A wave of online misinformation has fueled the narrative that President Donald Trump "orchestrated" the third assassination attempt by "fabricating" the shooting at the White House Correspondents' Association dinner on Saturday. Conspiracy theories have gained momentum in light of the angry reactions that Trump faces against the backdrop of his war with Iran, which has raised fuel prices and raised fears of American casualties.
Published on: 04/28/2026 - 14:50 Last updated: 04/28/2026 - 14:55
Since the shooting at the White House Correspondents' Association dinner on Saturday, a wave of misinformation has been sweeping the Internet, fueling the narrative that President Donald Trump orchestrated the third assassination attempt, to distract attention from his administration's failures, especially at the foreign policy level.
As this narrative spread, news editors at Agence France-Presse identified a series of social media posts promoting the theory that the White House orchestrated the shooting, to divert attention from important issues such as the war against Iran, which is opposed at the popular level.
Read also: The shooting during the White House Correspondents' Dinner raises questions about the US President's security arrangements
According to the “NewsGuard” website, which specializes in monitoring misinformation, these posts received 80 million views on the
"Many of the anti-Trump accounts that claimed without any evidence that the shooting incident at the White House Correspondents' Association dinner was fabricated, made the same claims following the two assassination attempts in 2024," Newsguard's Sophia Robinson explained.
She continued, "Some of the popular posts we monitored explicitly refer to these previous incidents as evidence that orchestrating shooting incidents is part of Trump's style, with the aim of eliciting sympathy and diverting attention from negative media coverage."
"Culture of hate"
While there is no evidence that the US President's administration planned Saturday's attack, the White House confirmed on Monday that what it called a "left-wing hate sect" was behind the shooting, while the suspect, Cole Thomas Allen (31 years old), faces the possibility of being imprisoned for life if he is convicted of attempting to assassinate Trump.
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According to the Institute for Strategic Dialogue in London, official media in countries such as Russia and Iran doubled down on promoting additional conspiracy theories after the incident, including allegations of the attacker’s links to the Israeli army.
Over the past weeks, MAGA influencers have promoted a conspiracy theory that the attempted assassination of Trump in Pennsylvania was planned.
"Make profits"
Mike Rothschild, a researcher specializing in conspiracy theories, said, “The theory of planned assassination is finding support on the left, especially among liberal content creators, and it has also begun to spread among the right as their confidence in Trump declines.”
The theory gained momentum in light of the angry reactions faced by the US President over his war with Iran, which raised fuel prices and raised fears of American casualties.
The military campaign revealed divisions within Trump's base, with longtime conservative supporters such as former Fox News host Tucker Carlson condemning the president's abandonment of his non-interventionist approach.
Influencers are often incentivized to amplify sensational rumors, as they attract followers and increase revenue on revenue-sharing platforms like X.
According to Walter Schreyer of the University of Notre Dame, “The more attractive the claims, the better the chances of profit in the market for political commentary. Today, the actual policies of a party are secondary to the monetization of the political brand.”
"In the long term, this is likely to weaken Trump's base," he added.
France 24/AFP
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