US EditionHow Would an Assassination Attempt Be ‘Staged’?
The shooting killed one attendee and wounded two others, while the FBI identified 20-year-old Thomas Crooks as the attacker.
- In the hours following the 2024 assassination attempt on Donald Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania, baseless conspiracy theories claiming the shooting was 'staged' flooded the internet, with the iconic photograph becoming a focal point for unfounded allegations.
- Claims that assassinations are 'staged' for sympathy have historical precedent dating to 1835, when opposition parties accused President Andrew Jackson of faking an attempt for public sympathy; similar theories emerged after attacks on Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin in 1995 and Vice President Cristina Fern in Argentina in 2022.
- Recent remarks from comedian Tim Dillon, as well as personalities Tucker Carlson and Marjorie Taylor Greene, fueled these narratives; WIRED's David Gilbert reported last week that such comments opened the door to further conspiracies from the MAGA coalition.
- Visual forensics confirm a gunman fired eight shots at Trump, one grazing his ear; the bullets killed attendee Corey Comperatore and seriously wounded two others before the Secret Service killed the attacker. The FBI identified the shooter as 20-year-old Thomas Crooks.
- The Oxford English Dictionary notes the term 'staged' originated in a 1935 story in The American Magazine to describe theatrical set design, a definition that contrasts sharply with its modern political usage as a conspiracy label.
12 Articles
12 Articles
How would an assassination attempt be ‘staged’?
Prominent people in the MAGAverse have recently revived the baseless claim that the 2024 Butler, Pennsylvania, assassination attempt on Donald Trump was “staged.” CNN’s Word of the Week explores what exactly staging an assassination would entail.
Social networks are once again spreading unsolicited speculation about the assassination of Donald Trump in Butler – triggered by a contribution from their own Republican camp. The background.
A conspiracy theory is booming in the United States, assuring that the assassination attempt that targeted Donald Trump in July 2024 was a staging. This rereading of history is particularly agitating the members of the MAGA movement. In a part of its voters, yet historical supporters, a form of distrust is now being observed towards the American president. - VERIF' - Trump's assassination attempt, a staging? This theory is spreading in the MAGA …
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