STAGED: Conspiracy Theories Swirl After White House Correspondents' Dinner Shooting

In the immediate aftermath of the attack on the White House Correspondents' Dinner on Saturday night, social media platforms lit up with conspiracy theories about the attack and the alleged shooter. Influencers, pundits, and random posters on X, Bluesky, and Instagram claimed, without evidence, that the attack was staged. President Donald Trump, Vice President JD Vance, and dozens of other high-profile administration officials and journalists were attending the dinner at the Hilton hotel in Washington, DC, when a suspect, later identified by media reports as Cole Tomas Allen from California, allegedly ran past security towards the event.

He was detained by law enforcement while the president and vice president were evacuated. Police said they believe Cole acted alone, but did not expand on who his intended target was or what his motive may have been. "We believe the suspect was targeting administration officials," acting attorney general Todd Blanche told NBC's Meet the Press on Sunday morning.

On Bluesky, a platform with a predominantly left-leaning user base, many people simply wrote the word "STAGED" over and over again, echoing the response to the Trump assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania in 2024. On X, many claimed the shooting was staged as a way to bolster support for Trump's plan to build a new ballroom in the White House. The president referenced the ballroom in a press conference after the incident and a Truth Social post on Sunday morning.

Many prominent online Trump boosters echoed the need for the ballroom, including far-right podcaster Jack Posobiec, Libs of TikTok creator Chaya Raichik, and Tom Fitton, the right-wing activist who runs Judicial Watch. Their quick response, conspiracy theorists claimed, was evidence of a coordinated campaign following the shooting. Other social media users who claimed the incident was staged pointed to a Fox News clip that featured the station's White House correspondent Aishah Hasnie speaking from the Hilton hotel.

Hasnie told viewers that prior to the shooting, press secretary Karoline Leavitt's husband allegedly told her "you need to be very safe," before the call was cut off. Hasnie later clarified in an X post that her cell service had cut out in a location with notoriously bad service, adding: "He was telling me to be careful with my own safety because the world is crazy. He was expressing his concern for my safety."