Bhubaneswar: At a time, when the Joe Biden’s US presidential candidature is under scrutiny and shrouded with doubt, the coveted photo of a bloodied Trump with a raised fist against the backdrop of the US flag sparks conspiracy theories about the Saturday’s alleged assassination attempt on the former president at a rally in Pennsylvania. The attack raises suspicion of an attempt to gain sympathy as Trump was scheduled to accept the Republican nomination for a third time soon.
The enforcement agencies haven’t come up with the motive behind this attack allegedly by a 20-year-old from the rooftop so far. In such a scenario, the hashtag #staged and #stagedbytrump kept trending on social media.
The trend was not only confined among groups of political supporters. But, these hashtags were being recommended to users frequently in their ‘For You’ feeds. Moreover, such social media posts were shared and re-shared by people with blue-ticked profiles.
Some users shared photographs and videos of Trump teeing it, apparently immediately a day after the attack. A blue-ticked user on X, who goes by the name Mike Lee, shares a similar photograph, allegedly of Trump on the golf course, wrote: ‘Gets Shot, Gets up the next day, Goes golfing.’ Resharing the same, another user by the name Alex Cole wrote: “Imagine going golfing while one of your supporters was just killed and 2 more are still in the hospital.”
A user, identifying himself as Olarich, posted the photograph—which is in circulation on the social media—of Trump shouting slogans with his raised fist against the US flag and wrote: “This is definitely staged…come on trump you can do better #stagedbytrump.”
Sharing another purported video from the attack site, in which a woman is heard calling out the name of the accused attacker—Thomas Mathew Crooks—a X user, Cinema Shogun, wrote: “In this video a woman can be heard repeatedly screaming the suspects name. Thomas Matthew Crooks. So it appears that at the very least some people in the crowd knew who he was. Not sure if they knew what he planned on doing. Not sure if they were there with him. This is weird.”
Another user questioned how could the Secret Service just made him stand up with his head in full view moments after he was shot in the ear. A profile attributed to ‘Popular Liberal’ had a post claiming on X that Trump was struck by glass shards and not a bullet. To justify, the user shared two photographs of the injured former President, who had no blood spatter on his blonde hair or white shirt collar.
However, the in a news report, the BBC claimed that most of such viral posts were made by left-leaning users, who often post anti-Trump views.
The Roosevelt in Trump?
The attack on Trump has led social media users as well as political pundits draw a parallel between Roosevelt and Trump. Not just that, the comparison seemed to have worked in Trump’s favour. “I fully endorse President Trump and hope for his rapid recovery, ” tweeted Elon Musk of Tesla and X, adding, “Last time America had a candidate this tough was Theodore Roosevelt.” Roosevelt had survived an assassination attempt in 1912. Just like Trump, he was seeking to return to the presidency. He was shot in the chest while campaigning in Milwaukee. Roosevelt continued giving a speech even after the attack, stating, “It takes more than a bullet to kill a Bull Moose.” But, he lost the 1912 election to Woodrow Wilson. In a similar fashion, reports claimed that as Trump left the stage after bullets were allegedly fired, he pumped his fist in the air and shouted “fight” towards his supporters. This prompted loud cheers and chants of ‘USA. USA. USA’ from the crowd, which many social media users claimed didn’t look panicked.
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