears to be a phone recording of a Fox News TV show zooms in on the woman. “Watch watch! She sits down. Puts the sign up,” a man can be heard commenting offscreen. “She’s completely normal, and then: watch! What the f*ck?! What the f*ck? People are freaking out, and she’s just, like, right there.”
The commentator is right. She is just “like, right there”. Or, to be more specific, she takes her phone out as if to start filming the events.
The video was shared more than 12,000 times and seen more than 12,300,000 times according to statistics provided by X, and prompted many discussions about whether the woman’s behaviour was a “coincidence” (it is unclear how what the coincidence is supposed to be or how the commenters would rather she act).
Many of the conspiracies claimed that the assassination was an “inside job”, either by Biden and the “deep state”, or “staged” by Trump’s own campaign to garner sympathy and create a fabulous photo opportunity.
Some of these latter claims were amplified by photos of Trump surrounded by Secret Service agents that were doctored to appear as if they were smiling.
Irish conspiracy theory group discussions seen by The Journal appeared to favour the view that Trump had staged the shooting himself.
Claims that the shooting was staged garnered more than 122 million views on X, according to CCDH, who also noted that five posts with more than 8.8 million views claimed that there was Jewish involvement based on a band seen on a Secret Service sniper’s wrist.
Others laid the blame for perceived lapses of the Secret Service at the feet of a reliable target: women.
“The only people the Secret Service should have directly surrounding and protecting the president or former president should be the largest, most fit, most skilled males available,” one tweet seen more than 131,000 times read.
“DEI got someone killed”, Libs of TikTok, a far-right social media group and major spreader of misinformation wrote, referencing Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI), a principle used in organisations that encourages the hiring of underrepresented groups, such as women in security.
That tweet, that specifically blamed the Secret Service for hiring the women agents working that day, was shared more than 14,000 times.
False claims about the identity of the shooter also spread, with photos and names claiming to reveal the attacker falsely shared online, as well as claims that it was organised by members of the left-wing anti-fascist movement Antifa.
Claims had also spread online that the assassination attempt was predicted in the cartoon show The Simpsons, making it just the latest in a long line of events that people have claimed were foreshadowed in episodes of The Simpsons.
A Reuters factcheck showed that these frames were fake and had never appeared on the show. The Journal has previously debunked similar claims.
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