BRIEF: Influencers and Hyperpartisan Media Promote Conspiracy Theories Following the Attempted Assassination of Former US President Trump

Global responses to the attack on former President Trump include attempts to connect it to past events while ominously warning about the future.

Updated to add more examples.

In the wake of the attempted assassination of former President Trump, we noted several trends in social and digital media.

1. Comparisons and Premonitions:

   • Media outlets like Sputnik Mundo and Spanish RT draw a connection between the attempted assassination of Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico and the attack on former President Trump. Pro-Kremlin influencers have promoted the idea that these different attempts on the lives of leaders in democratic nations have been related to their attempts to stop NATO from "starting WW3 in Ukraine."

   • Some commentators also link it to the assassination of the late Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe or the attack on Bolsonaro, treating these unconnected events as evidence of coordination and the basis for premonition of future attacks.

   • Speculation often includes warnings that specific figures, such as Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, may be in danger. It also includes speculation that these figures all have something in common and therefore their attacks are connected. One influencer warned, "Elon Musk, Viktor Orbán, Nayib Bukele, and Javier Milei must increase their security detail."

2. Language and Platforms:

   • This narrative is prevalent in multiple languages, especially Spanish, with notable mentions on platforms like Spanish RT, Sputnik Mundo, and the broader Sputnik International account in English.

   • Breitbart published a claim from Fico that "Trump's enemies incited this assassination attempt." This has also been repeated by social media influencers. Newsmax also mentions Orbán and Trump as the people trying to stop the "war in Ukraine," in a post that does not directly mention the attack on Trump.

   • Languages where we observed similar claims include German, French, Hungarian, Portuguese, and Italian.

3. Conspiracy Theories:

   • Connecting these events seems organic among conspiracy-minded individuals but has been amplified by pro-Kremlin sources

     

     Sputnik News promoted a comment by Jackson Hinkle, “ If you try to stop WWW3 (sic) they will try to kill you.

   • German publication Compact Magazine and the conspiracy website AUF1 also promoted these ideas, discussing the “Deep State.”

4. Impact and Potential Violence:

   • The portrayal of these events as connected without evidence is dangerous as it creates the impression of a coordinated, politically motivated threat to which people may feel they must respond.

   • Leaders should actively condemn the violence and work towards de-escalating tensions in their communications with followers.

   • Violent rhetoric has been increasing on the far-left and the far-right in the US, and scholars have warned recently about the "alarming" trend of dehumanizing dialogue.

Dataset

The underlying data for this report is available to subscribers.