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Copycat assassin accounts spread across social media after Trump shooting

Copycat assassins, Russian trolls, conspiracy theorists, and misogynists take to social media after the attempted assassination of Donald Trump.

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Niamh Ancell
Niamh Ancell Journalist
Jul 15, 2024 Updated: 15 July 2024 2 min read

Copycat assassins, Russian trolls, conspiracy theorists, and misogynists take to social media after the attempted assassination of Donald Trump.

Just moments after the attempted assassination of presidential candidate Donald Trump, misinformation and speculation surfaced across popular social media platforms like X, with people claiming that President Joe Biden was behind the attack, along with other wild insinuations.

The incident occurred when a 20-year-old man by the name of Thomas Matthew Crooks allegedly took a shot at Trump that just grazed the 45th US president's ear. The Secret Service shot Crooks dead at the scene.

After the attempt, tech moguls spoke out, with people like Elon Musk saying that they “fully endorse President Trump and hope for his rapid recovery.”

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This post alone, which has been seen almost 200 million times, boosted conspiracy theories surrounding the assassination, Wired said.

Since the event, an increase in misinformation and disinformation has been observed online. Cybersecurity experts and authorities warn that this is likely to proliferate as the investigation continues.

One of the wilder forms of disinformation that has been spreading across social is that the shooter who made the attempt on Trump’s life isn’t actually dead.

Instead, copycat accounts posing as “assassins” post on social media platforms like X and Instagram.

One video re-uploaded to X shows a man saying: "My name is Thomas Matthew Crooks. I hate Republicans. I hate Trump. And guess what, you’ve got the wrong guy," Data Breach Today found.

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Other conspiracy theories claim that the whole situation was set up, as one X user said that the scene “looks very staged. Sounded like a BB gun. Nobody in the crowd is running or panicking.”

Some people, including Mike Collins, a representative from Georgia, said that “Joe Biden sent the orders,” Data Breach Today found.

Information speculating that Ukraine is behind the attack surfaced on X as a picture of multiple missiles appeared on the platform with phrases like “For Trump” written on them in Russian.

While more conspiracy theories spread, biases also spread as blatant misogyny can be seen across Musk’s X. Various users have said that they don’t believe women should be Secret Service agents due to their inability as a gender to holster their weapons and are too concerned about putting on their sunglasses.

Cybersecurity specialists and authorities warn that misinformation and disinformation campaigns will continue to spread across the internet, with Russian troll farms, copycat killers, and conspiracy theorists at the top of the list.

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