The United States no longer argues only about politics. Discuss your own reality. A new poll released Monday reveals that one in four Americans believes that during the White House Correspondents’ Dinner was “a set-up.”
The fact, which seems taken from a dystopian novel or an episode of Black Mirror, reflects the extent to which polarization and conspiracy theories have contaminated American public debate.
According to the survey carried out by YouGov for NewsGuard, 45% of respondents consider that the attack was real, while 24% directly believe that it was “staged”. The remaining 32% claim to be unclear about what really happened.
The political fracture also appears in the results. Among Democratic voters, the percentage who think that the attack was “a setup” rises to 34%. Among independents it drops to 23%, while among Republicans only 13% believe it.
A real attack that many question
The alleged assassination attempt
According to the investigation, he tried to break into the hotel where Trump was participating in a gala with members of his Government armed with a shotgun, a pistol and several knives.
The suspect was subdued by security agents after an exchange of gunfire that forced the president to evacuate. There were no victims.
This Monday, Allen appeared in federal court in the District of Columbia and pleaded not guilty to the four charges against him. among them the attempted assassination of the president, a crime that could lead to a life sentence.
But even with an open investigation and a defendant formally prosecuted, much of American society remains suspicious.
Only 38% believe that the three attacks were real
The survey goes even further. Asked about the three assassination attempts on Trump over the past two years, only 38% of Americans believe they were all genuine.
In addition to the April attack in Washington, The Republican president survived another attack during a campaign rally in Pennsylvania in July 2024 -when a bullet grazed his ear- and a third incident in September of that same year near a golf course in Florida.
The repetition of violent episodes around Trump has fueled a spiral of conspiracy theories on social networks and digital platforms, where thousands of users have been questioning both the attacks and the authorities’ response for months.
The White House responds: “It’s idiotic”
The reaction from the White House was immediate and especially harsh.
“Anyone who believes that President Trump orchestrated his own assassination attempts is a complete idiot“said spokesman Davis Ingle in a statement reported by The Washington Post.
The Administration is thus trying to stop a wave of misinformation that already affects even judicially investigated events.
However, disinformation experts have been warning for some time that The United States has entered a phase of structural distrust where any event – from an election to an attack – ends up becoming an object of partisan suspicion.
A society where no one fully believes in anything anymore
The NewsGuard survey portrays an increasingly widespread phenomenon in the United States: the disappearance of minimal consensus on reality.
It’s not just about Trump. The climate of permanent suspicion affects the media, institutions, courts, electoral processes and public organizations.
And now also to the assassination attempts against a president.
The most striking fact may not be that 24% believe in a montage. What is truly revealing is that Nearly a third of Americans directly admit that they no longer know what to believe.
