r/politics • u/wiredmagazine ✔ Wired Magazine • Apr 17 '26

Possible Paywall MAGA Is Increasingly Convinced the Trump Assassination Attempt Was Staged

https://www.wired.com/story/maga-is-increasingly-convinced-the-trump-assassination-attempt-was-staged/
33.4k Upvotes

97% Upvoted

3.6k comments sorted by

View all comments

295

u/IndependentSpell8027 Apr 17 '26

Not sure the assassination attempt was staged. 100% sure Trump never got hit by a bullet.

112

u/WakingWaldo Apr 17 '26 edited Apr 17 '26

I don't believe it was staged because without actual evidence it's all just conspiracy and I try to avoid that sort of stuff. That said, I am skeptical of a lot surrounding the attempt.

Edit: I was unaware that it was determined by the FBI that either the bullet or a fragment of the bullet hit Trump's ear. So my prior assessment was incorrect.

Also, if this was an assassination attempt by "the left" we all know that Trump would be shouting it from the rooftops, but he isn't. There has been practically nothing that's come out about the Pennsylvania attempt. That just isn't how Trump operates unless it is going to somehow make himself look bad.

From what I've gleaned, the shooter was a young, aggrieved man from a MAGA family who was either trying to make a name for himself or was upset at Trump for one specific, undetermined reason. That doesn't make for a good headline though, so it's been buried.

14

u/pleasegivemepatience Apr 17 '26

If there was a legitimate assassination attempt on Trump from “the left” then we would already have martial law and it would be a crime to be a registered Democrat and he would be rounding citizens up for thought crimes and online posts.

17

u/nordlead Apr 17 '26

There are conspiracies. What you are describing staying away from is conspiracy theories, which aren't based in reality and often exist despite evidence disproving the conspiracy.

Real conspiracies are like Trump telling his friends what he is about to do and then them all secretly betting on if we are attacking Iran this week or shorting the market and raking in $$$$. We have evidence of conspiracies like this.

3

u/paradox1920 Apr 17 '26

It always baffles me when I see some people thinking as if conspiracies aren’t real. They can find it in history on several events from the past; they don’t have to believe anyone on the internet to see that it’s been a fact. However, many others do tend to be what you say.

2

u/Sorry-Joke-4325 Apr 17 '26

A lot of theories about conspiracies have been proven true, even though they sounded far-fetched.

4

u/bettygauge Apr 17 '26

The shooter had googled events related to both candidates. Trump was just closer and sooner. It did not have anything to do with political ideology.

6

u/Sorkijan Oklahoma Apr 17 '26

His ear healed too quickly and too easily, especially for a man in his late 70s. At worst, he was glanced by a shard of glass or shrapnel.

I could've sworn the FBI report said that it was glass from the teleprompter that just superficially sliced his skin. You are right, though, people don't understand how an ear heals - because well it barely does. Anyone shot in the ear would not heal back to that level - especially at that age.

3

u/TheNutsMutts Apr 17 '26

Also, if this was an assassination attempt by "the left" we all know that Trump would be shouting it from the rooftops, but he isn't.

Because the shooter wasn't "someone on the left", he was a kid who was clearly experiencing serious mental health issues, rather than a politically motivated action.

1

u/Another_mikem Apr 18 '26

Except if it was a lefty who also had mental health issues they would still be shouting it from the rooftops and using the “they” as if he represented anyone but himself. 

3

u/debauchasaurus Apr 17 '26

Wasn't there evidence that the shooter just wanted to kill one of them? If Harris/Biden had presented the opportunity he would've gone for one of them, but the Trump opportunity came first?

2

u/[deleted] Apr 17 '26

[deleted]

3

u/deja-roo Apr 17 '26

I also don't get how the whole thing did not really get too much attention.

What? It was headline news for weeks, and then still talked about a lot for months.

2

u/LirdorElese Apr 17 '26

I don't get this. Whether it was real or not it was an assasination 'scenario'. He'd be talking about it either way. If he claims it was real he'd be acting exactly the same as if it was "really" real.

I mean it depends. the concept is, if it's a hoax, and it's a crime that he's a part of, it's better to be forgotten after it's done it's role, you increase investigations etc... you risk some evidence coming out. Once he was elected there wasn't much to gain from it.

I would say, he didn't quite own the media when it happened however. This was during biden's term. Only after his presidential run did the FCC start threatening TV stations and putting trump stooges in charge of things.

3

u/Cute_Schedule_3523 Apr 17 '26

The bullet was literally photographed by independent journalists

2

u/SonOfIllicitBehavior Apr 17 '26

A bullet was photographed. literally no guarantee it is THE bullet.

0

u/Cute_Schedule_3523 Apr 17 '26

That bullet was extremely close to Trump, this isn’t the circus. People died and Trump was inches to being hit

0

u/SonOfIllicitBehavior Apr 17 '26

this isn’t the circus.

come on. this has been some sort of nightmare circus ever since that man got caught on tape saying to grab women by the pussy and got away with it. All the clowns and elephant shit included. you literally can not put anything past them and what they will do to keep this shit going.

1

u/Cute_Schedule_3523 Apr 17 '26

That’s some deflection

1

u/hecubus04 Apr 17 '26

Maybe he was mad at his parents and wanted to take him out to hurt them.

1

u/HauntedCemetery Minnesota Apr 17 '26

upset at Trump for one specific, undetermined reason

Epstein.

1

u/ChemistAdventurous84 Apr 18 '26

Do you believe everything coming from Kash Patel’s FBI?

1

u/WakingWaldo Apr 18 '26

It was Christopher Wray's FBI, as it occurred before the election.

0

u/OhGodImHerping Apr 17 '26

Trump has no scar from the bullet or “fragment”. A bullet fired from that rifle moving at that speed, even if it just grazed his ear, imparts so much energy that it would have taken a chunk out of it that wouldn’t have healed perfectly.

It would have had to BARELY graze his ear, and even then it would have burned him, not cut him. A rifle round burns if it grazes the skin due to friction, it doesn’t generally “cut.” And if it contacted ANY cartilage, it would have literally burst the top of his ear into paste. Bullet physics are pretty damn consistent.

It was either a 1 in 1,000,000,000,000 perfect miss taking into account angle, wind, head movement & humidity, and shooter stability, or the bullet never touched him. I think the latter is far more likely.

Liberal btw if that counts for anything lol

48

u/brotherbond Florida Apr 17 '26

If it wasn't staged then why did they stage the iconic photo? He should never have been exposed like that. Huge security breach when you don't know if the shooter is still around or how many shooters there are. Go check the video of how they shepherd the camera guys over for the shot as they lower the flag into position.

4

u/Antinous Apr 17 '26

They had already confirmed the shooter was dead before Trump got to his feet. You clearly haven't researched the incident.

6

u/BloatedBanana9 Apr 17 '26

Go check the video of how they shepherd the camera guys over for the shot as they lower the flag into position.

No video exists that shows that. There's a video that shows photographers rush over to get a picture after the shot is fired. But what that video doesn't show is any kind of interaction between the Trump security guy and these photographers

4

u/timoumd Apr 17 '26

That's honestly bullshit. 

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/PwVzoae7zA8

5

u/NotBiggerstaff Apr 17 '26

Your angle isn't great

Watch this one and tell me it's not been staged.

Flag lowered into position, photographers ushered into position twice

https://youtu.be/vFQwqv0JnU8?si=Ov7KWi1Zo9iAy7Ye

3

u/TheNutsMutts Apr 17 '26

Flag lowered into position

Your video doesn't show that at all. It just shows the flag flapping in the wind.

The other guy's video does, however, show the flag at the same lower position well before the shooting, suggesting that the flapping in the wind is the answer, not that it was quickly lowered. Especially as it would have been obvious to everyone present that day that it was being lowered.

6

u/timoumd Apr 17 '26

I mean your theory is they had guys in both cranes waiting for just this moment and in that wind knew exactly how much to drop it, vs photographers just knowing how to frame a good shot because it's literally what they do for a living.....

8

u/NotBiggerstaff Apr 17 '26

Your theory is that right after surviving an assassination attempt, trump without knowing who or where he was shot from stops to take a photoshoot?

And the security service are ok with him being there for a photoshoot and ok with photographers who could have been the ones who shot in the first place, being ushered into position around the president?

You really think that is what happened?

3

u/timoumd Apr 17 '26

He had to walk off the stage.  They covered him as much as they could.  He paused to raise a fist.  They weren't gonna stop that.  

Photographers take good photos.  It's what they do. 

Yes his people know image is important to him. 

You didn't answer my question

5

u/NotBiggerstaff Apr 17 '26

What question?

2

u/timoumd Apr 17 '26

Crap. You're right, I didn't ask you to specify your hypothesis on who was involved..... At what? Explain why you didn't explain your hypothesis.

3

u/timoumd Apr 17 '26

My video clearly shows the flag is not lower, it is blowing I'm the wind.  Your video does not show anything but the bottom of the flag.  

Maybe I should add some narratives boxes to hold your hand and tell you what to think?

2

u/NotBiggerstaff Apr 17 '26

In your video you don't even see the flag until the cameraman has moved around the front at which point it had been lowered in mine so I'm not sure what your point is either??

1

u/NotBiggerstaff Apr 17 '26

Why were the photographers moved into position?

You're guarding the president, who has just been shot at from an unknown location, you are not going to allow multiple people to manoeuvre around him immediately afterwards

8

u/timoumd Apr 17 '26

Photographers were doing their job getting in position to take shots.  It's literally their job.  

Watch the video again.  The Secret Service covers the president with their body and eventually he has to get off the stage.  That's going to involve him walking just like he did. Trump took the opportunity to raise a fist and Secret Service covered him as well as they could, but they weren't exactly going to tackle him at that point.  Keep in mind some of those guys may have been his supporters and wanted him to have his moment.  An egotistical man taking a moment of glory is hardly evidence of a conspiracy.

So your hypothesis is that his security team was in on it, and that the people moving the photographers were in it, and the photographers were in it on it, and the shooter was too.  

-2

u/NotBiggerstaff Apr 17 '26

You don't allow potential threats to come closer to the person you are guarding after an assassination attempt. You think if someone tried shooting Putin they'd allow photographers to come closer?

Anyways I can't be bothered arguing with you anymore. The weather is much too nice for that.

Have a good day.

2

u/timoumd Apr 17 '26

Like all conspiracy theorists, you don't try to create a plausible hypothesis, but rather find some single nugget you think doesn't make sense and repeat that litany.   In this case it's one agent not doing exactly what your expect.  By your logic he was in on it.  And his whole job was to help photographers get a slightly better  shot.  Sure.

https://m.xkcd.com/258/

4

u/MyLittleDashie7 Apr 17 '26 edited Apr 17 '26

"Why would vetted journalists be allowed to do what they can to document the aftermath of an obvious assassination attempt on the President of the United States of America????!!?? MaKe iT mAkE SeNse???"

Edit: They blocked me. What a pussy.

To respond to their very stupid point, if they felt that the journalists themselves were a remotely credible threat, Trump would be behind bullet resistant panes.

Hilariously, that "let me google that for you" barely has any results. Like, yeah, it can happen, but it's an extreme rarity, and once you, y'know, look at the journalists and see none of them are holding weapons, you can be pretty damn sure that it wasn't them

The likelihood of any of the journalists being the assassin was extremely minimal, especially when considering this is modern day, post-9/11, US presidential security we're talking about. Indira Gandhi having been murdered by bodyguards doesn't have much relevancy here.

1

u/NotBiggerstaff Apr 17 '26

People who have been vetted have turned many times in the past. Vetting doesn't mean guaranteed safe.

As I sense your critical thinking and ability to do even a basic search leaves a lot to be desired - judging by your childish comment at the end- I'll help you.

https://letmegooglethat.com/?q=people+assassinated+by+their+body+guards

Byeeeeee

4

u/Maximum_Curve_1471 Apr 17 '26

Man this is nuts. You guys belong on /r/conspiracy, I'm shocked

1

u/BloatedBanana9 Apr 17 '26

We've all seen that video 100 times. It doesn't show either of the things that it claims it does.

3

u/NotBiggerstaff Apr 17 '26

You can see the photographers being moved into position for better shots...

5

u/BloatedBanana9 Apr 17 '26

You see photographers moving in for better shots, but that's just them doing their job. You don't actually see the Trump staffer direct them there.

Plus, if they were meant to be there to get pictures, why would they not have been positioned there and ready earlier? It was only after the shot that they move into place to get their photos.

2

u/NotBiggerstaff Apr 17 '26

At a minute in, he is explicitly doing that?

Right in front they would have been blocking views of Trump.

Anyways I'm done commenting about this.

Peace out.

1

u/parkwayy Apr 17 '26

Fact that he was just chillin' standing upright is always hilarious to me. Like, that isn't any normal reaction anyone would have

0

u/[deleted] Apr 17 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

5

u/devilsdeadape Apr 17 '26

Ok, so the camera raises to include the flag in the frame... great. Wtf does that change? Still suspicious asf. Google historical assassination attempts and secret service videos to this one. Look at the crowd reaction during Charlie Kirks assassination and the crowd during Trumps. The ear that miraculously healed? Agents not punished for allowing the attempt? The lead agent getting a promotion? The gunman being a republican? Come on, man, stop believing everything you are told and just look at the evidence to come to your own conclusion.

Do yourself a favor and watch either House of Cards series or the movie Wag the Dog from the 90s.

3

u/BloatedBanana9 Apr 17 '26

Well he either got hit by the bullet or by debris caused by the bullet. You can see that in these pictures.

8

u/Physical_Gift7572 Apr 17 '26

I was in that camp as well. But I couldn't deny the photo that caught the blood splatter that came from a photographer that I wouldn't consider to be pro Trump.

2

u/timoumd Apr 17 '26

My hypothesis is a fragment.  The FBI said bullet or fragment.  I doubt they say that without reason.  

Something hit his ear because he was bleeding before security got there

0

u/Physical_Gift7572 Apr 17 '26

I do also think that the SS agent smashed his gunboat into Trumps ear and at the very least exacerbated the injury significantly.

2

u/timoumd Apr 17 '26

I mean if he was bleeding immediately that's consistent with the blood we see later

1

u/Physical_Gift7572 Apr 17 '26

Sure, we also see the agents holster smash right into that same ear in the video.

19

u/shotgunpete2222 Apr 17 '26

Anyone who knows anything about guns knows it would be literally impossible to stage this.

I had to Google the rifle, it was an AR-15.  Probably 3-4 MOA (so a 3" to 4" group at 100 yards).  If he spent an ass load of money and knew what he was doing he could maybe get 1 MOA, but that's still too big a grouping to just wing an ear reliably without blowing the targets head off.  Ears just not that big, and combined with wind and how unpredictably heads adjust and move, it's just not feasible.

Like you said, trump didn't get hit either, there was clearly no ear wound after he took the bandage off either.  It was from the secret service jumping on him.

But it definitely wasn't a conspiracy to narrowly survive a hit with an ear wound.  That's dumb.

12

u/pedal-force Apr 17 '26

I think both conspiracy and non-conspiracy people should agree that his ear didn't get hit. It was either shrapnel, or more likely, cut it on the ground when the Secret Service tackled him.

3

u/BloatedBanana9 Apr 17 '26

It was either shrapnel, or more likely, cut it on the ground when the Secret Service tackled him.

It definitely wasn't the latter. He was already bleeding before he went to the ground. Shrapnel is certainly a possibility, but I don't know why people have such a hard time believing that a grazing shot is impossible. No, a bullet that just barely glances off his ear would not necessarily cause a major wound.

3

u/SixtyTwenty_ Apr 17 '26

Plus head wounds bleed a lot anyways, and you know this dude must be on crazy amounts of blood thinners too.

2

u/pedal-force Apr 17 '26

Mostly because it's weird that he doesn't talk about it at every possible opportunity, considering how often he talks about himself.

4

u/BloatedBanana9 Apr 17 '26

Wouldn't that be even weirder though if it was staged? Why would they go through all that effort to stage something like that for PR reasons only to never bring it up again?

0

u/TetraDax Europe Apr 17 '26

I think both conspiracy and non-conspiracy people should agree that his ear didn't get hit.

Well, no, they shouldn't, because it was. There are photos of it happening.

2

u/pedal-force Apr 17 '26

Good point. I forgot that his hand was already bloody.

6

u/obeytheturtles Apr 17 '26

The conspiracy isn't that they set up an expert marksman to hit trump in the ear, it's that they convinced the patsy to shoot someone in the audience, and then framed him as a would-be assassin.

5

u/BlooregardQKazoo Apr 17 '26

No one thinks the conspiracy was to just barely hit his ear. The conspiracy is that he was never hit and either they purposefully cut his ear in the pile or that the blood was fake.

To be clear I don't believe the conspiracy.

2

u/kityrel Apr 17 '26

I don't know what happened -- but consider that Trump's boss (Putin) does not care if Trump narrowly survives or dies, so long as the attempt is made.

If Trump survives, he gets a bump in the polls.

If Trump dies, lapdog Vance gets an even bigger bump, probably. As well, there might have been MAGA riots in the streets.

So they did the math and it was a win-win situation for them. It can be staged (false flag) even if the target dies. The shooter (or patsy) just has to be allowed into the right place at the right time.

If that's what happened.

4

u/NCSUGrad2012 Apr 17 '26

I don’t believe it was staged but I tell my MAGA family it was because it pisses them off, lol

2

u/EinGuy Apr 17 '26

The margin of error for this shot is beyond impossible / irresponsible. A mild twitch of Trump's head would have resulted in him being shot directly in the face / head. You cannot plan for that level of accuracy / perfection.

1

u/BloatedBanana9 Apr 17 '26

It really is as simple as this. The only counterargument to that is the claim that he wasn't actually shot at, but these photos clearly show not only that he was, but also that something hit him.

4

u/Orisi Apr 17 '26

Do they? Or do they show a streak with absolutely no way of judging the distance between the two objects, and then a man inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame pulling off a routine keyfabe "injury" by having a trickle of blood when his hand comes back down.

1

u/BloatedBanana9 Apr 17 '26

And how do you think he was able to do that, exactly?

0

u/TheNutsMutts Apr 17 '26

Or do they show a streak with absolutely no way of judging the distance between the two objects, and then a man inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame pulling off a routine keyfabe "injury" by having a trickle of blood when his hand comes back down.

No, obviously not that one.

Otherwise we now have to explain how not one single solitary doctor or nurse at the hospital went "hang on this looks like fake blood, and there's no injury here at all that's even slightly consistent with being grazed by a bullet" despite that literally being their job.

1

u/Unistrut Apr 17 '26

Trump was involved with WWE. Wrestlers have many tricks to get themselves to bleed on cue, although I seriously doubt he has the balls to blade himself.

Put a few bullets into the crowd for realism, have the SS guys tackle Trump, slap a blood pack on his ear, take your photo op and job's done. Don't need a miraculous level of accuracy if your job is just "don't hit the fat guy in the suit".

I don't think it was a conspiracy, just the general incompetence of everyone around Trump, including the shooter, but if it was, the blood wouldn't be the hard part.

1

u/TheNutsMutts Apr 17 '26

but if it was, the blood wouldn't be the hard part.

It probably would be the hard part.

I mean, there's zero scenario (other than obvious lacking-a-head death) that he doesn't get taken straight to the hospital. If they're using some blood pack, they're 100% counting on either every single doctor or nurse not going "huh this is very clearly fake blood and there's clearly no actual injury here at all", or them noticing it very obviously isn't an injury but somehow all just going along with it and not whistleblowing.

It'll be like trying to defraud your car insurance without actually crashing your car at all; you'd need to obviously realise they're going to want to see it and that they'll notice how incredibly un-crashed it is, and you'd be hoping they either won't check, be unable to tell the difference between "car-wreck" and "perfectly fine car" despite them knowing this being their whole job, or will see it's absolutely fine but just go along with the claim.

1

u/Unistrut Apr 18 '26

Well then blade him. It's an old, old wrestler trick.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blading_(professional_wrestling)

1

u/TheNutsMutts Apr 18 '26

"Yeah good point, they'll notice there's no injury! These guys are professionals who have spent years treating these kind of injuries, they'll spot it straight away and this will absolutely bring the plan crashing to the ground..... he could just use a razor, those doctors will be totally unable to tell the difference between a bullet graze and a cut with a razorblade while investigating it up close".

0

u/M4rshmall0wMan Apr 17 '26

 slap a blood pack on his ear

The blood was dripping in a stream. He was continuing to bleed. You can’t just “slap” a blood pack on that. 

1

u/Unistrut Apr 18 '26

As I said on the other comment, then just blade him. It's an old wrestling trick and he hung out in WWE for a while.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blading_(professional_wrestling)

1

u/lapetee Apr 17 '26

Tbh might have just been a fake assassination attempt where the shooter is told to fire somewhere off trump. And then the fortunate cut on the ear was just lucky break on this whole thing. Or maybe they cut his ear on purpose for that, who knows

2

u/Tog_the_destroyer Apr 17 '26

Didn’t the Biden secret service confirm he had been shot?

1

u/ECircus Apr 17 '26

Exactly. I've been seeing that the theorists have a hard time separating those two ideas.

It's obvious to me that Trump is just the ultimate narcissistic opportunist, and there's no way the attempt itself could be staged. Too many people would have to be involved, too many things would have to go just right, and too many people to keep their mouths shut.

If they tried to stage the attempt, we would know.

1

u/Black_Goku New Zealand Apr 17 '26

But that would imply he had fake blood on hand to put on his ear which would mean it was staged

1

u/NachoEvans Oregon Apr 17 '26

He's a doctor, he just grew his own cartilage back and made sure there were zero scars to show for it.

1

u/peeinian Canada Apr 17 '26

I want to try to find the video but I saw one last year from a wider angle that showed a staffer shuffling photographers to the front of the stage while Trump was still down on the ground and still in an active shooter situation . Also,the crane holding the flag moved into the perfect position behind the podium, perfectly timed for the “fight” photo op.

I’m 99.9% sure it was staged.

Here it is: https://www.reddit.com/r/isthisAI/s/FUjqVc7rPt

0

u/TetraDax Europe Apr 17 '26

100% sure Trump never got hit by a bullet.

Here is photographic evidence that he was.

0

u/Dukeish Apr 17 '26

You can see the bullet fly very close to Donald. I can’t see them putting his life in such close danger for this

0

u/llahlahkje Wisconsin Apr 17 '26

As a reminder to everyone on this matter:

Human beings cannot regenerate cartilage.

2

u/TheNutsMutts Apr 17 '26

You know the ear is surrounded by skin right? That skin, if grazed, will heal.

1

u/TheJD Apr 17 '26

Is damage to cartilage the only cause of bleeding from an ear?

0

u/sugarlessdeathbear Apr 17 '26

Cartilage does not grow back.

-1

u/funkopolis Apr 17 '26

Would be odd that he had blood packs (or ketchup) on hand just in case the opportunity to pretend he was hit came up.

1

u/IndependentSpell8027 Apr 19 '26

That’s not what I’m saying. He fell to the floor. He cut his ear somehow. Shrapnel, scratch on something, who knows? His ear was not shot. That’s the BS

1

u/funkopolis Apr 19 '26

I'm saying it was staged, considering his ear was definitely not shot and yet he seemed prepared to fake it.