Why So Many Believe the WHCD Shooting Was Staged
What Next | Daily News and Analysis
Slate Podcasts
4.3 • 2.4K Ratings
🗓️ 28 April 2026
⏱️ 24 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Presidential assassinations have been spawning conspiracy theories since Lincoln. But Saturday’s attempted assassination seems about as straightforward as these things can be—so why does it feel like everyone believes it was staged?
Guest: Will Sommer, author of the False Flag newsletter for The Bulwark and “Trust the Plan: The Rise of QAnon and the Conspiracy That Unhinged America.”
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Podcast production by Elena Schwartz, Paige Osburn, Anna Phillips, Madeline Ducharme, and Rob Gunther.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | So who in your world thinks what happened at the White House Correspondence dinner this weekend? |
| 0:11.0 | Could have been a conspiracy. |
| 0:14.4 | Staged. A false flag. |
| 0:26.2 | Given that there have been three other attempts on Donald Trump's life over the last two years, |
| 0:32.3 | when I got Saturday night push alerts about a new threat, they struck me as both alarming and routine. Within a couple of hours, the president had sent out images of the shooter, shirtless, pressed up against the floor, along with surveillance video. |
| 0:44.2 | But the first DM I got about the incident from someone I trusted was, are you watching this stuff? |
| 0:51.1 | Is this real? |
| 1:00.8 | I wanted to talk about this cognitive dissonance. So I called up Will Somer from over at the bulwark. He writes a newsletter called False Flag. I think we're living |
| 1:06.7 | in this time where I think for, you know, for a while, I think the, the right has really been |
| 1:12.3 | into these kind of reflexive conspiracy theories. And I think we're starting to see that bleed |
| 1:16.2 | over a lot more into the Democratic Party as well. We're sort of, if there's a big breaking news |
| 1:20.5 | moment that is sort of politically disadvantageous for your side, I think more and more we're seeing |
| 1:25.5 | people have this impulse really without like any evidence of saying, this is a false flag, it was staged, this guy's a patsy. |
| 1:33.1 | As of Monday, we seem to know a lot more about the suspect here and his stated intent. |
| 1:39.1 | There was a published manifesto that he allegedly signed as Cole Cold Force friendly federal assassin Alan. In this |
| 1:47.3 | screed, Alan talked about how easy it was to get weapons into the hotel, where the president and |
| 1:52.6 | much of his cabinet were enjoying dinner and cocktails. Eventually, Allen appeared in federal court |
| 1:58.8 | and got formally charged with attempting to assassinate President Trump. |
| 2:04.1 | Anyway, none of that has stopped the speculation. |
| 2:07.3 | In the past, I feel like we were able to grapple with news a little bit more honestly, |
| 2:11.1 | whereas now I think people just quickly reach for that idea that there was some conspiracy behind us. |
| 2:16.3 | When Will says this, he's speaking broadly. |
... |
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