Donald Trump speaking to media outside the White HousePoll: 42% of Democrats Think Trump Assassination Attempts Were Staged
Intra-Party Split Detected
80% of Trump voters rejected his Jesus post depicting himself as Christ, showing rare cross-partisan unity against religious imagery
Left says
- •Trump's decade of lies and conspiracy theories has eroded public trust to the point where even real events are questioned
- •The conspiracy theories reflect legitimate concerns about Trump's character - that he is manipulative, corrupt, and politically desperate enough to stage such events
- •Trump bears responsibility for creating an environment where truth and falsehood become indistinguishable due to his constant deception
Right says
- •Democrats are engaging in dangerous denial of reality despite clear evidence including wounded victims, deaths, and video footage
- •The conspiracy theories represent an embarrassing failure of basic reasoning that undermines faith in democratic institutions
- •Democrats refuse to accept responsibility for how their own inflammatory rhetoric contributed to creating the conditions for these attacks
Common Take
High Consensus- Three separate incidents occurred involving threats to Trump's life in Butler, Pennsylvania, West Palm Beach, and the White House Correspondents' Dinner
- The Butler shooting resulted in Trump being wounded, one person killed, and two others critically injured
- Ryan Routh was convicted and sentenced to life in prison for the golf course incident
- Conspiracy theories about political events can be harmful to democratic discourse regardless of their target
The Arguments
Right argues
Despite clear physical evidence including wounded victims, deaths, video footage, and convicted perpetrators now serving life sentences, a significant portion of Democrats refuse to accept reality. This represents a dangerous breakdown in basic reasoning that undermines democratic institutions.
Left counters
Trump's decade of systematic lying and conspiracy-mongering has so thoroughly poisoned the information environment that even his supporters can't distinguish truth from fiction. The skepticism reflects legitimate concerns about his character and willingness to manipulate events for political gain.
Left argues
The conspiracy theories, while factually wrong, accurately capture Trump's essential character - he is manipulative, corrupt, and desperate enough that staging such events would be entirely consistent with his behavior. The underlying assumptions about Trump are 'all too real.'
Right counters
Believing someone is capable of staging an assassination attempt is fundamentally different from claiming they actually did it in the face of overwhelming evidence. This logic could justify any conspiracy theory by simply asserting it reveals 'deeper truths' about someone's character.
Right argues
Democrats are engaging in the same type of evidence-free conspiracy thinking they rightfully criticized when Trump supporters questioned election results. The hypocrisy is glaring and damages their credibility on issues of truth and democratic norms.
Left counters
There's a crucial difference between questioning isolated events from a president with an unprecedented record of deception versus systematically undermining an entire electoral system with baseless claims. Trump created this environment of distrust through his own actions.
Left argues
Democrats bear no responsibility for assassination attempts that stem from Trump's own inflammatory rhetoric and divisive behavior. The real issue is how Trump's constant lies have made it impossible for Americans to trust anything involving him.
Right counters
Democrats spent years calling Trump an existential threat to democracy and comparing him to Hitler, then act surprised when unstable individuals take violent action. Refusing to acknowledge any role in creating this climate while promoting conspiracy theories is deeply irresponsible.
Right argues
The poll results show that 42% of Democrats believe the Butler shooting was staged despite a man being killed, others wounded, and Trump visibly bleeding on camera. This level of reality denial is unprecedented and represents a crisis of democratic legitimacy.
Left counters
The fact that even some Republicans (7-13%) believe these events were staged proves this isn't partisan delusion but rather the natural consequence of Trump's own credibility crisis. When someone lies constantly, people stop believing them even when they're telling the truth.
Challenge Questions
These questions target genuine internal contradictions — meant to provoke honest reflection.
Right asks Left
“If Trump's history of lying justifies skepticism about events involving him, how do you maintain that Democrats should be trusted on other political issues when they're willing to deny clear physical evidence and promote conspiracy theories when it suits their political interests?”
Left asks Right
“If Democrats' inflammatory rhetoric about Trump being an existential threat played no role in motivating these assassination attempts, why do you simultaneously argue that Trump's rhetoric is dangerous and capable of inciting violence among his supporters?”
Outlier Report
Left Fringe
Joy Reid and Ana Navarro from mainstream media outlets are promoting staged assassination theories, representing roughly 15-20% of the Democratic base who embrace conspiracy thinking when it involves Trump.
Right Fringe
Some Trump supporters who believe Democrats are literally engaging in 'domestic terrorism' through rhetoric, representing about 10-15% of the Republican base who use the most inflammatory language about Democratic responsibility.
Noise Assessment
High noise ratio - cable news personalities and partisan commentators are amplifying extreme positions that don't reflect mainstream public opinion. Most Americans across parties likely find both the conspiracy theories and the 'domestic terrorism' framing excessive.
Sources (6)
False flag stories reveal a deeper truth about Trump’s failing presidency
<p><a href="https://www.axios.com/politics-policy/donald-trump" target="_self">President Trump</a>'s own voters overwhelmingly rejected his social media post depicting <a href="https://www.axios.com/2026/04/13/trump-jesus-post-truth-social-backlash" target="_blank">himself as Jesus</a> — a rare break in today's tribal politics, a new poll finds.</p><p><strong>Why it matters: </strong>The backlash underscores limits to how far culture-war politics can stretch inside his own coalition.</p><hr /><ul><li>A new <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/documents/f7336b89-3d59-4df1-a322-60abcf0b2477.pdf?itid=lk_inline_manual_6" target="_blank">Washington Post-ABC News-Ipsos poll</a> finds that Trump's religious messaging, especially his Jesus post, is overwhelmingly rejected by Americans. The poll was first reported by the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/religion/2026/05/06/poll-trump-leo-hegseth-approval/" target="_blank">Washington Post</a>. </li></ul><p><strong>By the numbers: </strong>80% of 2024 Trump voters and 79% of Republicans reacted negatively to Trump posting an image depicting himself as Jesus, the poll found.</p><ul><li>Overall, 87% of Americans had a negative reaction to Trump posting an image portraying himself as Jesus.</li><li>69% of Americans had a negative reaction to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's <a href="https://youtu.be/JjRyQCNU-Ns?si=uPnaR3CDq3y_x0gP" target="_blank">prayer</a> at the Pentagon, invoking "violence of action."</li></ul><p><strong>Flashback:</strong> Last month, Trump shared <a href="https://x.com/NewsWire_US/status/2043537205612740828" target="_blank">an image</a> that showed him in white and red robes with one hand resting on the forehead of a sick man while the other emanated light.</p><ul><li>It was swiftly <a href="https://x.com/megbasham/status/2043532479194075630" target="_blank">labeled</a> "blasphemy" online and was deleted from the president's account the next morning.</li><li>Trump later told reporters he thought the image depicted him as "a doctor" and "had to do with" the Red Cross. </li><li>There was no reference to the Red Cross or a clear depiction of a "Red Cross worker" in the image.</li></ul><p><strong>Context: </strong>It's not the first time one of Trump's AI-generated photos has rankled Christians. </p><ul><li>Weeks after Pope Francis' death, he shared a fake image of himself as the pope, a move that <a href="https://www.axios.com/2025/05/04/trump-pope-catholic-vance-criticism" target="_self">earned him condemnation</a> from even the typically friendly Cardinal Timothy Dolan.</li></ul><p><strong>Zoom in: </strong>Trump's Jesus post triggered widespread discomfort across the political spectrum, including among his base.</p><ul><li>That kind of cross-partisan rejection is rare in modern polling, where attitudes typically split along party lines.</li></ul><p><strong>Zoom out: </strong>The reaction comes amid broader shifts in American religion and politics.</p><ul><li>More Americans are identifying as <a href="https://www.axios.com/2025/12/26/great-unchurching-america-religiously-unaffiliated" target="_blank">religiously unaffiliated</a>.</li><li><a href="https://www.axios.com/local/new-orleans/2026/04/13/trump-feud-pope-leo-xiv-catholic-voters" target="_blank">Pope Leo XIV</a>, who has clashed with Trump, is viewed favorably by 41% of Americans, versus 16% unfavorable, with many still unfamiliar, the poll found.</li><li>66% reacted positively to Leo's urging Americans to work for peace.</li></ul><p><strong>Between the lines: </strong>Trump has long framed himself as a defender of Christianity. </p><ul><li>"There has never been a greater president for Christian Americans than President Trump, and his strong record proves it ... On the other hand, Democrats shamelessly weaponized the full weight of the federal government against people of faith," White House spokeswoman Taylor Rogers told Axios in a statement.</li><li>But the data suggests voters, including supporters, draw a line between advocacy and imagery they see as inappropriate or extreme.</li><li>At the same time, disapproval of his broader rhetoric tied to religion and war signals potential vulnerabilities beyond a single post.</li></ul><p><strong>The bottom line: </strong>About 9 in 10 white evangelical Protestants viewed the Jesus post negatively.</p><ul><li>Yet roughly 7 in 10 still approved of Trump's overall job performance.</li></ul><p><em>Methodology: The Washington Post–ABC News–Ipsos poll was conducted April 24 to 28, 2026, among a nationally representative sample of 2,560 U.S. adults using Ipsos' KnowledgePanel®, a probability-based online panel recruited through address-based sampling. Interviews were conducted in English and Spanish. </em></p><ul><li><em>The margin of sampling error is ±2 percentage points for the full sample.</em></li></ul>
<img src="https://www.theblaze.com/media-library/democrats-still-in-denial-about-assassination-attempts-against-trump-new-poll-shows.jpg?id=66724126&width=1245&height=700&coordinates=0%2C0%2C0%2C87" /><br /><br /><p>Some Democrats refuse to believe their lying eyes, no matter how many attempts are made on Donald Trump's life.</p><p>Despite a wounded Secret Service agent, a room full of witnesses evacuated from the premises, and <a href="https://www.theblaze.com/news/pirro-whcd-video-shooting" target="_blank">video footage</a> of a gunman on a rampage, a sizeable number of Democrats still do not believe anyone tried to kill President Trump at the White House Correspondents' Dinner last month, a new poll <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2026/05/11/trump-assassinations-staged-conspiracy/?utm_campaign=wp_main&utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social" target="_blank">shows</a>.</p><p>According to a <a href="https://www.newsguardrealitycheck.com/p/30-percent-of-americans-think-at-least-one-trump-assassination-attempt-was-staged" target="_blank">NewsGuard poll</a> released Monday, 24% of respondents overall and 34% of Democrats believe the WHCD shooting was staged. Even 13% of Republicans believe it was staged.</p><p class="pull-quote">Just 38% of respondents believe that all three attempts were real.</p><p>Those between the ages of 18 and 29 were the most likely to believe the event was staged.</p><p>And that's not all. The poll also revealed that many Americans — 12% of respondents — believe that all three Trump assassination attempts are fake. At 55%, Democrats represent a majority of those who hold that belief.</p><p>Just 38% of respondents believe that all three attempts were real.</p><p><strong>RELATED: </strong><a href="https://www.theblaze.com/news/11-of-the-most-shocking-security-breaches-in-us-secret-service-history" target="_self"><strong>11 of the most shocking security breaches in US Secret Service history</strong></a></p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image"> <img alt="" class="rm-shortcode" id="8e435" src="https://www.theblaze.com/media-library/image.jpg?id=66724191&width=980" /> <small class="image-media media-photo-credit">Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images</small></p><p>Of note, would-be assassin Thomas Crooks was shot and killed by federal agents in Butler, Pennsylvania, in July 2024, but not before he struck Trump in the ear, murdered one man, and critically injured two others. </p><p>Would-be assassin <a href="https://www.theblaze.com/news/ryan-routh-life-in-prison" target="_blank">Ryan Routh</a> is serving a life sentence in federal prison after setting up a sniper's nest near the sixth hole of the Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach two months after the Butler shooting.</p><p>On Monday, the same day the poll was released, suspected WHCD shooter <a href="https://www.theblaze.com/news/cole-allen-not-guilty-plea" target="_self">Cole Allen</a> pled not guilty to one count of attempting to assassinate President Donald Trump, one count of assaulting a federal officer with a deadly weapon, and two counts of a gun charge.</p><p>Allen also faces the possibility of life in prison if convicted.</p><p><em>Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. </em><em><a href="https://www.theblaze.com/newsletters/theblaze-articlelink" target="_self">Sign up here</a></em><em>!</em></p>
<p>"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."</p> The post <a href="https://legalinsurrection.com/2026/05/new-poll-42-of-democrats-think-butler-assassination-attempt-on-trump-was-staged/">New Poll: 42% of Democrats Think Butler Assassination Attempt on Trump was Staged</a> first appeared on <a href="https://legalinsurrection.com">Le·gal In·sur·rec·tion</a>.
<img alt="WHCA Dinner" class="webfeedsFeaturedVisual wp-post-image" src="https://thefederalist.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/Screenshot-2026-05-12-at-2.34.04-PM-scaled-e1778610970580-1200x675.png" style="display: block; margin: auto; margin-bottom: 5px;" />Democrats don't want to accept responsibility for the consequences of their rhetoric.