A new poll revealed that a stunning number of Democrats believe the 2024 assassination attempt on President Donald Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania, was staged.
Among respondents who identified as Democrats, 42% said they believed that the Butler attempt by would-be assassin Thomas Crooks was fake, according to a YouGov poll. Thirty-four percent believed the recent attempt by suspect Cole Allen at the White House Correspondents Association (WHCA) dinner was also staged. Twenty-six percent said the same of Ryan Routh’s attempt at Trump International Golf Course in West Palm Beach in September 2024. (RELATED: Two Trump Would-Be Assassins Have At Least One Thing In Common: Ukraine Obsession)
Notably, the poll found that nearly a quarter of Democrats believed all three attempts were hoaxes.
42 percent of Democrats believe the Butler, PA assassination attempt on President Trump was staged.
This isn’t a small group. Massive numbers of Democrat voters are living in a complete state of delusion. https://t.co/DtDEfP71pK pic.twitter.com/jgoCPp58EW
— Vince Coglianese (@VinceCoglianese) May 11, 2026
These numbers were lower among respondents who identified as independents. Twenty-one percent of independents believe the Butler shooting was staged, while 23% and 14% believe the WHCA dinner and golf attempts were staged, respectively.
Among Republicans, 7% believe the Butler attempt was fake; 13% believe the WHCA was fake; and 7% believe Routh’s was staged, as well.
The survey polled 1,000 Americans and was conducted from April 28 to May 4.
Allen’s attempt at the WHCA dinner in April pushed Trump past a grim milestone: he is now survived more assassination attempts than any other president in U.S. history.
A recently resurfaced survey from 2025 found that people with graduate degrees are nearly twice as likely to believe that “violence is often necessary to create social change” compared to those with basic college degrees or who bypassed higher education altogether. Another 2025 poll found that an increasing number of young Americans believe political violence can be justified. And yet another showed that 55% of self-identified “left of center” Americans believed a Trump assassin would be “somewhat justified.”
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