Almost immediately after the news began to circulate on Saturday that a man — now identified as 20-year-old registered Republican Thomas Matthew Crooks — botched what appears to have been an attempted assassination of former President Trump at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, conspiracy theories were flying.
After firing off several rounds from a semi-automatic AR-15 rifle while perched on the roof of a building just outside the rally's security perimeter, narrowly missing what could have been a fatal injury to Trump, Crooks was killed by Secret Service. It was later discovered that explosive devices were concealed in his car, parked nearby. As of Sunday morning, there has been no indication that Crooks had any help in his endeavor to kill the former president, or that the violent event was "staged" in any way, as many on social media have been suggesting. Nevertheless, the finger-pointing continues.
"That s**t was more staged than a Tyler Perry production of Madea Runs for President," says “Insecure” actor Amanda Seales in a video posted to social media. "I lived in Harlem long enough to know gunshots do not sound like making popcorn on the stove."
Sharing a video from the rally in which Trump, after being injured, pushes away from his security detail to raise his fist in the air for a now-famous photo, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene offers an alternate theory that the press and Democrats as a whole are to blame for the shooting.
"Someone just tried to ASSASSINATE President Trump. The Democrats and the media are to blame for every drop of blood spilled today," she writes. "For years and years, they’ve demonized him and his supporters. Today, someone finally tried to take out the leader of our America First and the greatest president of all time."
"I predict that media institutions that have previously been cynical about 'conspiracy theories' may suddenly utilize language like 'false flags' and 'staged event," writes celebrity hot-taker Russell Brand, adding his two cents on the matter.
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What seems to have set off a string of theories that the shooting was staged, or that Trump's own security detail was behind it in some way, was an on-site BBC interview with a man outside the rally on Saturday, who said that he flagged down security after witnessing Crooks getting into position to fire, only to have his warnings ignored.
"There's only a few buildings around here," the man says to BBC in the clip. "Why is Secret Service not on every building?"
"The reason most Black people believe the attempted assassination was staged yesterday is because we've seen historically what real assassinations look like by white vigilantes," public speaker Kenny Akers adds in a post to X.
"Rumors are circulating that the Trump assassination attempt was an inside job after the release of this angle. Pay attention to what the secret service agent does seconds before," writes Matt Wallace, along with a clip that appears to show Trump's security detail hustling up to the stage and then pausing, seconds before shots were fired.
Wild theories aside, what's been verified is that security will be amplified at the upcoming Republican National Convention, which Trump still plans to attend.
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