US Politics
A quarter of Americans think the assassination attempt at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner was staged
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Almost a quarter of U.S. citizens believe the attack on the White House Correspondents’ Dinner last month was staged, a new survey has found.
Shots were heard at the Washington Hilton on April 25 as a suspected gunman tried to storm the venue but was apprehended by the Secret Service before he could harm President Donald Trump, his cabinet officials, or other attendees at the black-tie media gala.
Cole Tomas Allen, 31, a computer programmer from Torrance, California, has been indicted by a federal grand jury in Washington, D.C., and charged with four felonies, including the attempted assassination of the president. He pleaded not guilty during a Monday court appearance.
A YouGov poll published by NewsGuard reveals that 24 percent of Americans believe the episode was fabricated on Trump’s behalf, perhaps to engineer sympathy for the president as his approval ratings slide, with 45 percent confident it was legitimate and 32 percent unsure. Some assassination attempts on previous presidents have been met with a bounce in polling.
The figure was even higher among Democrats, with 33 percent, or one in three, believing the alleged assassination attempt was fake but only one in eight Republicans said the same.
Younger people were more likely to humor conspiracy theories surrounding the incident, with those aged 19 to 29 commonly expressing a suspicion that all was not as it appeared, according to the research.
People offered a similar opinion about the attack on Trump that took place in Butler, Pennsylvania, in July 2024, when sniper Thomas Crooks’ bullet clipped the right ear of the then-Republican presidential candidate.
Again, 24 percent said that they believe that episode was staged, with 47 percent confident of the official narrative, and 29 percent unsure of the truth.
Respondents were less clear on Ryan Routh’s attempted attack on the president at his West Palm Beach golf club in September 2024, when the barrel of the would-be assailant’s rifle was spotted gleaming in the bushes by Trump’s security detail, forcing him to flee the grounds before he could get off a shot.
Sixteen percent felt that incident was staged, 48 percent said it was genuine, and 36 percent were uncertain.
In all, 21 percent of Democrats said they believed that all three incidents were staged, compared with 11 percent of independents and 3 percent of conservatives.
“It’s very striking,” said NewsGuard editor Sofia Rubinson. “Increasingly, people on all sides of the political spectrum are distrustful of both this administration and also the media.”
The findings were brushed off by White House spokesman Davis Ingle, however, who said simply: “Anyone who thinks President Trump staged his own assassination attempts is a complete moron.”
The hashtag “staged” trended on X in the aftermath of the attack on the dinner, despite no evidence coming to light to suggest that Allen’s actions were part of a larger plot.
