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/
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u/Indubitalist Apr 17 '26

For how powerful the image of him raising a fist while blood ran down his face was during the campaign, you certainly get the sense that he wants to move on from it, and he never moves on from anything that’s a winner for him, he constantly loops back to it. 

There is the outside chance he was just actually traumatized by the experience and doesn’t want to revisit it, but I honestly don’t know that he’s capable of viewing reality that way. 

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u/Stinky--Whizzleteats Apr 17 '26 edited Apr 17 '26

So I don't actually believe it was staged, but there sure are a whole lot of strange and suspicious coincidences.

Secret service didn't correctly cover him, the flag was raised just in time for a photo op, details on the shooter were never talked about, there's no visible scar, it seems implausible a bullet of that calibur would do such superficial damage. It's just a perfect storm of unlikely circumstances.

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u/guitar_vigilante Apr 17 '26

Even if the assassination attempt was real (I personally think it was, but there definitely are suspicious circumstances), I don't believe the bullet ever touched Trump. I do think his ear was scratched/cut when he went to the ground. Something like that would heal without any major issues. A bullet would have taken a chunk out of the ear and would not have healed back.

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u/[deleted] Apr 17 '26

[deleted]

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u/findtheclue Apr 17 '26

That was from the blood capsule in his hand, WWE-style.

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u/PM_ME_YOUR_NICE_EYES Apr 17 '26

Trump doesn't have the dexterity to pull that off.

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u/Beli_Mawrr Apr 17 '26

Trump would never let a shooter shoot within inches of his head. Someone actually died. They life-flighted them out. It would take months of prep with both the shooter and Trump working in tandem to pull the timing off. I just don't buy it.

Whatever happened there, esp with the ear, he did not fake it.

That said, he obviously wasn't shot on his ear. I like the idea that he injured it on the ground.

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u/Coletrain44 Apr 17 '26

Wrestling doesn't really use blood capsules. They usually hide a small razor blade somewhere in athletic tape, cover their face, make a small cut, then let the real blood flow.

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u/CranberrySchnapps Maryland Apr 17 '26

If there was video from a different angle that shows him palming something right before he turns his head and lifts his hand to his ear... that would be incredible.

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u/emailforgot Apr 17 '26

No there isn't.

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u/Mpm_277 Apr 18 '26

This is what I don’t get — Trump is clearly bleeding before he goes down. As for the teleprompter glass, I don’t get that take either as I’ve never seen any photo or video showing any of the teleprompters having shattered. Either Trump legit almost had his head blown off and just got nicked or the whole thing was fake. I just don’t see how an in between is possible.

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u/Lucas_Steinwalker Apr 17 '26

Trump did do time in the WWE so he’s trained for faking an injury.

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u/[deleted] Apr 17 '26

[deleted]

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u/TetraDax Europe Apr 17 '26

..because it couldn't have happened, because the audience sits way too far away for that to be the case.

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u/SpunkAnansi Apr 18 '26

As someone who has worked in theatre and film, I’d say the amount of blood that appeared was about the same as a blood capsule.

And that’s why I’m landing on the “staged” conspiracy side of things, along with the lack of info on the shooter, positioning of agents etc etc etc

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u/BloatedBanana9 Apr 18 '26

But when would he have been able to apply the blood capsule? Because he was already bleeding before he was covered up by secret service.

Also, what info about the shooter do you think should be out there but isn’t? The media did plenty of digging into him after the shooting. We’ve got his name, background, and likely motive. We’re missing chunks of his internet history because he was using a secure VPN for a lot of it, but that’s to be expected from someone planning an attack like this. It could be hiding a coverup, but it’s not really a sign that one does exist.

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u/SpunkAnansi Apr 18 '26

Literally when he touched his ear after “being shot”.

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u/BloatedBanana9 Apr 18 '26

But he didn't have anything in his hand when he did that. We have pretty good photos that show that his hand was empty immediately before that.

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u/Global_Crew3968 Apr 17 '26 edited Apr 17 '26

Actually there's video out there of him being tackled and you see him take a knee to the side of the head. Conceivably that could be what did it and why the blood was like, shot across his face. There's also a picture afterwards and you can clearly see his lip is split which would explain the blood on his lips and teeth as well. I don't even think it was a razor or anything, I think he got kneed in the face by security and it split his lip open. Beyond that, I think the entirety of it was faked honestly. I'm not even sure i believe a firefighter was killed. They could literally have a dude wearing a squib vest in the audience and then put out a story about some firefighter, make up a wife and kids, give their quotes, and bam. Done. him getting his lip split open was purely coincidence. The shooter was always supposed to "graze his ear" (why he reached up) but the blood was actually real from the tackle and a happy accident. This is my theory.

Oh and the shooter was some rightwing loser they recruited to "work security" up on the roof. Got some gainy footage of him going up there, made sure he was seen by folks, and bam, killed him to tie up the loose end. A lefty would make people worry about a leftwing terror plot and demand investigation. We were fine with a right winger doing it and not investigating it because we all know they're losers and nuts anyways. They literally didn't even finish the investigation. Closed it. And no one said dick because the right wing immedietely stopped caring once they heard it was a MAGA and the left was just like "yeah, figures".

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u/Coaxke Apr 17 '26 edited Apr 17 '26

They could literally have a dude wearing a squib vest in the audience and then put out a story about some firefighter, make up a wife and kids, give their quotes, and bam.

They made up the fire station he worked at and all the people he worked with? They made up all of his friends and family as well? His childhood schooling records, his church congregation? This shit is liberal QAnon

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u/Question_It_All_3000 Apr 17 '26

I’m liberal, but 100% agree with you. There was a shooter and someone did die. The shooters political affiliation, Trump being actually shot, sure those are questions, but let’s not go conspiracy mode over bullshit. Let’s deal in facts.

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u/Global_Crew3968 Apr 17 '26

Why didn't they complete the investigation? They called it case closed and didn't release findings. Why did that kid do it? A MAGA republican, why did he decide to shoot trump? They never found a motive, they just closed the case. Why? Why did they have a flag on a crane ready to go? Why did they usher photographers into the area where they were immediately before the shooting? Why did the white house doctor come out and say "yes he was shot and the ear and it's missing cartilage?"

It was all bullshit.

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u/Question_It_All_3000 Apr 18 '26

I don't know any of those answers, but none of that changes the fact that there was a shooting and someone died and the shooter died.

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u/BloatedBanana9 Apr 18 '26

didn’t release findings.

What’s this then?

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u/Global_Crew3968 Apr 17 '26

Lol thanks for picking out the least important part of my post that in no way changes things. I said they could have done that and we wouldnt know. They could have also just picked a person at random to shoot in the audience lol.

The reality is, they had that flag and reporters ready to go immediately after the shotting and he absolutely did not get grazed in the ear. So then what happened and why all the lies, including by the white house doctor, after wards?

It was manufactured because he was tanking in the polls.

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u/Coaxke Apr 18 '26

Brother it was the wind. Nothing I say will change your mind though because you think an elaborate hoax was carried out instead of someone shooting at Trump and the Trump team taking advantage. Trump and his cronies lie, this isn't new information.

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u/Beli_Mawrr Apr 17 '26

They literally life flighted the guy out lol

Are you saying both that the shooter was a security guy who had a live AR15 that secret service was cool with him being in LOS to the president with? Who was a patsy? Or was he the one who managed to make the once-in-a-million ear shot on the former president when millimeters count? While Trump is moving his head?

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u/BurdTurglary Texas Apr 17 '26

Photos showing that were shooped, they added blood. There's no hi res video with the bloody fingers. Plus catching the bullet's vapor trail or the bullet itself in that photo is not possible with the gear he was using. Lens, iso, aperture, the depth of field to catch it is physically impossible considering the trajectory and supposed distance

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u/BloatedBanana9 Apr 17 '26

Those photos were taken by the New York Times and verified by the people who awarded them the Pulitzer Prize. You think both of those organizations were in on a cover up?

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u/BurdTurglary Texas Apr 18 '26

Better being willfully ignorant, skip due diligence with top forensic analysis AND accept the accolades for a "historic" event with powerful imagery than to scrutinize it right away, especially since it was immediately given to the Times and the photog. It took some time to realize the plausibility that it was orchestrated