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dalton99a

(95,145 posts) Mon May 11, 2026, 09:57 AM 5 hrs ago

Nearly A Third of Americans Believe At Least One Trump Assassination Attempt Was 'Staged'

https://www.newsguardrealitycheck.com/p/30-percent-of-americans-think-at-least-one-trump-assassination-attempt-was-staged

Nearly A Third of Americans Believe At Least One Trump Assassination Attempt Was ‘Staged’
By Sofia Rubinson and Samantha Tanner

Nearly one third of Americans (30 percent) believe that at least one of the three attempts on President Donald Trump’s life over the last two years was staged, according to a new NewsGuard/YouGov poll. For each attempted assassination, a majority of Americans said either that it was staged or that they were not sure — averaging 54 percent across all three.

Only 38 percent of Americans believe that all three assassination attempts were authentic.

A national survey of 1,000 Americans conducted by YouGov on behalf of NewsGuard asked respondents from April 28 to May 4 whether they believed any of the three attempts on Trump’s life — at a July 2024 campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, at Trump’s West Palm Beach golf course in September 2024, and at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner in April 2026 — “was staged.” Respondents indicated whether they thought the statement that the assassination attempt was staged was “true,” “false,” or that they were “not sure.”

Young respondents (ages 18-29) were more likely than older respondents to say the incidents were staged. The largest gap was for the April 2026 assassination attempt in Washington. Thirty-two percent of 18- to 29-year-olds said it was staged, compared with 15 percent of those 65 and older.

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11 replies

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Nearly A Third of Americans Believe At Least One Trump Assassination Attempt Was 'Staged' (Original Post) dalton99a 5 hrs ago OP

Notice that the zombie press didn't follow through very much, and just moved on. bucolic_frolic 4 hrs ago #1

+1. dalton99a 4 hrs ago #2

Kooky CT nonsense creates bipartisan consensus at the extreme fringes of reality Fiendish Thingy 4 hrs ago #3

Well, Miguelito Loveless 3 hrs ago #5

Too many of our fellow Americans take thrillers and comic books too seriously Vogon_Glory 4 hrs ago #4

And many of these people vote Sympthsical 2 hrs ago #6

My answer to the Fermi Paradox The Revolution 2 hrs ago #8

One of the most startling revelations of my adult life Sympthsical 1 hr ago #9

Mr. trump cries wolf rather often Torchlight 2 hrs ago #7

LOL. I hope they are happy for having elevated Ilsa 1 hr ago #10

For Scale: TheProle 1 hr ago #11

bucolic_frolic

(55,716 posts)

1. Notice that the zombie press didn't follow through very much, and just moved on.

Reply to dalton99a (Original post)

Mon May 11, 2026, 10:04 AM

4 hrs ago

That should tell you something.

dalton99a

(95,145 posts)

2. +1.

Reply to bucolic_frolic (Reply #1)

Mon May 11, 2026, 10:06 AM

4 hrs ago

Fiendish Thingy

(23,933 posts)

3. Kooky CT nonsense creates bipartisan consensus at the extreme fringes of reality

Reply to dalton99a (Original post)

Mon May 11, 2026, 10:11 AM

4 hrs ago

Whooda thunk it was possible?

There are other surveys showing a much higher percentage of republicans believe the WHCD attempt was staged.

Miguelito Loveless

(5,881 posts)

5. Well,

Reply to Fiendish Thingy (Reply #3)

Mon May 11, 2026, 10:59 AM

3 hrs ago

if you parse the plan logically, it is ridiculous. That said, logic is NOT the average person's forte, especially when you talk about anything involving MAGA.

Vogon_Glory

(10,347 posts)

4. Too many of our fellow Americans take thrillers and comic books too seriously

Reply to dalton99a (Original post)

Mon May 11, 2026, 10:22 AM

4 hrs ago

While comic-book killer characters like Death Stroke or Bullseye would have caused JD Vance to become the 48th president of the US, most of the people who tried to shoot Orange Julius have displayed a remarkable lack of competence and/or preparation.

EDIT: Most of them showed a Squeaky Fromme-level of incompetence.

Sympthsical

(11,091 posts)

6. And many of these people vote

Reply to dalton99a (Original post)

Mon May 11, 2026, 12:18 PM

2 hrs ago

Which explains . . . quite a lot.

Some day we're going to have to admit that anti-intellectualism won - and it was social media that drove a stake through rational thinking.

The Revolution

(911 posts)

8. My answer to the Fermi Paradox

Reply to Sympthsical (Reply #6)

Mon May 11, 2026, 12:23 PM

2 hrs ago

It isn't the invention of nuclear weapons or artificial climate change that dooms advanced civilizations, but rather the introduction of social media.

Sympthsical

(11,091 posts)

9. One of the most startling revelations of my adult life

Reply to The Revolution (Reply #8)

Mon May 11, 2026, 01:37 PM

1 hr ago

Or at least of my maturing life is that controlled hierarchical systems really were necessary for human progress. Once all information, facts, logic, and reality become democratized to the point of perpetual lowest common denominator settings, a society can rapidly go to shit.

That's where we are now. The dumbest people alive now have megaphones just as powerful and far-reaching as the knowledgeable and the wise. In fact, some would argue more powerful, because stupid is frequently simplistic and thus more appealing. The "right to my opinion" became a kind of veto to logic.

I increasingly worry that Trump isn't an anomaly - he's the appetizer. That we're in the first swirl of the flush. When higher order thinking goes out the window, all that's left is tribalism.

And AI is not going to make that any better.

Torchlight

(7,010 posts)

7. Mr. trump cries wolf rather often

Reply to dalton99a (Original post)

Mon May 11, 2026, 12:20 PM

2 hrs ago

I'm not surprised the immediate reaction of so many would be, "sure... that really happened. Again. Uh-huh"

Ilsa

(64,527 posts)

10. LOL. I hope they are happy for having elevated

Reply to dalton99a (Original post)

Mon May 11, 2026, 01:45 PM

1 hr ago

conspiracy theories and disinformation for decades.

TheProle

(4,063 posts)

11. For Scale:

Reply to dalton99a (Original post)

Mon May 11, 2026, 01:58 PM

1 hr ago

Only 60% of Americans believe in evolution. (LINK)
41% of Americans believe humans and dinosaurs coexisted. (LINK)
More than one fourth of Americans believe the Sun revolves around the Earth. (LINK)
45% of Americans believe in ghosts. (LINK)

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