MAGA is increasingly convinced that the attempt on Trump’s life was staged

In recent weeks, like Criticism of President Donald Trump Of his supporters have arrived Fever degreea new conspiracy theory has taken hold: Some of the president’s biggest supporters now claim, without evidence, that Trump made an attempt on his life in Butler, Pennsylvania, in 2024 and is covering it up.

During an outdoor campaign rally on July 13, 2024, Trump He survived an assassination attempt When a bullet fired by a 20-year-old man on a nearby roof hit the top of his ear. Corey Comperatore, a Trump supporter who was sitting near the president, was shot and killed. The shooter was later killed by Secret Service agents. Conspiracy theories about Butler’s assassination quickly spread It has permeated the InternetBut for many Trump supporters, His survival was seen as a sign from God that he was the chosen one.

As Trump’s control over MAGA waned, a growing number of his supporters began pushing the narrative that the entire incident was staged.

“I think it may have been staged,” Tim Dillon said He said On his program last weekend about the assassination attempt. Dillon, who was previously a staunch Trump supporter, continued that Trump should now come out and say, “Some people are going to be upset by this, but we made an attempt on Butler’s life to show people how important it was to vote for me and how far I was willing to go for them.”

Some of these claims started months ago. In November, former Fox News critic Tucker Carlson Promoted The idea that the FBI was somehow involved in covering up the shooting, and writing on X that “the FBI lied” about the shooter’s online fingerprint.

A day later, conservative critic Emerald Robinson went further, saying: Posting on X That the FBI “did it.” (In the same post, Robinson claimed the agency was responsible for everything from the January 6 attack on the Capitol to “Jeffrey Epstein blackmail tapes” and “Governor Whitmer’s fake kidnapping plot.”)

But allegations that Trump orchestrated the whole thing really increased when former director of the US National Counterterrorism Center Joe Kent appeared on Carlson’s podcast last month, one day after he resigned from his position over the Iran war.

During the interviewCarlson and Kent discussed the Trump administration’s failure to provide more details about the Pennsylvania shooter. Kent claimed, without providing any evidence, that the investigation into the shooting had been closed before it was finished.

Kent also claimed that this vacuum of information about the incident will lead to more conspiracy theories. “If you don’t want to answer that question, just shut up and say you can’t ask that question,” he said. “Which then creates people who come out of nowhere and start drawing their own conclusions.” (This is actually, experts say, one The basic dynamic behind the conspiracy theory.)

“If you can’t look at this story and use critical thinking skills and at least have some questions, then you’re the problem and we need you to get rid of it,” said Trisha Hope, a Republican national delegate from Texas and a former Trump supporter. Published on X About Butler this week.

On Telegram, MJ Truth, a prominent QAnon promoter, asked his 100,000 followers: “How does everyone feel about the narrative surrounding Butler’s assassination attempt on Trump?”

The vast majority of the hundreds of responses, almost all of whom were Trump supporters, said they believed the incident was staged and that the truth may never come out. One follower wrote: “The truth will come out over 60 years from now when we’re all dead and no one cares anymore…just like JFK!!!!”