How BlueAnon conspiracy theories are gaining momentum since the assassination attempt on Trump

If you only have a minute… 

• Some pro-Democratic social media users have claimed that the assassination attempt on former president Donald Trump was staged. As proof, they’ve been sharing a photo that first appeared online on July 14 that seems to show a ketchup packet poking out of Trump’s suit jacket – right next to the wound.
• It turns out the photo was doctored and the image of the ketchup packet was edited into the original image. 
• Other posts have claimed that Trump wasn’t injured by a bullet but from a piece of glass when a teleprompter was hit by a bullet and shattered. 
• However, the media outlets who initially reported that Trump was injured by a piece of glass not a bullet have since retracted this. Photographs taken by the New York Times show that Trump’s right ear was, indeed, grazed by a bullet. 
• Social media users have also been claiming that Trump’s ear wasn’t actually injured. But the photo they’ve been sharing as proof is actually old. 
• Social media users also circulated old photos to support claims that Trump went to play golf the day after the assassination attempt. 

The fact check, in detail

Some pro-Democratic social media users are claiming that the assassination attempt on Donald Trump was staged. In a post that has since been deleted, actress Amanda Seales, who appeared in the HBO series "Insecure", says in a video that the assassination attempt was “staged”. 

“I lived in Harlem long enough to know gunshots do not sound like making popcorn on the stove,” she said in the video. Though Seales deleted her original post, the video was reposted in a tweet that has since garnered more than 22 million views on X since July 14. 

"To be frank, small hands Trump would not respond by raising his fist in the air triumphantly were an actual attempt made on his life,” she says, as the iconic AP photograph capturing the moment Trump did just that appears on screen. “This was, I believe, done to try to show his strength, counter to Biden’s fragility.”

This is just one example of the many conspiracy theories spread by social media users who support President Biden in the wake of the assassination attempt on Trump. 

The Washington Post has called these "BlueAnon" conspiracy theories, a blend between the colour blue, which traditionally represents the Democratic Party and the far-right conspiracy theorists known as QAnon. 

Earlier this summer, some pro-Democratic accounts claimed that Biden’s poor performance in his debate with Trump in late June was because he had been “drugged by the Russians", The Post reported. And ever since June 13, liberal conspiracy theorists have been contesting the reality of the assassination attempt, as well as the injury that Trump sustained on his ear.

Fake blood made from ketchup?

A post that has garnered more than three million views since it was posted on X on July 14 claims that it was “fake blood” that covered Trump’s ear. The same day, a liberal social media user shared a photo of the assassination attempt where Trump seems to have a Heinz ketchup packet tucked in his neckline. The post contains the hashtag “staged”. 

It turns out, however, that this image was doctored. We carried out a reverse image search (check out our handy guide to find out how) and were able to find the original image in the Associated Press image bank. In the original photo, taken by a photographer with the agency on July 13, there is no ketchup packet to be seen. 

Was Trump injured by a piece of glass?

A tweet posted on X on July 17, which has since garnered more than 1.6 million views, claims that Trump’s injury wasn’t caused by a bullet but by a piece of glass from the teleprompter, which shattered when hit by a bullet. This theory has been circulating widely on the social media network Threads where many leftwing social media users migrated after Elon Musk bought Twitter. 

"Is Trump’s bandage covering evidence that he wasn’t shot? Still waiting for confirmation from credible sources beyond Trump on his Truth Social that he was actually hit by a bullet rather than hit by glass or other debris,” posted one anti-Trump account.

It’s true that journalists with two American media outlets, Newsmax and Axios, did initially report on July 13 that officials had told them that Trump was injured by glass after a teleprompter was hit by a bullet and shattered. Drawing on this reporting, US news outlet Raw Story posted an article saying that they suspected the attack was a “stunt”. However, on July 14, Raw Story retracted this claim, indicating that the Axios journalist had taken down his original post featuring that information, while the Newsmax journalist posted Trump’s statement that he had been injured by a bullet. 

In its retraction, Raw Story also pointed to the New York Times, which, on July 14, published a series of photos contradicting the narrative that Trump had been injured by a shard of glass. These photos show the bullet’s trajectory to the right of Donald Trump, who raised his hand to his ear as soon as the bullet passed by. 

Moreover, you can see these two wounds in a photograph taken by the Associated Press. Once again, these images seem to line up with the straight path of a bullet. 

'There is absolutely nothing wrong with his ear'

Another X user, whose account indicates that they are liberal, posted a photo on X on July 16 showing Donald Trump with no injury to his ear. The account said the photo was taken the day after the assassination attempt.

“It has zero damage, FROM A BULLET,” the post reads. “Everything about Trump is a con or a grift.” 

The post garnered more than 2.3 million views. However, the image is actually a zoomed-in version of a photo taken in 2022 during a Republican rally in Ohio. 

Trump playing golf

In a few instances, the same fake news item was picked up by social media users on both sides of the aisle. That’s the case for a number of photos and videos showing Trump playing golf. Pro-Democratic social media users shared these images, especially on Threads, to feed into claims that the assassination attempt was staged. They said that it was wild that Trump was so unaffected by the assassination attempt that he had the time and energy to play golf the next day.

Republicans, however, took the photos of Trump playing golf as proof of his strength. "If Donald Trump can get shot one day and play 18 holes of golf the next, what’s your excuse?” reads one post on X from July 14. 

It turns out that neither of these images are actually from July 14, 2024. The video of Trump playing golf was posted on YouTube on July 3, 2024, ten days before the assassination attempt. The photo of Trump driving a golf cart was taken by the Associated Press on September 12, 2022 at a golf course owned by Trump in Virginia. 

These photos don’t prove that Trump played golf on July 14, 2024. However, we also don’t have any information that proves that he didn’t play golf. After the attempt on his life, Trump went to his golf course in Bedminster, New Jersey. He may have played there or he may not have. Politico reported that the actual golf courses were closed that day. Trump also said on the social network Truth Social (which he founded) that he would leave his property around 3:30pm on July 14 to go to the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee.

'BlueAnon'

According to the Washington Post, Threads, the latest social media platform from Meta, is popular amidst adherents of the "BlueAnon" conspiracy theories. Many leftwing users left Twitter after it was purchased by Elon Musk, who let far-right accounts back on the platform. Previously, they had been banned for sharing conspiracy theories and racist and extreme content. 

American conservatives use the term "BlueAnon" to put the conspiracy theories championed by Democrats in the same league as those propagated by followers of QAnon. However, unlike the extremist theories championed by QAnon, most of the anti-Trump conspiracy theories aren’t championed by politicians or public figures. The  "BlueAnon" conspiracy theorists also aren’t creating an entire alternate reality like the followers of QAnon.