WASHINGTON (AP) — Within minutes of the gunfire, the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump spawned a vast sea of claims — some outlandish, others contradictory — reflecting the frightening uncertainties of the moment as well as America's fevered, polarized political climate.
The cloudburst of speculation and conjecture as Americans turned to the internet for news about the shooting is the latest sign of how social media has emerged as a dominant source of information — and misinformation — for many, and a contributor to the distrust and turbulence now driving American politics.
Mentions of Trump on social media soared up to 17 times the average daily amount in the hours after the shooting, according to PeakMetrics, a cyber firm that tracks online narratives. Many of those mentions were expressions of sympathy for Trump or calls for unity. But many others made unfounded, fantastical claims.
"We saw things like 'The Chinese were behind it,' or ' Antifa was behind it,' or 'the Biden administration did it.' We also saw a claim that the RNC was behind it,'" said Paul Bartel, senior intelligence analyst at PeakMetrics. "Everyone is just speculating. No one really knows what's going on. They go online to try to figure it out."
Here's a look at the claims that surfaced online following the shooting:
Claims of an inside job or false flag are unsubstantiated
Many of the more specious claims that surfaced immediately after the shooting sought to blame Trump or his Democratic opponent, President Joe Biden, for the attack.
Some voices on the left quickly proclaimed the shooting to be a false flag concocted by Trump, while some Trump supporters suggested the Secret Service intentionally failed to protect Trump on the White House's orders.
The Secret Service on Sunday pushed back on claims circulating on social media that Trump's campaign had asked for greater security before Saturday's rally and was told no.
"This is absolutely false," agency spokesman Anthony Guglielmi wrote Sunday on X. "In fact, we added protective resources & technology & capabilities as part of the increased campaign travel tempo."
Videos of the shooting were quickly dissected in partisan echo chambers and Trump supporters and detractors looked for evidence to support their beliefs. Videos showing Secret Service agents moving audience members away from Trump before the shooting were offered as evidence that it was an inside job. Images of Trump's defiantly raised fist were used to make the opposite claim — that the whole event was staged by Trump.
"How did the USSS allow him to stop and pose for a photo opp if there was real danger??" wrote one user, using the abbreviation for the U.S. Secret Service.
Social media bots helped amplify the false claims on platforms including Facebook, Instagram, X and TikTok, according to an analysis by the Israeli tech firm Cyabra, which found that a full 45% of the accounts using hashtags like #fakeassassination and #stagedshooting were inauthentic.
An image created using artificial intelligence — depicting a smiling Trump moments after the shooting — was also making the rounds, Cyabra found.
Moments like this are 'cannon fodder' for extremists
Conspiracy theories quickly emerged online that misidentified the suspected shooter, blamed other people without evidence and espoused hate speech, including virulent antisemitism.
"Moments like this are cannon fodder for extremists online, because typically they will react with great confidence to whatever has happened without any real evidence" said Jacob Ware, a research fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. "People will fall into spirals and will advance their own ideologies and their own conclusions."
Before authorities identified the suspect, photos of two different people circulated widely online falsely identifying them as the shooter.
In all the speculation and conjecture, others were trying to exploit the event financially. On X on Sunday morning, an account named Proud Patriots urged Trump supporters to purchase their assassination-attempt themed merchandise.
"First they jail him, now they try to end him," reads the ad for the commemorative Trump Assassination Attempt Trading Card. "Stand Strong & Show Your Support!"
Republicans cast blame on Biden
After the shooting, some Republicans blamed Biden for the shooting, arguing sustained criticisms of Trump as a threat to democracy have created a toxic environment. They pointed in particular to a comment Biden made to donors on July 8, saying "it's time to put Trump in the bullseye."
Ware said that comment from Biden was "violent rhetoric" that is "raising the stakes," especially when combined with Biden's existential words about the election. But he said it was important not to make conclusions about the shooter's motive until we know more information. Biden's remarks were part of a broader approach to turn scrutiny on Trump, with no explicit call to violence.
Trump's own incendiary words have been criticized in the past for encouraging violence. His lies about the 2020 election and his call for supporters to "fight like hell" preceded the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, which led to his second impeachment on charges of incitement of insurrection. Trump also mocked the hammer attack that left 80-year-old Paul Pelosi, the husband of the former House speaker, with a fractured skull.
Surveys find that Americans overwhelmingly reject violence as a way to settle political differences, but overheated rhetoric from candidates and social media can motivate a small minority of people to act, said Sean Westwood, a political scientist who directs the Polarization Research Lab at Dartmouth College.
Westwood said he worries that Saturday's shooting could spur others to consider violence as a tactic.
"There is a real risk that this spirals," he said. "Even if someone doesn't personally support violence, if they think the other side does, and they witness an attempted political assassination, there is a real risk that this could lead to escalation."
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