Trump rejects ‘staged shooting’, claims rape charges after White House dinner attack. Photo: X.
US President Donald Trump has responded to a wave of online conspiracy theories suggesting that the shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner was “staged,” following a security breach that forced him to take cover during the event. Trump, 79, was seen hitting the floor and crawling out of Saturday night’s gathering under the protection of Secret Service agents as shots were fired. Moments before the incident, a manifesto allegedly written by the suspected gunman, Cole Tomas Allen, 31, was sent to members of his family.
In the immediate aftermath, social media platforms were flooded with claims questioning the authenticity of the attack. Some users alleged the shooting was orchestrated to divert attention from Trump’s handling of the war in Iran, declining approval ratings, or to justify his controversial vanity ballroom project amid legal challenges.
By midday Sunday, analytics from TweetBinder showed the term “staged” had appeared in over 300,000 posts on X, reflecting the scale at which the narrative had spread.
During an interview with 60 Minutes correspondent Norah O’Donnell, Trump said he was unaware of such claims until questioned.
“I think they’re more sick than they are con people,” Trump said, referring to those promoting the theories. “But there’s a lot of con in there too.”
“I haven’t heard that last night didn’t happen… usually takes a little bit longer. Usually, they wait about two or three months to start saying that,” he added.
O’Donnell pointed out that similar conspiracy narratives had followed a previous attempt on Trump’s life during a 2024 campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. In that incident, Trump’s ear was grazed by a bullet, while the suspected gunman, Thomas Matthew Crooks, was shot dead by the Secret Service.
When asked directly about the origins of the rumours that the Washington Hilton hotel shooting was staged, Trump expressed skepticism.
“I think that’d be a tough one,” he said. “I think that would be a tough sell.”
The president himself has previously been associated with promoting controversial claims, including repeated assertions that the 2020 US presidential election was rigged. He has also suggested that Michelle Obama used President Joe Biden’s autopen to issue pardons in his final days in office.
Trump has further described the Epstein files as a “Democrat hoax.”
The interview grew tense when O’Donnell read excerpts from Allen’s manifesto, in which the suspect wrote he was “no longer willing to permit a pedophile, rapist, and traitor to coat my hands with his crimes.”
“I was waiting for you to read that because I knew you would because you’re horrible people. Horrible people,” Trump responded. “Yeah, he did write that. I’m not a rapist. I didn’t rape anybody.”
When pressed further, Trump continued, “I’m not a pedophile. Excuse me. Excuse me. I’m not a pedophile. You read that c–p from some sick person? I got associated with stuff that has nothing to do with me. I was totally exonerated.”
He added, “Your friends on the other side of the plate are the ones that were involved with, let’s say, Epstein or other things… You should be ashamed of yourself reading that because I’m not any of those things.”
Investigators have identified Cole Tomas Allen as a 31-year-old from California who had checked into the hotel prior to the event, a factor officials believe enabled him to bypass outer layers of security typically in place at high-profile gatherings.
He was reportedly armed with multiple weapons, including a shotgun and a handgun, at the time of the shooting.
Preliminary findings indicate that Allen did not initially raise concerns. He had an academic background in engineering and computer science and worked as a tutor.
Zubair Amin is a Senior Journalist at NewsX with over seven years of experience in reporting and editorial work. He has written for leading national and international publications, including Foreign Policy Magazine, Al Jazeera, The Economic Times, The Indian Express, The Wire, Article 14, Mongabay, News9, among others. His primary focus is on international affairs, with a strong interest in US politics and policy. He also writes on West Asia, Indian polity, and constitutional issues. Zubair tweets at zubaiyr.amin
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