“Events of political violence give rise to conspiracy theories and false narratives as people try to spin the events to suit their various purposes,” Megan Squire, deputy director of data analysis at the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Intelligence Project, told The Washington Post. “This incident is no exception, with people inventing ‘false flag’ conspiracies and accusing innocent people of committing or abetting this crime.”
Experts say this dynamic is exacerbated by the current political environment, in which Americans can no longer agree on common facts and instead live in separate, separate realities.
Minutes after the shooting, right-wing social media figures and Republican lawmakers began to suggest that those in power were directly or indirectly responsible for the assassination attempt. Rep. Mike Collins (R-Ga.) posted on X that “Joe Biden gave the order,” which was viewed more than 4 million times and later called for Biden to be charged with “soliciting assassination.”
On social media, a TikTok user posting under the handle @theoldermillenial.1 told his 1.2 million followers, “I guess the court case didn’t go well so they decided to take another tack. Remember guys, the left has this kind of power.” X’s anonymous conspiracy theorist account Shadow of Ezra posted, “The Deep State tried to assassinate Donald Trump on live TV,” which has been viewed more than 1 million times, according to data collected by Jankipedia, a repository of social media content. A follow-up, describing the shooting as “the price you pay for taking down an elite Satan-worshipping pedophile,” has been viewed more than 2.5 million times.
Many others held Biden, the left and the media psychologically responsible for the violence. Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, Trump’s running mate, said the attempt was “aided and abetted by the radical left and the corporate media.” Nicole Shanahan, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s running mate and a Trump critic, blamed “the Democratic National Committee and legacy media” for stoking the hysteria that led to the violence. And Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene wrote in X that Democrats “have wanted Trump gone for years and are prepared to do whatever it takes to make that happen.”
In the hours after the shooting, the word “staged” trended on X, sparking online speculation that the incident may have been faked. Thousands of people retweeted unfounded claims that the shooting was the result of a BB gun.
As the furor escalated, misinformation experts urged the public to avoid sharing unverified information online.
“Fast-moving events inevitably lead to a flood of misinformation and unverified information, especially on social media,” Graham Brookie, vice president of technology programs and strategy at the Atlantic Council, said in a post on X. “Please exercise empathy and caution as events unfold.”
But far-right channels on the encrypted platform erupted with a frenzy of shock, anger, and conspiracy theories. Victory slogans (“We missed you!”) and calls for civil war were captioned onto the instantly iconic image of a bloodied but defiant Trump raising his fist against a flag backdrop. With no clear word from authorities on a suspect or motive, MAGA extremists quickly embraced the idea of a politically motivated assassination attempt. Disinformation swirled, as trolls shared uncorroborated footage and information about the alleged perpetrators to rack up easy clicks.
Some blamed anti-fascists (Antifa), while others concocted complicated explanations involving the deep state and Satan. Several white supremacist accounts held online discussions on X, claiming that Jews were plotting to assassinate President Trump.
“They want a civil war. We must win,” Jackson Lehmeyer, president of the Oklahoma-based far-right group Pastors Support Trump, wrote in an email to subscribers within hours of the attack.
Pastors who support Trump said in an email that they “are calling for the deep state We’re screwed“God’s protecting hand is upon President Trump.”
Conservative influencer Laura Loomer and radio host Erick Erickson blamed Biden for the shooting, citing Biden’s comments to donors days earlier that it was time to put Trump “in the bullseye.”
The right-wing account “Ill Donald Trump” posted a photo from the day John F. Kennedy was assassinated with the caption “Deep State, Not Today!!!”
Multiple accounts falsely claimed the shooter at the rally was “Antifa militant Mark Violet” and that he had previously discussed his plans in a YouTube video, but that video featured another individual who had no connection to the shooting.
Internet platforms often struggle to curb the spread of misinformation about disasters in the immediate aftermath because of a lack of reliable information and slow response times, said Katie Harbath, a former public policy director at Facebook who is now chief global affairs officer at technology consulting firm Duco Experts. “These breaking news situations are the hardest for platforms to moderate because the facts of what happened are still emerging, and they need to be retrained.” [their algorithms] “It’s to look for specific content and let human reviewers know what is appropriate and what is inappropriate,” she said.
Among the steps online platforms are considering are responding to requests for information from law enforcement and reviewing images of the shootings to see if they violate their standards for violent content. Policymakers are likely keeping an eye on information about the identity of shooters in order to lock their accounts, Harvath added.
When contacted by a Washington Post reporter, the AI chatbot had not yet become aware of Saturday night’s events. When asked if anyone had tried to shoot Trump, ChatGPT replied, “There has been no recent talk of anyone trying to shoot the former president.” OpenAI did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Amazon’s voice assistant Alexa gave mixed results. When asked if Trump had been shot, it correctly answered by citing Reuters and Washington Post reports about the shooting at the Pennsylvania rally. But when the question was rephrased, it referred to an incident at a 2016 campaign rally in which a man grabbed a gun from a police officer and tried to shoot Trump.
Amazon did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos owns The Washington Post.
As details about the shooter slowly emerged throughout the evening, identifying the man on the rooftop outside the Trump rally, Elon Musk, the billionaire owner of X, posted that the Secret Service was either “grossly incompetent” or “deliberate” in allowing the gunman to be there.
Paul Penzone (Democrat), former sheriff of Maricopa County, Arizona’s most populous county, said conspiracies and doubts about elections and democratic institutions have been rampant in recent years, and that false theories and misinformation have a major influence on public sentiment and perspective, “ultimately influencing human behavior and poisoning public discourse.”
Penzone frequently increased security for county officials, election staff and county buildings amid a hostile environment for public servants in battleground counties. He added that the threatening and harassing communications often stem from conspiracies fueled by misinformation.
Hannah Allam, Yvonne Winget Sanchez, Naomi Nix and Suzie Webb contributed reporting.
