20% of Left-Wing Influencers Take the Conspiracy Path

Earlier today I pointed out that responses to a Washington Post article about the failed assassination attempt against President Trump by a left-wing person included a lot of people suggesting that maybe the whole thing was being faked. I wrote, “I suspect a surprising percentage of Democrats believe something like this about one or more of the assassination attempts against Trump.”

To the paper’s credit, the Washington Post didn’t ignore the conspiracy theorizing on the left. In fact, the paper has another story up this afternoon focusing on how common it is.

About six hours after a shooter stormed the White House correspondents’ dinner, Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas) suggested an alternative hypothesis: It was all a hoax.

“Has there ever been a president have this many close ‘attempts’ on their life?” Crockett wrote on Threads at 2:51 a.m. Sunday. “Maybe it’s lax gun laws, maybe it’s lack of mental health funding, or maybe it’s fake … who knows …”

Why is a congresswoman throwing out the idea that maybe the assassination was faked? Probably because she knows her audience. Lots of left-wing influencers were saying this. [emphasis added]

A popular theory claims that Trump staged the event to generate public support amid falling approval ratings and predicted Republican losses in the midterm elections. Some say it’s intended to build support for his ballroom project, which has come under criticism for bypassing congressional approval…

About a fifth of the left-wing and liberal influencers and politicians who posted about the shooting used conspiratorial language, according to a Post analysis of social media posts and podcasts.

And this guy was spreading it to his 1.3 million followers.

TWEEPS: Elon is suppressing this video because it’s shining a light on trump’s staged event last night.

There is no “graphic content” in this video, just the truth. Please RT to make sure everyone sees this. 🙏 https://t.co/i1gLZiDyhe pic.twitter.com/d5erXmrxlp

— BrooklynDad_Defiant!☮️ (@mmpadellan) April 26, 2026

President Trump briefly mentioned his ballroom project in comments Saturday night and that seems to have (no pun intended) triggered a lot of people. This dopey account has nearly half a million followers.

After today’s White House press briefing it is clear the shooting was staged not only to get Trump his ballroom, but also to frame Trump and his entire administration as victims during a moment when they are waging illegal wars, bombing children, and funding genocide. pic.twitter.com/NqVmVo4DEW

— Power to the People ☭🕊 (@ProudSocialist) April 27, 2026

Many other folks were echoing this.

Guys.

It was staged.

We’re not stupid. Well, not all of us anyway.

They’ve figured out the only thing that shifts public opinion is the idea of an assassination attempt.

There are going to be many fake claims at pivotal political moments, for the rest of his term.…

— Tom Santos (@tommysantos14) April 26, 2026

Others claimed the goal was to impact support for the blockade against Iran.

BREAKING NEWS: 🇺🇸 US analysts believe that President Trump staged the assassination attempt at the White House Dinner to blame Iran and restart the attacks, they say. pic.twitter.com/d4xmefMlUF

— Dr.Sam Youssef Ph.D.,Ph.D.,DPT. (@drhossamsamy65) April 26, 2026

Not surprisingly, this really took off on Bluesky:

On Bluesky, which has a predominantly left-leaning user base, many people simply wrote the word “STAGED” over and over again, echoing the response to the Trump assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania, in 2024.

One of the people spreading this was the President of Media Matters who pointed to an interview with someone at the dinner which was cut off mid sentence. Calling this “super weird” is almost identical to how Candace Owens tries to raise doubt about events. Don’t offer an alternative explanation or say what you mean, just say it’s “weird.”

I don’t want to be fomenting conspiracies. But I mean…this was super weird. Super weird.

[image or embed]

— Angelo Carusone (@goangelo.bsky.social) April 25, 2026 at 7:14 PM

The reporter who was on the phone clarified on X that she wasn’t cut off by Fox, her phone call had dropped out. She also explained what she was about to say before that happened.

Our calls were dropping, because there is barely any service in that ballroom. To finish the story, he was telling me to be careful with my own safety because the world is crazy. Which is what my own father and other people have also said to me recently. He was expressing his…

— Aishah Hasnie (@aishahhasnie) April 26, 2026

Some didn’t go as far as saying it was staged but did defend those who were making that claim by arguing that staging an assassination is the kind of thing Trump might do.

.@ananavarro suggests White House Correspondents’ Dinner was “staged because Trump lies.” https://t.co/K4ZoWD71pe pic.twitter.com/JCYuIMiRHb

— Washington Examiner (@dcexaminer) April 27, 2026

The conspiracy theorizing was so widespread that even MSNOW commented about it.

“One thing I’m disturbed by as we woke up this morning is seeing folks on the Internet saying this is a false flag, that we are basically al in cahoots, to say this was staged,” said MS NOW host Eugene Daniels, who was at the gala at the time of the attack.

“And I think as someone who was in the room, who had to jump on the ground, who had to text our family and friends to tell them we’re OK, calling their moms … to see people say those kind of things, it’s frustrating, it’s disturbing, and it shows the kind of issues we have to fix in this country.”

If, God forbid, there’s another attempt on Trump’s life later this week, these same people will double down and pretend it didn’t happen. Their brains are broken and there’s nothing that is going to change that now.

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