The conspiracy theory that Donald Trump staged his own assassination attempt is the clearest example of delusion and mass hysteria I have ever seen.
Within an hour of the shooting, images were circulating that showed the bullet in midair. A snapshot progression posted on social media showed the sequence of the bullet in the air, Trump reflexively touching his ear, and then looking at the blood on his hand. It is impossible to deny that the former president was shot in the ear by a near-miss from an assassin who was attempting to kill him.
And yet polls show as many as a third of all Democrats believe that Trump staged the assassination attempt in order to make himself look better.
The simple fact is that when faced with death, after eight bullets tore through the air around him and one came within a head turn of killing him, he rose up and shouted his defiance to the crowd. He is not a coward, and he proved as much.
It is a sad statement on the political divisiveness we see today that so many people are unable to accept this, and instead must invent impossible scenarios that paint him in a negative light.
— Robert Martin
Homer
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