Attack on Trump in Washington, Cole Thomas Allen in court today: “I’m not guilty”

According to investigators, Allen allegedly tried to force his way through a security checkpoint near the event with a gunwhich was attended by Trump, members of the administration and journalists. The man would have with him several rifles, knives and ammunition. During the Secret Service’s intervention, a firefight broke out, in which an agent was wounded in the chest, while the suspect was arrested unharmed.

Authorities believe Allen had been planning the attack for some time: shortly before the attack he sent his family members an apology message criticizing the Trump administration and then told investigators that he did not expect to survive the action.

One in four Americans believes the attempted assassination was staged

Meanwhile, according to a survey published today by NewsGuard, a company that classifies the reliability of online sites, one in four Americans thinks that the attempted assassination of Donald Trump during the White House correspondents’ dinner was staged. One in three if we consider only Democratic voters.

The survey therefore confirms that the indictments have not stopped the online circulation of conspiracy theories, according to which the Trump administration organized the fake attack on April 25 at the Hilton in Washington in an attempt to trace the popularity of the tycoon, the Republican Party and the construction of the controversial White House ballroom, for the construction of which Trump razed part of the historic building.

According to data collected between 28 and 4 May by YouGov for NewsGuard 24% of American adults believe the assassination attempt was fake, while 45% believe it actually happened, with a substantial 32% saying they are unsure. It is clear how the political position influences the judgement: if one in three Democratic voters thinks that it was a hoax, only one in eight Republican voters shares this position. The generational factor also plays a role: young people between 18 and 29 are more likely to think that it was a fake than older and older people.

Not only that. The poll also records that many Americans are skeptical about the veracity of the other two attempted assassinations of Trump which took place, in July during a rally in Pennsylvania and in September at the golf course in Florida, during the 2024 election campaign. 24% of those interviewed believe that Butler’s events were staged, a percentage that rises to 42% among Democrats and drops to 8% among Republicans. While 16% believe the attempt on the golf course was false, with 26% of Democrats and 7% of Republicans. In total, 21% of Dem voters believe that all three attacks are false, along with 11% of independents and 3% of Republicans.

The data collected is defined as “surprising” by Sofia Rubinson, editor of NewsGuard who, reports the Washington Post, underlines how these indicate a broader skepticism among Americans towards government and the press. “More and more people, regardless of political affiliation, distrust both this administration and the media,” he said, highlighting how, however, the same people appear willing to trust unverified information they find online.

The White Housewith a statement released in April, stated that “Anyone who thinks President Trump staged his attempted assassination is a complete fool”but there are claims that the results of this investigation are also an indicator of the constant spectacularisation of the Trump presidency.

“It seems incredibly Hollywood to think that all this was staged” explains John Donovan, a professor at Boston University who studies media manipulation, recalling however that with this administration “the entire government apparatus has been transformed into a reality show”.

For Jared Holt, researcher at Open Measures, a group that monitors extremist activities online, the survey numbers show how conspiracy thinking is now increasingly widespread in the United States. “These results don’t surprise me that much – he says – conspiracy theories have now infected our political fabric to the point of having become a visceral reflex for a growing part of the population” to make sense of complex events, says Holt, underlining that there is a responsibility on the part of “governments and institutions that hide the truth about their actions, circumvent regulations or fail to enforce the laws for some individuals”.