Before I begin, I want to acknowledge that most people on both sides of the political divide are rightly outraged and concerned about Saturday’s assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump. Unfortunately, there are many left-leaning members of the chatterbox class doing their best to spin the incident to advance their agenda.
Shortly after footage of the shooting went viral on social media, leftists on various social media platforms immediately began pretending that the shooting was staged to lend a hand Trump’s campaign. In fact, so many spread this lie that the term “staged” was trending on X.
In the latest episode, Dmitri Mehlhorn, a political adviser to LinkedIn co-founder and major Democratic donor Reid Hoffman, expressed this theory in an email obtained by author Max Meyer.
In the email, Mehlhorn made the brilliant claim that “political violence is always either real or staged,” and acknowledged that it was possible that the attempt on Trump’s life was legitimate, before launching into a rather bizarre fantasy about the incident.
The other possibility – which seems horrific, alien and absurd in America, but is quite common around the world – is that this “shooting” was encouraged and perhaps even staged so that Trump could get the photos and benefit from the backlash. This is a classic Russian tactic, like when Putin killed 300 civilians in 1999 and blamed it on terrorists in order to ride the backlash and gain power.
Mehlhorn further described the attack as “a classic Putin move” and claimed that this theory was “more plausible” than the idea that a mentally disturbed person had actually tried to assassinate Trump.
But wait, it gets even more bizarre. Mehlhorn then expresses his outrage that major media outlets and influencers are not covering this story. “I just skimmed a few headlines. NO NEWSPAPER OR OPINION LEADER IN AMERICA IS WILLING TO CONSIDER THE POSSIBILITY THAT TRUMP AND PUTIN DELIBERATELY STAGED THIS,” he wrote:
MAX MEYER EXCLUSIVE:
I received the ailing, twisted email in which @reidhoffmanDmitri Mehlhorn’s chief political adviser says newspapers must address the possibility that Trump may have staged the shooting – together with PUTIN.
He says: “This is a classic Putin game”
Here is the full text: pic.twitter.com/EcX5MH4w1G
— Max Meyer (@mualphaxi) July 14, 2024
Mehlhorn is not the only leftist spreading the lie that the attempted murder was staged. Others have repeated these lies and made up more to somehow turn the incident to the left’s advantage.
The issue has become so ridiculous that even PolitiFact, whose members probably Love that the shooting was staged, Repelled against this stupid narrative.
I don’t believe for a second that people like Mehlhorn actually believe that Saturday’s shooting was staged. The whole theory makes no sense.
In fact, one person died in the attack. Two others were injured. In addition, the shooter missed his target and only grazed Trump’s ear. Anyone who believes that a 20-year-old could do something like that on purpose has seen far too many films.
At this point, there is no point in pretending that the assassination attempt was a false flag operation – and people on the left know it. They harbor this fantasy for two reasons: They don’t want to admit that there are people in their camp who could commit such an act, and they know that the failed attempt to assassinate Trump will only benefit his campaign. These people are purely politically motivated.
In fact, there is a prediction: If it turns out that the shooter was a left-wing extremist who wanted Trump dead, people on the left will continue to pretend the shooting was staged. If it turns out that the shooter was a Republican who happens to be anti-Trump, the theory will disappear overnight.
If the latter scenario turns out to be true, there will be no reason for the left to continue pretending that the incident was part of a conspiracy to empower the former president, as they can simply shift the blame to the right. Either way, it is clear that the “staged” narrative is nothing more than propaganda aimed at diluting the positive impact of the incident on Trump’s campaign.
