24% of Americans believe White House correspondents' dinner shooting was staged: Poll
Many Americans think assassination attempts against US President Donald Trump were fake, survey finds
About 1 in 4 Americans believe the April shooting at the White House correspondents’ dinner was staged, according to a survey by NewsGuard released Monday.
Last week, a federal grand jury in Washington, D.C., indicted the alleged gunman, charging Cole Tomas Allen with four felonies, including the attempted assassination of President Donald Trump.
The survey found that 24% of US adults believed the incident at the Washington Hilton was fake, while 45% considered it legitimate. Another 32% said they were unsure. The poll of 1,000 American adults was conducted by YouGov from April 28 to May 4.
“It’s very striking,” said Sofia Rubinson, an editor at NewsGuard. She said the findings reflect growing public skepticism toward both the government and the media.
“Increasingly, people on all sides of the political spectrum are distrustful of both this administration and also the media,” she said, adding that many are willing to trust unverified information online.
The White House dismissed the conspiracy theories in a statement issued after publication. “Anyone who thinks President Trump staged his own assassination attempts is a complete moron,” spokesman Davis Ingle said, according to The Washington Post.
The April incident followed two assassination attempts on Trump in 2024: one at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, and another at Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida.
The survey also found that 24% of Americans believed that the attempt at the Butler rally was staged, with 29% unsure; and 16% of respondents said they believed the golf club assassination attempt was staged, with 36% unsure.
