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17 July 2024

An attempted assassination and the conspiratorial disinformation that followed

John Mecklin

The attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump will at least temporarily soften the political campaigns of both Trump and the Democratic presidential nominee, whether that be (as seems most likely) President Joe Biden or someone else. And actually, it already has done so, with the Biden campaign reportedly taking down anti-Trump campaign advertising and Trump campaign managers telling staff not to comment publicly or engage in “dangerous rhetoric on social media.” In his initial remarks after the assassination attempt, Biden said the shooting was “sick” and called on the country to unite. Even Trump’s wife Melania, who has largely remained in the background during the 2024 campaign, joined in the calls from both camps to tone down political rhetoric.

All the same, as with previous attacks on US presidents, conspiracy theories quickly blossomed, and they were anything but genteel. The information environment of 2024 is radically different than what existed during earlier US assassinations and assassination attempts. The shooting of Trump was quickly followed by an enormous barrage of speculation and outright invention across social media platforms, from smaller outlets firmly planted in the far-right side of the US political spectrum—including Gab, Parler, and Trump’s own Truth Social—to Elon Musk’s X (nee Twitter) and other larger sites.

The assassination attempt was still under investigation on Sunday, and many basic facts—including the would-be assassin’s motives—remained unknown or had at least not been made public. The shooter was identified as Thomas Matthew Crooks, a 20-year-old resident of Bethel Park, a Pittsburgh suburb located about an hour from the site of the Butler, Pennsylvania political rally where Trump was shot. A Secret Service sharpshooter reportedly killed Crooks shortly after he used an assault rifle to fire multiple shots from a rooftop outside the site of the rally; one of the shots struck Trump’s ear. Beyond the ear wound, the ex-president was apparently uninjured. A firefighter attending the rally was killed and two other attendees wounded in the fusillade.

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