How the ‘second shooter’ conspiracy theory spread after the Trump assassination attempt
The FBI says the gunman acted alone, and the Secret Service says there’s no evidence of a second shooter. That hasn’t stopped the speculation online.
The assassination attempt on Donald Trump this month unleashed a flood of unfounded conspiracy theories from the right and the left: that the shooting was part of a deep state coup, or that it was staged by the former president himself to win sympathy and the election. One conspiracy theory has undergirded both, however: that there was a second shooter, positioned on a nearby water tower.
A modern version of the discredited grassy knoll conspiracy theory — which posited that Lee Harvey Oswald was aided in assassinating President John F. Kennedy by another shooter atop a nearby hill — the water tower theory similarly comes with its own witnesses and, this time, hundreds of photos and videos, taken by news cameras and rallygoers, that are being dissected by vloggers and TikTokers to build a conspiracy theory in real time.
The conclusion drawn from the theory depends on the believer, and even then, it’s not always clear. Some suggest it reveals that the shooter, Thomas Crooks, who federal investigators have said was a lone gunman with no apparent political motive, was a patsy, set up to take the fall, and that a second shooter was on the water tower to silence him afterward. Others posit that the second shooter was the one who actually fired at Trump, and was an expert marksman who could convincingly graze Trump’s ear and provide a bloody show for a false flag operation.
“It’s not shocking that people are talking about second shooters,” said Joseph Uscinski, a University of Miami political science professor who studies conspiracy theories. “There’s really nothing new under the sun.”
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