The bid to murder Donald Trump became a Rorschach test of conspiracy theories on social media within minutes of Thomas Crooks firing at the former president.
On one side, Trump supporters claimed he was the victim of a “deep state” assassination plot. And on the other side, fanatics claimed that the shooting which left a man dead and two others critically injured was “staged” and a “false flag.”
The far-right’s premier conspiracy theorist, Alex Jones, posted “Emergency! America Is Now Under Globalist Attack! More Assassination Attempts Imminent,” on X, formerly known as Twitter, two hours after the shots rang.
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In a video posted to the app, Jones pointed the finger at the “deep state,” saying “I’ve been saying for months on air they were gunna try to kill Trump.”
“Then they’re going to go after everybody else that’s his top supporters,” he continued. “And they also will try to kill Biden and blame it on a Trump supporter.”
Jones’ video garnered millions of views. Some users in the comments referenced comments made by Tucker Carlson in May when he said Trump “will win the election if he’s not killed first,” as corroboration of Jones’ theory.
The deep state, an alleged shadow government that manipulates and controls governments and power networks, is the subject of many of Jones’ disinformation campaigns run on his website InfoWars. Mentions of it began to spike within minutes of the attack.
While the former president thanked the Secret Service in a statement posted to his app Truth Social, some of his supporters accused the agency of being involved.
Social media users on the far left also posted secret service related theories, alleging instead that the assassination attempt was staged. Less than an hour after the attack, the word “staged” was the second most trending topic on X with related tweets receiving several millions of views.
Clips of Trump pushing agents aside to raise his fist and chanting “fight, fight, fight” sparked reactions including that from user @jawn who wrote: "This is the most staged s*** I've ever seen. An active shooter and Secret Service just allows him to stand back up for a fist up?! The crowd just sits back down?? Crowd just smiles and takes pictures??”
The immediate actions of the Secret Service to protect Donald Trump with their own bodies did not prevent people claming the agency itself is involved in the bid to murder the ex-president.
Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post via Getty ImagesOthers on the app called the agents “crisis actors,” alleging the shooting was planned by Trump himself to assist him in the polls.
“Gotta pay your crisis actors better.” said @BlackKnight10k, in a tweet that received one million views. “They've never looked more unbothered.”
“They tryna get Trump a face redemption ark so everyone roots for him I see thru it," wrote @jaybands24.
There is no evidence to support any claim that the assassination bid on the former president was fake.
According to Kevin Rojek, special agent in charge at the FBI Pittsburgh field office, investigators are still determining the motive behind the shooting.
“At present we have not identified an ideology associated with the subject, but I want to remind everyone that we’re still very early in this investigation,” he said during a tele-briefing on Sunday.
Rojek also said that investigators currently believe Crooks acted alone.
But that didn’t stop some conspiracists from speculating otherwise. On Sunday, online users were quick to dig up a clip of a 2022 TV spot for the investment firm BlackRock that was filmed at Crooks’ high school. Crooks can be seen in a shot of a class being taught by the teacher who narrates the ad.
Prominent right-wingers on X, including the MAGA celebrity Laura Loomer, used the ad to suggest that Crooks and BlackRock might have enjoyed some kind of larger connection.
“This makes MK Ultra look like Sesame Street,” one user tweeted, insinuating that the firm may have somehow brainwashed Crooks into doing its bidding.
There is no evidence that BlackRock, a favorite target of conspiracists, had any connection to the Saturday shooting. A spokesperson told The Daily Beast that the company had only vetted the teacher featured in the spot and had had no hand in hiring the student actors.
“In 2022, we ran an ad featuring a teacher from Bethel Park High School, in which several unpaid students briefly appeared in the background, including Thomas Matthew Crooks,” the spokesperson said in a statement. “We will make all video footage available to the appropriate authorities, and we have removed the video from circulation out of respect for the victims.”
The spokesperson added that BlackRock condemned the assassination attempt and any form of political violence.
