Americans Are Skeptical of Donald Trump Assassination Attempts: Poll

A majority of Americans doubt that three attempted assassinations of President Donald Trump were genuine, according to a poll released Monday-highlighting what some media analysts describe as deepening public skepticism toward both government institutions and the press.

Across the three incidents, an average of 54 percent of respondents either said they believed the assassination attempts were staged or said they were unsure, while an average of 46 percent said they believed the attacks were real, the survey conducted by NewsGuard and YouGov found.

Thirty percent of those surveyed said they believed at least one of the three incidents was staged, while 38 percent said they believed all three attempts were genuine.

“Increasingly, people on all sides of the political spectrum are distrustful of both this administration and the media," a NewsGuard editor told The Washington Post in response to the findings.

White House officials dismissed the survey's conclusions.

What The Poll Says

The survey of 1,000 Americans, which was conducted between April 28 and May 4, asked respondents whether they believed any of the three attempted assassinations of Trump had been staged, including attacks at a July 2024 campaign rally in Pennsylvania, Trump International Golf Club in Florida in September 2024 and the White House Correspondents’ Dinner last month.

While there’s no evidence indicating that any of the attempted assassination were fake or staged by the Trump administration, Democrats were far more likely to suspect they weren’t getting the entire story-with 21 percent responding that they believe all three events had been staged, compared to 11 percent of independents and just 3 percent of Republicans.

Twelve percent of respondents said they believe all three attempted assassinations had been staged. Of those, 55 percent were Democrats, 38 percent were independents and 7 percent identified as Republicans, according to the poll.

Thirty-four percent of Democrats said they suspect that the most recent attempt on Trump’s life at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner on April 25 had been orchestrated, compared to just 13 percent of Republicans.

The two earlier attempted assassinations of Trump indicate an even larger partisan gap, according to the poll. Some 42 percent of Democrats believe the shooting in Butler, Pennsylvania, where Trump was grazed by a bullet, had been staged, compared to 7 seven of Republicans-or a 35-point spread.

Respondents also reported a similar split for the Trump International Golf Club incident, with 26 percent of Democrats and 7 percent of Republicans indicating they felt it had been contrived.

Across all three incidents, 21 percent of Democrats said they believe they had been staged, compared to 11 of independents and 3 percent of Republicans.

The survey also found that young respondents were more likely than older counterparts to suspect the attempted assassinations had been orchestrated, with 32 percent of 18- to 29-year-olds saying last month’s incident wasn’t real, compared to 15 percent of people 65 and older.

The Influence of Conspiracy Theories

Conspiracy theories dominated social media following the most recent attempt on Trump’s life at the Washington Hilton, where gunman Cole Tomas Allen, 31, allegedly attempted to kill President Trump and fired a shotgun at a Secret Service officer who tried to stop the attack.

Those suspicions had been heightened for some after video circulated following the attempted shooting of White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt predicting that “some shots” would be fired in the room. One version of Leavitt’s reference to Trump’s planned speech, for example, had garnered more than 6 million views.

Former Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene has also publicly questioned the narrative surrounding the attempted assassination of Trump in Pennsylvania, insisting the family of victim Corey Comperatore, who was fatally shot, deserves some clarity.

“President Trump, of all people, should be leading the charge” she wrote on X in April. “Why isn't he? That's the question.”

What the survey shows

Joan Donovan, a professor who researches media manipulation at Boston University, said the survey results clearly indicate the role of showmanship within Trump’s administration.

“It just seems incredibly Hollywood to imagine that this is staged," Donovan told the Washington Post of the White House Correspondents' dinner shooting. “The entire apparatus of the government has been turned into a reality TV show.”

Donovan said she wasn’t surprised by the survey results. “If you look among folks on the left, there is a rising tide of conspiratorial thinking, and a lot of it has to do with people being very unsure about the reliability of all of our institutions,” she said.

Sofia Rubinson, an editor at NewsGuard, said the results highlight broad skepticism among Americans toward both the government and the press.

“It's very striking," Rubinson told the Washington Post. “Increasingly, people on all sides of the political spectrum are distrustful of both this administration and also the media.”

Believers are morons, says White House

White House spokesman Davis Ingle told Newsweek in a statement early Monday: “Anyone who thinks President Trump staged his own assassination attempts is a complete moron.”

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This story was originally published May 11, 2026 at 9:55 AM.