From the first minutes after the assassination attempt on Donald Trump, conspiracy theories flooded the Internet, some suggesting a shooter under the “orders” of President Biden or the “deep state”, others denouncing a “simulacrum” intended to make the former president a hero.
For example, the close-up video of a “suspicious” spectator at the meeting holding a “Biden” sign or a photo of smiling security agents holding a bloodied Donald Trump, circulated massively on X, in English, French or Portuguese in particular, as so much “proof” that the attack was “organized”, “planned”.
Regardless of the fact that the woman in the cap was likely carrying the same sign as her neighbors, “Joe Biden, you’re fired,” and that the photo of the agents was likely doctored, according to AFP research, rumors have been flooding the web since the rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday.
Countless Internet users have also tried to identify the shooter themselves, wrongly claiming, in particular, that it was an Italian YouTuber.
A video of a man filming himself in his car and implying that he was the killer also circulated widely, although many American media outlets considered it to be a hoax.
For political science researcher Julien Giry, the collective hysteria of the weekend around this event is not a surprise, “at such a time and with such a character.” “It is almost the absence of conspiracy theories that would have constituted a surprise, almost an anomaly,” he continues.
Especially since the multitude of images, official and amateur, of the event, provides “the possibility of creating an alternative discourse” according to him.
The assassination attempt itself, Mr. Giry adds, “lends credence to the fact that this is a man who is threatened, that he may also have wanted to wage too powerful a battle against the supposedly occult forces – the ‘deep state’ for example.”
The “Deep State” is a popular belief in American far-right conspiracy circles, particularly the QAnon movement, which claims that there exists a sort of parallel secret state, pulling the strings of the world for the benefit of private group interests.
On the Democratic side, the theory of a staging
Journalist Anthony Mansuy, a specialist in the American conspiracy sphere, highlights “the rather incredible reaction of centrist and democratic circles”, who immediately denounced a sham, with the keyword #staged.
Very quickly, pro-Democratic accounts assured that the blood on Donald Trump’s face was fake, and that the Secret Service (responsible for protecting Donald Trump) had orchestrated this moment with the former president.
Which shows, according to Anthony Mansuy, “that no one is immune to the fantasies of conspiracy theories.” “The event may give rise to questions,” he tempers, “but we tip into conspiracy when we go on a crusade based on unverified elements.”
A pitfall that some have fallen into due, according to him, to “a combination of three factors brought together by the conspiracy machine: very strong activism, socio-political trauma and systemic degradation”, which pushes individuals, “when they can no longer, because of these factors, wait for information from the media, to ask themselves: “who benefits from the crime?””.
The ease of access to social media, he adds, can galvanize individuals into the idea that “we are all participating in the collective investigation/hysteria.”
“There are signs of increased conspiracy theorizing on both sides of the political spectrum in America,” Imran Ahmed, director of the Center for Combating Online Hate, told the Washington Post. “Conspiracy theories provide a convenient narrative to give people a reason not to face reality.”
In their posts, many refer to the assassination of President Kennedy in 1963, asking, “Aren’t we going to get another lone gunman?”
“Since 1967-1968, you have had approximately 70 to 80% of Americans, all socio-demographic and socio-political variables combined, who are absolutely convinced that JFK is the victim of a conspiracy,” recalls Julien Giry. The assassination attempt against Ronald Reagan, seriously injured a few months before the elections in 1981, also comes back to everyone’s minds.
