Conspiracy theories are swirling about the White House Correspondents’ Dinner shooting

On Saturday evening, a room full of journalists, media personalities, and senior members of Donald Trump’s administration descended into chaos as gunshots rang out at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner . Nobody was hurt, and the suspect was taken into custody — but it didn’t take long for a narrative of doubt to take hold online. There is no evidence that the attack at the WHCD was staged — but the conspiracies echo an increasingly common belief held even by some former Trump loyalists that the president is faking assassination attempts. Many people online appear to earnestly believe this attack is just the latest iteration. On X, Threads , Bluesky , and Reddit , suggestions that the shooting was planted began circulating almost immediately. Clips that otherwise would be innocuous were circulated as proof the shooting was scripted, or that officials had knowledge of it ahead of time. In one clip viewed 5.7 million times and shared by a liberal “political commentator,” a Fox News reporter calls into the network and describes how at the dinner, press secretary Karoline Leavitt’s husband leaned over to her and told her, “You need to be very safe.” The call drops as she is about to elaborate on the conversation. Live callers losing connection happens occasionally during TV broadcasts, but here it became evidence for a conspiracy: “HOLY SH*T,” an X post of the video reads. …