Unwarranted cases of political violence almost always give birth to unfounded conspiracy theories and speculations that simply come into being out of thin air. The unprecedented Saturday attack on former President Donald Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania, is now being labeled the “most serious attempt to assassinate a president or presidential campaign since Ronald Reagan was shot in 1981.”
The incident also left an attendee dead and two others critically injured. Moreover, the shooter himself, whom the FBI identified as 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, was reportedly neutralized and killed. Despite the crowded presence of Secret Service agents surrounding the Republican presidential candidate, he was shot through his upper right ear. Snaps of the event started floating instantly, picturing streams of blood flowing down Trump’s face.
Social media lit up in speculative debate without a second thought, alleging the incident was “staged” and particularly masterminded months ahead of the 2024 general elections to rope in sympathy for Trump, racing forward for his re-election bid.
Many believed in the “orchestration” of the entire affair despite its ultimate harrowing impact. Netizens just couldn’t seem to comprehend the fact that Trump instantly stood back up after being shot in the ear by an AR-15 bullet and pumped his fist in the air like it was anything but an assassination attempt.
A user came out in protest on social media, emphasizing it “was an inside job” because if the presidential hopeful had really been shot in the ear by the said bullet, “it would have taken a chunk of it off. It wouldn’t have been just a scratch.” Meanwhile, someone else seemingly pointed out that he “went behind the podium, popped up and there’s the blood.” Several others alleged that he was hit by a “shard of glass that flew off the teleprompter.”
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What made the whole ordeal seem more questionable was a BBC report suggesting that an eyewitness saw a suspicious man with a rifle on a rooftop minutes before the shots were fired.
Greg Smith reportedly informed the police about the gunman’s presence on top of a building just outside the Butler County event.
“I’m thinking to myself ‘Why is Trump still speaking, why have they not pulled him off the stage’… the next thing you know, five shots ring out,” he told the BBC. Smith also claimed to have witnessed Secret Service agents shoot the man.
“Why is there not Secret Service on all of these roofs here? This is not a big place. It’s a security failure, 100% security failure,” Smith added.
On the contrary, other netizens couldn’t swallow the fact that others were also afflicted by the happenings of the day. “Saying this is staged is just weird considering the fact that one of the attendees was just pronounced dead and so was the shooter,” someone wrote on X/Twitter.
Former US Marine Brian Berletic also jumped on the bandwagon, pointing out that ultimately, security lapse became the reason for these questions around the nature of the assassination attempt on Trump.
Taking cues from pictures available online, Berletic drew various red flags, rendering many unable to “believe the US Secret Service was so systematically incompetent.”
Among one of the pictures shared by the ex-marine, he noted how a giant American flag was flying right over the former president’s head, which could have perfectly served as “the ideal wind flag, indicating for a potential assassin wind speed and direction.” He alerted netizens about how “such indicators should have been prohibited by security.”
According to the former US marine’s analysis, officials “almost certainly” assessed potential positions for an assassin, with video evidence implying security had “snipers pointed in their direction, but apparently access to them left unguarded.” He added, “If the audience saw the assassin moving into an obvious firing position, trained snipers with scopes certainly did.”
In a follow-up tweet, Berletic also signaled how “unprofessionally” the would-be assassin at the time acted, “taking up a firing position out in the open making his mission a guaranteed one-way ticket.”
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He also recognized that the fact he was able to hit Trump meant he had prior experience firing a rifle, but with possibly “little to no tactical training.”
“If security lapses were intentional, I wouldn’t be surprised if he was approached by someone like the FBI, walked through the whole process, like many subpar ‘terror suspects’ the FBI has trained, given weapons/explosives to, often arresting them at the last moment, but once in a while ‘accidentally’ failing to do so before a live attack,” Berletic concluded.
Ohio State Representative Haraz N Ghanbari joined the conversation, providing visual evidence that shots were fired.
“A remarkable photo captured by my former White House Press Corps colleague Doug Mills. Zoom in right above President Trump’s shoulder and you’ll see a bullet flying in the air to the right of President Trump’s head following an attempted assassination,” he posted on X/Twitter, with the said picture.
Conversely, investigative journalist Laura Loomer also verbalized her thoughts on the platform, questioning how someone could “get in a building unidentified with a rifle and make it to the rooftop.”
The fact that the FBI identified the 20-year-old shooter as a registered Republican, according to state voter records, further exacerbates the debate, leaving people with only more questions in mind than answers.
In her tweet, Loomer expressed the same sentiment, adding, “@SecretService needs to be investigated. This reeks of an inside job. The head of Secret Service must resign. This was not an isolated incident. You can’t just get into a Trump rally with a RIFLE and climb on the roof.”
Chiming in with other distasteful conspiracy theories, suggesting that “Blood is on Biden’s hands,” internet personality Nick Sortor reported on the social media platform that a source familiar with Trump’s Secret Service detail told the “Federalist they’ve been REPEATEDLY asked for beefed up protection and resources for WEEKS, but Biden failed to act. DHS, which controls the Secret Service protective detail wasn’t responsive to those requests for more resources,” the source said.
