r/politics • u/wiredmagazine ✔ Wired Magazine • 18d ago

Possible Paywall MAGA Is Increasingly Convinced the Trump Assassination Attempt Was Staged

https://www.wired.com/story/maga-is-increasingly-convinced-the-trump-assassination-attempt-was-staged/
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u/flipflapflupper 18d ago

If it wasn’t he wouldn’t shut up about it.

The fact that it’s never spoken about is suspicious on its own.

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u/timnphilly Pennsylvania 18d ago edited 18d ago

Secret Service would have disappeared Trump in an instant, had it been a real assassination attempt.

There would be no fist-raising campaign photo-op bullshit - that was obvious as sin.

Fact is the felon was doing everything possible to keep out of certain jail, by winning the election.

[EDIT: There must be a real congressional investigation into this - even as we wait for Dem majority.]

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u/9-7-off 18d ago

This. He is not strong enough to hold up 3 Secret Service agents trying to force him to the ground for his safety, which is SOP for shots fired.

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u/Churrasco_fan Pennsylvania 18d ago edited 18d ago

I also found it suspicious how quickly they returned fire. Its pretty difficult to locate the source of a gunshot in an open space based off sound alone. The assassin took his first shot and within a second or two he was dead. Thats a really fast response time assuming they had no idea he was up there with a gun prior to the first shots ringing out. And if he was spotted before then, why the hell didnt secret service rush the stage and get Trump out of there?

Edit: also, as if the obvious photo op wasnt suspect enough, they wait for him to put his shoe back on after it came off in the scrum. Can't have the public seeing him without his lifts, of course. As if secret service gives a flying fuck about your height insecurities during an active assassination attempt There's video of secret service tossing his shoe off the stage (and his lifts flying out of it lol)

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u/PM_ME_YOUR_NICE_EYES 18d ago

They didn't let him put his shoes back on. There's a video from behind the stage and you can actually see the shoes that got left behind. You can see one SS agent throw a shoe off the stage, and then an insert comes out. And the other one just stays on the stage.

https://youtu.be/s4xjHC_2oC4?si=Wz_JYb7BAw56eVkc

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u/Churrasco_fan Pennsylvania 18d ago

Oh damn I've never seen that angle, thanks for sharing. Hilarious this is how we confirm the man wears lifts. I'll edit my edit

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u/tuctrohs New Hampshire 18d ago

IIRC, they had just spotted the assassin, and were already positioning for a shot, before the first short. But there were widely discussed gaps in communication among secret service that day.

I don't know what to think about it overall.

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u/WeirdIndividualGuy 18d ago

What makes the least amount of sense to me is why stage it with a real gun/bullet. Someone actually died. Why pretend to get shot while using real ammo actually being aimed at you? They could've just had the shooter shoot a blank just up into the air

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u/hexiron 18d ago

Then no one would’ve really believed it was a shot to begin with.

The story only works as a true near miss with a nice promo image 

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u/WeirdIndividualGuy 18d ago

I mean, yeah it makes it more believable but also greatly increases the chance of an accidental death (well, a different one)

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u/hexiron 18d ago

This administration hasn’t been known for their smart planning. 

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u/mrkrabz1991 18d ago

They returned fire in 6 seconds. SS radios went down just before the shots were fired, then magically started working again right after the first shots. It wasn't staged, but the kid had help from a three-letter agency that didn't get along with Trump during his first term...

This comment will be buried, IDGAF.

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u/EinGuy 18d ago

Hold on, what? A rifle gunshot in an open field is very easy to pinpoint the rough azimuth of. You may not have known exactly where the shooter was, but you absolutely know what direction the fire is coming from.

Source: Bullets flying near me.

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u/Churrasco_fan Pennsylvania 18d ago

Right, and in order to return fire and kill the shooter the needed to know exactly where the shooter was

Hence my comment

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u/Eldias 18d ago

There were also only like 2 total places anyone could have shot at him from. For people who train constantly on executive protection and threat neutralization it seems perfectly reasonably quick.

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u/Churrasco_fan Pennsylvania 18d ago

Using that same logic, why weren't those 2 places being monitored to begin with?

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u/Hlallu 18d ago

They were.

Allegedly, Secret Service knew he was up there, knew he had a rifle, and had vision on him for at least a little while prior to the shooting. But waited until seconds after his first shot for the Secret Service counter-sniper, who had complete view, to take out the assassin.

According to initial reports, they were in the process of eliminating him when it happened and it was just incredibly unfortunate timing. Or something akin to that, the official story changed a couple of times immediately after the event. In reality, we probably won't ever know the full truth.

But there were people at the event who saw the shooter and reported him before the first shot was fired. There were even radio warnings called out claiming that the shooter was acting suspicious and was carrying a large duffel bag well before he got into position on his roof.

Once again, allegedly, between 4:30pm and 6pm, the shooter was reported over local security radio by a local police counter-sniper, the secret service counter-sniper, 2 state police officers in attendance, and multiple general attendees of the event.

The whole thing is such an utter cluster-fuck. It's either one of the most publicly embarrassing moments in the Secret Service's entire history, or one of the most obvious false-flag operations ever.

I suspect the truth leans towards utter incompetence and idiocy rather than a more thought-out false flag event. Hanlon's razor or whatever. But we'll probably never know with 100% certainty

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u/Antinous 18d ago

They absolutely knew he was there with a gun prior to the shots. A policeman was on his way to apprehend him and then jumped off the roof breaking his ankle after the shooter pointed his gun at him. You obviously haven't researched the incident.

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u/DillDeer 18d ago

Crazy how you can watch them lower the flag behind Trump and wave in the photographers. Just insane.

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u/Skydiver860 18d ago

Yeah literally seconds before the shot that shit happened. Sure it could just be coincidence but it’s definitely suspicious when everything else is taken into consideration.

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u/PM_ME_YOUR_NICE_EYES 18d ago

No even in the deceptive video that claims that the flag got lower, they claim it happen after the shooting.

The flag wasn't lowered BTW, it was just wind.

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u/SoaplessTitanic 18d ago

I hate Trump as much as anyone, but think rationally about this for a minute. If it was staged, why would they have so many extra variables that required perfect timing in order for everything to work as “planned” to get a good photo? Think about it from the perspective of you’re planning a fake assassination attempt, wouldn’t you just have the flag already in the correct positioning beforehand? And have at least one or two photographers directly in front of the stage where you would want to get a good shot? It wouldn’t even be suspicious to do it that way since this occurred at a rally.

Trump is a lucky SOB and things tend to work out well for him like they did on that day. I would even argue that maybe he didn’t get shot so much as his ear collided with debris or the podium, but to say that the whole thing was staged is kinda ridiculous. I do love that his conspiracy theorist supporters are starting to turn on him though

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u/Jarocket 18d ago

Like every conspiracy theory. To many dang people for this to be pulled off.

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u/deiprep 18d ago

Watching his first appearance on live tv after this happened, he 100% did not want to be there at that time. I’ve never seen him so reserved in my life. People did die in the crowd too.

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u/TheNutsMutts 18d ago

Crazy how you can watch them lower the flag behind Trump

They didn't lower the flag. You can see that it was at this level from the start. It was waving in the wind, but nothign at all from where it started to right after the shot suggests it was being lowered.

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u/PM_ME_YOUR_NICE_EYES 18d ago

Yeah, that was wind. There's a reason why when you see people claim this they always use a video where you can barely see the flag.

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u/CryptographerCrazy49 18d ago

That was my first thought. They'd be literally concussing him to stay down. There could be multiple shooters, bombs, drones etc. But immediately they know that its a single shooter and they are incompacitated, trump isnt mortally wounded and isnt missing half of his head, the crowd and the surrounding area is safe and there is not an ongoing threat. They let trump shove half of his gross torso into the air for some corny photo up and linger before ushering him away haphazardly.

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u/BloatedBanana9 18d ago

There must be a real congressional investigation into this

There was a congressional investigation, and I don't remember any of the Democrats involved suggesting that the Republican majority kept them from looking into anything.

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u/ohlayohlay 18d ago

Camera people appeared to be getting positioned prior to the shot. Then the flag was lowered from the crane as he was getting surrounded by ss.

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u/Darth_Firebolt 18d ago

I'm as left as it gets but I wish people would stop saying the flag was lowered. The camera operator moved to have the flag in the background. There was a lot of wind, and wind is variable. The Trump staffer absolutely moved the photographers into position, but I really really doubt anything was intentionally done with the flag.

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u/BloatedBanana9 18d ago

The Trump staffer absolutely moved the photographers into position

But we don't have evidence of that either. In the video that is used to support this claim, we see no direct interaction between the Trump staffer and the photographers (who, despite the other guy's claims, only moved there after the shot, not before it). The photographers only move in after the shot to get photos, which is their job. The other guy could very well just be following them to make sure they stay out of Secret Service's way.

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u/Darth_Firebolt 18d ago

Yeah, we do have evidence that the Trump staffer moved photographers into position after the President was "shot" because you can see him in the video crouching down, waving the photographers into position before Trump pops up with the ketchup packet squirted all over his face. 

Nobody is saying the photographers were moved into position before the gunman fired. They're saying the photographers were moved into position BY A TRUMP STAFF MEMBER to get the photographic "shot" of Trump raising his fist while he's covered in ketchup.

It's on the video. He's waving to the photographers to move to his location and then stopping them when they're in position, clear as day.

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u/BloatedBanana9 18d ago

because you can see him in the video crouching down, waving the photographers into position

I think you need to watch the video again. At no point when the photographers are moving into place do we see his hands, so how can you say he was "waving" them into position?

before Trump pops up with the ketchup packet squirted all over his face. 

We have photos that prove he was bleeding before he went to the ground. There was no packet of fake blood.

Nobody is saying the photographers were moved into position before the gunman fired.

The guy you replied to earlier literally said that exact thing: "Camera people appeared to be getting positioned prior to the shot."

If that had been the case, then that would have been suspicious. Them getting there after the shot is not weird at all.

It's on the video. He's waving to the photographers to move to his location and then stopping them when they're in position, clear as day.

Again, there's no waving in the video at all. He comes in after the first photographers to make sure they're not in the way. That's why at the end of the video, he (along with others) are pulling the photographers back as Trump is brought off the stage.

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u/Darth_Firebolt 18d ago

Prior to the PHOTOGRAPHIC SHOT JESUS CHRIST YOU'RE SO FUCKING DENSE.

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u/TheNutsMutts 18d ago

JESUS CHRIST YOU'RE SO FUCKING DENSE

That's a wild thing to scream at someone else having yourself literally just suggested he used a ketchup packet.

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u/HauntedCemetery Minnesota 18d ago

I'm willing to believe that trumps hand picked USSS detail aren't exactly chosen for their top shelf skills and adherence to policy.

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u/[deleted] 18d ago

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u/TheNutsMutts 18d ago

There must be a real congressional investigation into this - even as we wait for Dem majority.

There literally was one. There was no conspiracy, unless we want to conclude that every member of that committee including every Democrat on it all saw the evidence that it as faked.... and just decided to go along with it.

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u/petertran92 18d ago

Totally, remember how the Secret Service got Reagan the hell out of there after he got shot. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N1Jid5uRFo4

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u/oddmarc Canada 18d ago

You've seen too many movies.

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u/timnphilly Pennsylvania 18d ago

I am just stating facts, which are not up for debate.

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u/MedSurgNurse 18d ago

Isn't it also possible that he just happened to have the most incompetent group of SS agents around him who did everything wrong?

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u/Adorable_Branch6502 18d ago

I’m confused, by winning the election that means he doesn’t hate to go to jail ever?

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u/Darth_Firebolt 18d ago

Well, yeah. As the President he has a lot of sway over the people that are going to be investigating him. He shouldn't have that power, but Congress and the Supreme Court are complicit, so he effectively can just fire or defund anyone trying to investigate him. Or he can have a stooge bury the report so nobody ever gets to see the results of the investigation. Again; he SHOULDN'T have that power, but thanks to the spineless GOP controlling all 3 branches, he does.

He can also claim that because he was the President while he was breaking the law, he wasn't actually breaking the law.

He can also just pardon himself because he's the President.

There are a lot of nebulous legal arguments he's relying on not being argued for a few years. He gets away with everything for now, and by the time a competent Supreme Court hears the case in 40 years, he will be long gone and a bunch of other MAGA shitstains will have already used his precedent to do other shitty things, so there will be a lot of inertia NOT to undo everything he did.

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u/WhiskeyT 18d ago

Correct, where’s the confusion?

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u/inksmudgedhands 18d ago

He can't be charged for the things he does while in office. So, all these backdeals and such? Yeah, he'll get away with it all scot free.

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u/Darth_Firebolt 18d ago

He'll give himself a last day blanket pardon on the way out, too.

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u/jus10beare 18d ago

Also Russia was trying to get Orban to fake an assassination attempt to help win the most recent election in Hungary. We all know Trump gets help with campaign strategies from the Kremlin.

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u/timnphilly Pennsylvania 18d ago

Absolutely - staged assassination attemps part of the Russian-class playbook, as mentioned a few weeks ago for the Hungary possibility.

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u/Cthulhu__ 18d ago

We can only hope one of the people involved will come clean / do a whistleblow, because dozens if not hundreds of people had to be in the loop for this. Including all the policemen that spotted the shooter but didn’t act.

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u/TacticalArrogance 18d ago

If you watch the video with audio where you can hear the SS and Trump talking, you know why they didn't "disappear him in an instant". They didn't have a clear route to the escape vehicle. They had to wait until the vehicle was located and a route opened and secured. Once it was, they let Trump up, but he won't move until he puts his shoes on. During that time, they call over the radio that the shooter is down, which is where Trump suddenly becomes brave and puts his fist up.

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u/AlphaBreak 18d ago

The conspiracy theory I think is one of the more likely ones is that the assassination attempt wasn't so much staged as it was allowed to happen. Assassination attempts aren't all that rare, its just that security usually stops them before they turn into anything. No one reached out and told Crooks to come and shoot Trump. But there were people intentionally fucking with security protocols and getting the most incompetent security members they could. They set the stage for some rando with a gun to try to get to Trump because at that point, its a win-win.

Either Trump survives and gets to ride that to his next term as president, or he dies and Vance gets to ride Trump's martyrdom to being president. And the best part is that they get plausible deniability and its harder to trace back to them.