It wasn’t long after the recent shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner took place that a parallel story started spreading on the social media. Alongside actual reports of the incident, during which an armed suspect carrying a shotgun, handgun, and several knives charged toward the security checkpoint near the staircase leading to the room where the dinner was being held and shots were fired, a wave of social media users claimed the entire incident was staged.
These conspiracy theories spread like a wildfire and flooded social media platforms almost instantly, with people calling it a “false flag” before the dust had even settled.
What is known about the shooting comes from law enforcement. According to Washington Post and AP, the surveillance cameras captured the footage of the suspect, later identified as 31-year-old Cole Tomas Allen, charging at a security checkpoint with a shotgun, handgun, and knives. The encounter occurred around 8:36 pm when Secret Service agents stopped him and tackled him down after which he got arrested.Despite the official timeline, certain moments were promptly reinterpreted as signs of cover-up. There were two such cases that stood out on the Internet and captured the attention of theorists:
Prior to the event, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt was reported to have said in an interview with Fox News that “there will be some shots fired tonight in the room.” Although social media users interpreted the statement as “a slip of the tongue” and a sign of foreknowledge, available transcripts suggest the phrase referred to the upcoming “roast” of the press by the president, according to CBS.
After the shooting, President Donald Trump, along with allies, posted on Truth Social suggesting the incident underscored the urgency of constructing a “Militarily Top Secret Ballroom” worth $400 million, which had reportedly been delayed due to legal reasons. According to PBS News, criticism surrounding the shooting included claims that it came at a “too convenient” time.The missing parts in the initial videos, especially a blurry video showing the evacuation of Vice President JD Vance, led to different interpretations of events. Theories were developed suggesting that the Secret Service looked “too calm,” thereby “proving” that the whole operation had been planned beforehand. Yet, according to The Guardian, conspiracy theories tend to arise during such times, when people lack trust in what is happening around them.
Scholars who examine misinformation believe that this response is quite common. In environments where polarization reigns supreme, “incomplete evidence” does not come across as a normal feature of an inquiry process but as something rather suspicious.
So far, there is no hard evidence confirming the allegation that the shooting was staged. There has been, however, confirmation of the existence of a legitimate security threat, the man behind the shooting and his manifesto, and an ongoing FBI investigation into an assassination attempt. It is the resilience of the story of the “staging” that tells us more about the current information environment than the actual events.
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