Poll Finds 42% of Democrats Believe Trump Butler Rally Shooting Was Staged

A NewsGuard survey published this week found that 42 percent of Democrats believe the assassination attempt on former President Trump at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, was staged. The survey, which examined public perceptions of three reported incidents, showed 53 percent of all respondents said the Butler shooting was either faked or they were unsure, while 47 percent said it was real.

The poll found a 35-point partisan gap on the Butler incident, with 7 percent of Republicans saying they believed it was staged. Overall, about one in four Americans think the April shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner was staged. Roughly one in three Democrats said they believed that incident was staged, compared with about one in eight Republicans.

Twenty-one percent of Democrats responded that they thought all three reported assassination attempts were staged, as did 11 percent of Independents and 3 percent of Republicans. Respondents between the ages of 18 and 29 were more likely than older people to think the incidents were staged.

The Butler shooting occurred on July 13, 2024, during a campaign rally when a gunman opened fire from a rooftop, grazing Trump’s ear and killing Corey Comperatore, a firefighter in the crowd. The survey was published Monday. NewsGuard’s report noted that about 20 percent of left-wing influencers had almost immediately adopted the idea that the incidents were staged after the first attempt.

Some suggested the events were manufactured to benefit Trump politically. The survey results come amid repeated threats against Trump and other officials. Federal authorities have charged multiple individuals with making threats to kill the president in recent months, including cases in New Hampshire, Florida, Chicago, Massachusetts, South Carolina and Pennsylvania.

The figures for the other two attempts showed similar patterns of doubt. Of the respondents who said that all three incidents were authentic, only 15 percent were Democrats. There is no evidence that any of the three assassination attempts were faked.