Donald Trump has been leaning into conspiracy theories about his apparent assassination attempt as his poll numbers dip, and experts warn that he could be priming his base for more violence if he loses the election.
The former president – and even his wife – has been talking more about the July 13 shooting in Butler, Pennsylvania, that left one of his supporters dead, two others wounded and an apparent cut on his ear, and he has been suggesting it was carried out to prevent him from returning to power, reported the Washington Post.
“I probably took a bullet to the head because of the things that they say about me,” Trump said during Tuesday's debate with Kamala Harris.
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Trump and his running mate have said the shooting was an “inside job” carried out by government agencies or falsely claim lawyers representing the shooter's parents have ties to the Democratic Party, and researchers who study political violence say those statements and images of Trump raising his fist with blood on his face are mobilizing his supporters to resort to violence in his defense.
“It is creating a permission structure for at least some people to want to take matters into their own hands,” said Matt Dallek, a George Washington University professor who studies the conservative movement and is working on a book about presidential assassination attempts. “It operates similarly to the ‘big lie’ about the 2020 election being stolen, and therein lies the danger to the country.”
Investigators still haven't determined a motive for the gunman, 20-year-old Thomas Crooks, who was killed by a Secret Service sniper, but a series of security lapses that allowed him to fire the shots and other mysteries around the shooting have allowed conspiracy theories to proliferate – some of them promoted by the GOP candidate himself.
“This is all set up to prime his base to believe that, if his loses in November, the Democrats have once again stolen the election, that Harris is illegitimate, and they should in some respects come to his defense,” said Barbara F. Walter, a professor at the University of California at San Diego and the author of “How Civil Wars Start and How to Stop Them.” "He’s going to ratchet up that narrative even further" if the polling looks like he'll lose, the expert said.
