[imagesource:reddit/Tim_richard96]

In the minutes and hours after a 20-year-old repeatedly shot at former president Donald Trump during a campaign rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday, the internet was, naturally, awash in memes and conspiracy theories about the incident.

Above is one such meme of Donald being compared to the poverty-stricken artist Vincent Van Gogh who cut off his own ear in a moment of mental weakness. Donald is no artist and surely should not be a politician (never mind a president) but one must admit he certainly is a fine entertainer.

The moment he thrust his balled hand into the air shows a mastery of the modern media age, the New York Times reckons. But it must have been a really absurd and jarring moment for the family of the man in the audience who actually got shot in lieu of Trump.

An iconic image of Donald Trump, after a bullet appears to have grazed his head and bloodied his ear in an assassination attempt, defiantly resisting Secret Service so he can hold his fist in the air to show he survived

Photo: Evan Vucci/AP pic.twitter.com/KtZnVi1TRc

— Marc Caputo (@MarcACaputo) July 13, 2024

Imagine screaming next to a dead man while the ex-president begins punching the air and riling the crowd up to chant “U-S-A! U-S-A!”. As Childish Gambino accurately said once, “This is America, guns in my area”.

Gunfire erupted at a Donald Trump rally, sparking panic in the crowd and spattering the Republican presidential candidate with blood, before he emerged and defiantly pumped his fist in the air before being ushered to a waiting car https://t.co/YpqPWpEULv pic.twitter.com/cww9y1kYCD

— Reuters (@Reuters) July 14, 2024

The FBI named a young local man, Thomas Matthew Crooks, as the person who shot at Donald with a semi-automatic AR-15 rifle before being killed himself by a Secret Service sniper. The 20-year-old graduated in 2022 from Bethel Park High School with a $500 (£385) prize for maths and science, according to the BBC, and had been working in a local nursing home kitchen before this crazy incident.

The guy was heavy into weapons and guns and, apparently, a registered Republican, which is odd. But all things considered, his motive is still completely murky. That has not stopped the internet from plotting wild conspiracy theories in a futile effort to make this all make sense.

Wired notes that the conspiracies have come from all sides of the political divide, from wild claims that the incident was a “deep state plot” devised by President Joe Biden to allegations that the entire incident was staged to boost Trump’s chances of winning the election. Even elected lawmakers got in on the theorising:

“They tried to jail him and now they’ve tried to kill him,” Representative Greg Steube of Florida wrote on X.

“Joe Biden sent the orders,” Representative Mike Collins of Georgia wrote on X in reference to a recent call Biden held with donors, when he reportedly said, “It’s time to put Trump in a bull’s-eye.”

Meanwhile, Sean Davis, the founder of the right-wing website The Federalist, claimed the shooting was part of a Democrat-led plot to take Trump out.

“They knew Biden couldn’t win so they incited one of their toadies to try and take out his opponent.”

X owner Elon Musk, who said he “fully endorses” Trump following the rally shooting, actively boosted conspiracies and suggested in a post that it may have been “deliberate” to allow the shooter onto the roof from where he fired the shots. The platform was trending with “staged” and “false flag,” both of which centred on the baseless conspiracy that Trump’s own campaign team orchestrated the attack to make the former president look like a hero.

“This is the most staged thing I’ve seen in a long time,” one X user wrote in a post viewed 1.6 million times. “He knows he’s going to lose the election, so he fakes this shit and shouts to the crowd to fight.”

There were even claims that an Antifa activist named Matthew Yearick was the shooter despite being debunked, while another X user purposely posted photos and videos of himself claiming to be the shooter; saying “My name is Thomas Matthew Crooks. I hate Republicans. I hate Trump. And guess what, you’ve got the wrong guy.” These posts were boosted by major accounts on the platform, including Trump ally Laura Loomer.

Alex Jones, the school shooting conspiracist, ranted in a video posted to X that this was the beginning of a much wider effort by the deep state to kill powerful figures in America, including Biden and Musk.

Today is not just some isolated incident.

The central premise of the Biden campaign is that President Donald Trump is an authoritarian fascist who must be stopped at all costs.

That rhetoric led directly to President Trump’s attempted assassination.

— J.D. Vance (@JDVance1) July 14, 2024

The thinking is that law enforcement’s failure to act is a sign that the apparent assassination attempt was coordinated by the “deep state.”

“Deep-State how do you miss a roof 160 yards away? He got 5 shots off then he dies!” one X user wrote.

The postulating and fake news about fake news based on some wild claims can go on forever, so I will stop here.

The real conclusion is that America is out of hand and Trump is probably missing an ear for it.

[source:wired]