‘WORTH IT’: Conspiracy Theories Are Everywhere Following the Shooting of White House Correspondents
In the immediate aftermath of the attack at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner on Saturday night, pranksters, pundits, and random posters lit up social media platforms like X, Bluesky, and Instagram with conspiracy theories about the attack and the alleged shooter.
Both leftist and rightist accounts have claimed, without evidence, that the attack was staged.
President Donald Trump, Vice President JD Vance, and dozens of other senior administration officials and journalists were attending a dinner at the Hilton Hotel in Washington, DC, when the suspect, later identified by media reports as Cole Thomas Allen of California, allegedly walked through security on his way to the event. He was arrested by law enforcement when the president and vice president were released. Police said they believe Cole acted alone, but did not say what he meant or what his motive was. “We believe that the suspect was targeting the authorities,” said acting attorney Todd Blanche told NBC Meet the media on sunday morning.
On Bluesky, which has a very left-leaning user base, many people simply typed the word “STAGED” over and over again, echoing the response to the assassination attempt on Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania in 2024.
At X, many say the shooting was done as a way to bolster support for Trump’s plan to build a new ballroom at the White House. The president spoke about the football field in a press conference after the incident and in the book Truth Social on Sunday morning. Many prominent online Trump boosters have voiced the need for a ballroom, including far-right podcaster Jack Posobiec, the Libs’ TikTok creator Chaya Raichik, and Tom Fitton, the far-right activist who runs Judicial Watch.
Their quick reaction, conspiracy theorists said, was evidence of a coordinated campaign following the shooting. “Is this another staged event,” asked one X user in a post that has been viewed more than 5 million times.
Some social media users who claimed the incident was staged pointed to a Fox News clip featuring White House correspondent Aishah Hasnie speaking from the Hilton hotel. Hasnie told viewers that prior to the incident, press secretary Caroline Leavitt’s husband allegedly told her that she “needs to be safe,” before hanging up.
“Fox News just terminated one of its reporters as it seemed to indicate that the shooting was a pre-arranged false flag,” one X user wrote in a post that has been viewed more than 2 million times. Hasnie later clarified on the X channel that his cell phone service had been cut off in a notorious area, adding: “He was telling me to be careful about my safety because the world is going crazy. He was expressing his concern for my safety.”
“I don’t want to incite conspiracy,” wrote Angelo Carusone, chairman and president of Media Matters, at Bluesky in an interview with Fox News. “But I mean…this was very strange. It was very strange.”
Leavitt himself was the subject of conspiracy theories after he said he was “going to be shot” in a pre-dinner conversation, referring to jokes planned for Trump. After the attack, X users said the comments were “weird,” “sus,” or “interesting choice of words,” while sharing memes suggesting the shooting was staged. At least one common site appeared to be fueling the conspiracy theory, describing Leavitt’s comments as “amazing” and “strange.”
