Immediately after the attack White House Correspondents’ Dinner On Saturday night, influencers, pundits, and random posters lit up social media platforms like X, Blueskyand Instagram and conspiracy theories about the attack and the alleged shooter.
Both right-wing and left-wing accounts claimed, without evidence, that the attack was carried out.
President Donald Trump, Vice President JD Vance, and dozens of other prominent administration officials and journalists were attending a dinner at the Hilton hotel in Washington, DC, when the suspect, later. to be recognized and media reports that Cole Tomas Allen from California, allegedly ran from security to the event. He was detained by law enforcement while the president and vice president were transferred. Police he said that they believe Cole acted alone, but did not expand on who his motives were or what his motives might have been. “We believe the suspect was targeting administration officials,” acting attorney general Todd Blanche said he told it NBC Meet the Journalists Sunday morning.
On Bluesky, which has a left-leaning user base, many people wrote the word “STAGED” again and again, repeating the answer of Trump’s assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania in 2024.
On X, many he demanded shot it was arranged as a way to bolster support for Trump’s plan to build a new ballroom at the White House. The president referred to the theater in a press conference after the event with Social Truth post Sunday morning. Most popular Trump add-ons online supported the need for theater, as well as a far-right podcaster Jack PosobiecTikTok creator libs Chaya Raichikand Tom Fittona right-wing activist who runs Judicial Watch.
Their quick response, conspiracy theorists claimed, was evidence of a coordinated campaign following the shooting. “Is this another staged event,” one X user asked in a post that has been it has been viewed over 5 million times.
Other social media users claimed that the incident was staged he said for a Fox News clip featuring White House correspondent Aishah Hasnie speaking from the Hilton hotel. Hasnie told viewers that before the shooting, press secretary Karoline Leavitt’s husband allegedly told her “you need to be very safe,” before hanging up.
“Fox News cut one of their reporters because they seemed to imply that the shooting was a planned false flag,” one X user. he wrote in a post that has been viewed more than 2 million times. Hasnie explained later post X that his cell service was spread out in an area with very poor service, adding: “He was telling me to be careful about my safety because the world is crazy. He was showing concern for my safety.”
“I don’t want to be inciting a conspiracy,” he wrote Angelo Carusonechairman and president of Media Matters, on Bluesky about the Fox News interview. “But I mean…this was really weird. Really weird.”
Leavitt himself was also the target of conspiracy theories after saying “shots will be fired” in a pre-dinner interview, referring to a joke that Trump was scheduled to make. Following the attack, X users claimed the comment was “wonderful,” “theirs,” or “curious choice of words,” while sharing memes that suggested shooting the main road seemed to promote a conspiracy theory as well, describing Leavitt’s comments as “strange” and “weird.”
