Trump slams conspiracy theories after ‘Staged’ trends on social media following Correspondents’ Dinner shooting

Donald Trump has branded those who believe the shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner was staged as “sick.”​

The incident unfolded on Saturday night, as the president attended the event for the first time since 2011. Baseless speculation about whether the shooting, which follows two assassination attempts against Trump in 2024, was staged blew up on social media shortly after. ​

The term “staged” was featured in more than 300,000 posts on X by midday Sunday, according to TweetBinder.​

When asked on CBS News’60 Minutes about conspiracy theories swirling around the event, Trump initially said he had not heard about the online speculation.

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​“I think they’re more sick than they are con people,” Trump said, referring to the conspiracy theorists. “But there’s a lot of con in there too.”

​“I haven’t heard that last night didn’t happen. Usually takes a little bit longer. “Usually, they wait about two or three months to start saying that.

Trump went on to describe suggestions Saturday’s shooting was staged as a “tough sell.”

​During the interview, 60 Minutes correspondent Norah O’Donnell also asked about conspiracy theories surrounding the attempt on Trump’s life during a rally in Pennsylvania in 2024. ​

Trump responded by reeling off conspiracy theories about other major world events, including the false claims that the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023 “didn’t happen.”​

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The president added that some people believe “World War II didn’t happen and the Holocaust didn’t happen, and many things didn’t happen.” ​

Explaining his view on why conspiracy theories take root on social media, Professor Cliff Lampe at the University of Michigan told The New York Times that people are not “looking for good information.”​

“People are reshaping reality based on what they want to be true or not,” he said. “They’re not looking for good information, they’re looking for confirmatory information, and will often go very deep down a rabbit hole of side-by-side pictures, microshots of the president’s face, et cetera.”

The president, First Lady Melania Trump, Vice President JD Vance and members of the Cabinet were rushed out of the Washington Hilton ballroom as security agents raced to apprehend the shooter near a security checkpoint. ​

Cole Tomas Allen has been arrested in connection with the incident at the Washington Hilton. Police said that the suspect was armed with a shotgun, a handgun and multiple knives. ​

Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, said Allen’s arraignment has been set for 1 p.m. Monday. ​Allen has been charged with using a firearm during a violent crime and assaulting a federal officer with a dangerous weapon, Pirro added. ​

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