In the days since this year’s White House Correspondents’ Dinner was interrupted when gunfire broke out at the event, a number of conspiracy videos have surfaced, created by people who insist that the whole situation was fake. These kinds of theories aren’t new, but the way they’re spreading now is a reflection of how video culture is reshaping our social media landscape. And while the initial uproar over the filming has begun to subside, content creators are still posting about what “really” happened.
There is still much we don’t know about Cole Allen, the 31-year-old alleged shooter who allegedly traveled from Los Angeles to Washington, DC, before WCHD and was staying at the same Hilton where the event was held. But that hasn’t stopped content creators from flooding platforms like YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, and X with videos that are said to have more insight into the situation than mainstream media reports.
None of these videos reveal anything that has not already been reported by the mainstream media. But each of them speaks to how this type of content has become a normal part of people’s media consumption habits and something that creators see as an effective way to grab attention. In the US, trust in traditional media is at an all-time low and many people turn to social media to stay informed about world events. And that change has given conspiracy theorists a chance to influence people’s understanding of reality.
All this is similar to what happened in 2024 when Donald Trump survived an assassination attempt while campaigning for the presidency. Then, creators rushed to profit from the event while labeling it as a false flag designed to win sympathy for the Republican nominee. That news cycle and the speech that followed dragged on for weeks, both because it was an important time in an election year and because it was difficult to understand how Trump could be shot in his ear without sustaining any visible damage afterwards.
Several new videos about the WHCD shooting suggest that we should view these events as a response to the Trump administration’s tendency to spread misinformation. And while there is no evidence to suggest that the WHCD shooting was, in fact, orchestrated with Trump’s approval, one could argue that the administration is at least partially to blame for the way this idea has gained traction across the internet.
As easy as it is to laugh at the ongoing conflict of letters from the president’s social media and other official government channels, there is no doubt that they have influenced the way the public thinks about the current administration. By sharing crude, immature memes and AI-generated images of Trump as a Christ-like figure, the White House has told people that nothing should be taken seriously and everything can be turned into a dirty joke. And at a time when all the major social networks of the Internet have started to encourage their users to upload their videos while they are in the rush to get engaged, it makes sense that many saw the shooting of this past weekend as an opportunity to improve their profiles.
Trump has made nonsensical “jokes” an integral part of his political brand, and people are responding with much the same force.
