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MAGA Is Increasingly Convinced The Trump Assassination Attempt Was Staged

Some of President Donald Trump’s biggest supporters are now claiming, without evidence, that he staged the assassination attempt on his life in Butler, Pennsylvania, in 2024 and is covering it up. During an open-air campaign rally on July 13, 2024, Trump survived an attempted assassination when a bullet fired by a 20-year-old on a roof nearby clipped the top of his ear. Corey Comperatore, a Trump supporter sitting near him, was shot and killed. The shooter was later killed by Secret Service agents. Conspiracy theories around the Butler assassination quickly permeated the internet, but for many Trump supporters, his survival was seen as a sign from God that he was the chosen one. As Trump’s hold over MAGA has waned, though, an increasing number of his supporters have begun to push the narrative that the entire incident was staged.

Released on 04/21/2026

Transcript

A new conspiracy theory has taken hold

among some of Donald Trump's own supporters who claim,

without evidence,

that the assassination attempt

on his life in Butler, Pennsylvania, was staged,

and a cover-up is ongoing.

In the aftermath of the attempted assassination

during an open-air campaign rally in July 2024,

many Trump supporters saw his survival

as a sign from God,

while some on the left claimed it was all staged.

Fast forward to 2026,

and now MAGA itself is pushing the claims

about a staged shooting.

Conspiracy theories within MAGA world

really started to pick up

when former U.S. National Counterterrorism Center director

Joe Kent appeared on Tucker Carlson's podcast in March,

the day after Kent resigned his position in protest

over the war with Iran.

During a discussion over the Trump administration's failure

to provide more details about the shooter,

who was killed by Secret Service agents,

Kent claimed, without evidence,

that investigations into the shooting had been shut down.

The conspiracy theories spread among MAGA.

From there, Trisha Hop, a GOP national delegate from Texas

and a former Trump supporter,

posted on X last week to say

that people needed to snap out of it

and start applying critical thinking skills.

Contrarian comedian Tim Dillon said on his show

that he thought maybe what happened in Butler was staged.

Carlson and fellow far-right podcaster Candace Owens

has continued to promote claims of a cover-up

in the last week,

and over the weekend,

former Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene

joined the party,

posting three times on X about the assassination attempt,

writing that there are a lot of questions

that deserve public answers

and asking why the cover-up.

When prominent QAnon promoter MJ Truth

asked their 100,000 followers on Telegram

how they were feeling about the narrative

around the assassination attempt,

the overwhelming response was

that the incident had been staged

and that the truth would never come out.

There's even cross-pollination taking place

between the Butler conspiracy theory

and another hot topic

among some of Trump's formerly staunch supporters:

that he might be the Antichrist.

Ali Alexander, the far-right activist

who organized the Stop the Steal campaign

after the 2020 election,

said that the assassination attempts might not be a miracle,

but a dark sign.