‘Phase’: Conspiracy theories everywhere after shooting at White House Correspondents’ Dinner

In the wake of the attack at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner on Saturday night, influencers, pundits, and random posters lit up social media platforms like X, Bluesky, and Instagram with conspiracy theories about the attack and the alleged shooter.

Left-wing and right-wing accounts claimed, without evidence, that the attack was planned.

President Donald Trump, Vice President J.D. Vance, and dozens of other administration officials and prominent journalists were attending a dinner party at the Hilton Hotel in Washington, D.C., when the suspect, later identified by media reports as Cole Thomas Allen of California, allegedly ran past security toward the event. He was detained by law enforcement during the evacuation of the President and Vice President. Police said they believe Cole acted alone, but did not clarify who his intended target was or his motives. “We believe the suspect was targeting administration officials,” Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche told NBC. Learn about journalism On Sunday morning.

At Bluesky, which has a mostly left-leaning user base, many people simply typed the word “organizers” over and over again, echoing the response to the 2024 assassination attempt on Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania.

On X, many claimed the shooting was staged as a way to boost support for Trump’s plan to build a new ballroom in the White House. The president referred to the ballroom in a news conference after the incident and a post on Truth Social on Sunday morning. Several prominent Trump supporters online have echoed the need for the dance floor, including far-right broadcaster Jack Posobiec, Libs of TikTok creator Chaya Raichik, and Tom Fitton, the right-wing activist who runs the organization Judicial Watch.

Conspiracy theorists claimed their quick response was evidence of a coordinated campaign in the wake of the shooting. “Is this another organized event,” one X user asked in a post that has been viewed more than 5 million times.

Other social media users, who claimed the incident was staged, pointed to a Fox News clip in which the station’s White House correspondent Aisha Hosni appeared speaking from the Hilton Hotel. Hosni told viewers that before the shooting, press secretary Carolyn Leavitt’s husband allegedly told her, “You have to be very safe,” before hanging up.

“Fox News just cut one of their reporters because he seemed to suggest the shooting was a pre-planned false flag,” one X user wrote in a post that has been viewed more than 2 million times. Hasney later explained in a post on X that her cell service had been cut off in a location with poor service, adding, “He was telling me to be careful about my safety because the world is crazy. He was expressing concern for my safety.”

“I don’t want to stir up conspiracies,” Angelo Carosone, Media Matters president and CEO, wrote on Bluesky about the Fox News interview. “But I mean…that was so weird. So weird.”

Leavitt herself has also been the focus of conspiracy theories after she said “I’m going to get shot” in a pre-dinner interview, in reference to jokes Trump was scheduled to tell. After the attack, X users claimed the comment was “weird”, “suss” or a “weird choice of words”, while sharing memes suggesting the shooting was staged. At least one major outlet appeared to amplify the conspiracy theory as well, calling Levitt’s comment “bizarre” and “bizarre.”