It appears Democrats are now buying tickets on the conspiracy train after years of ridiculing Republicans for being conspiracy-minded on such matters as politically motivated prosecutions, voter fraud, and pandemic-era issues.
A Manhattan Institute poll of 1,782 respondents who were either registered Democrats or voted for Kamala Harris in 2024 showed that 46% believed the assassination attempt on President Donald Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13, 2024, was staged.
The poll taken Feb. 6-Feb. 15 had a margin of error of plus or minus 2.3 percentage points.
When asked whether the attempt in which Trump was shot in the ear by Thomas Matthew Crooks at a campaign rally "was orchestrated by his supporters to increase sympathy for him," 27% said it was probably true and 19% said it was definitely true. 39% said it was either probably false or definitely false and 15% were not sure.
The numbers suggest a sharp if not ironic shift in political instincts. For years, Democrats and their allies in the mainstream media dismissed Republican concerns as fringe or dangerous.
Now, faced with high-profile acts of violence targeting Trump, some on the left appear willing to entertain theories that echo the same distrust they condemned.
"This includes mainstream podcasters, cable news personalities, Late night hosts and commentators on Blue Sky and Substack," conservative commentator Stephen L. Miller wrote Tuesday on X. "And because of how normalized this is, a dude with those same exact positions just tried to shoot up the WHCA."
Miller was referring to the foiled assassination attempt against Trump on Saturday at the White House Correspondents' Association dinner, the third such attempt on Trump's life in less than three years. Some conspiracy theorists believe that attempt was staged to distract from the conflict in Iran or garner support for building the White House ballroom.
Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, added fuel to the conspiracy theory fire regarding the dinner chaos.
"Has there ever been a president have this many close 'attempts' on their life?" Crockett wrote on Threads at 2:51 a.m. Sunday. "Maybe it's lax gun laws, maybe it's lack of mental health funding, or maybe it's fake ... who knows ..."
But it doesn't end there: 64% of those surveyed believed that Russian President Vladimir Putin has compromising information on Trump and uses it to sway his policy positions.
Jesse Arms, the Manhattan Institute's vice president of external affairs, wrote in a news release that although not garnering a majority, other conspiracy beliefs still registered meaningful minority support, with 28% saying the 9/11 terror attacks were carried out by actors other than al-Qaida or other Muslim extremist groups, likely orchestrated or permitted by the U.S. government.
Roughly 1 in 4 believed that Iranian-backed Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attack against Israel was an "inside job" or false flag operation carried out or permitted by the Israeli government as a pretext for the war in the Gaza Strip.
And 16% believed that NASA faked the 1969 Apollo 11 moon landing.
When it comes to claims that the Holocaust of Jews in Nazi Germany was greatly exaggerated or did not happen, 12% said they were probably or definitely true, 78% said they were probably or definitely false and 9% were unsure.
"As seen in a recent Manhattan Institute survey analysis of the GOP coalition, acceptance of conspiratorial claims is higher among Black and Hispanic voters than among whites," Arms wrote.
Top Democrats have not broadly endorsed such conspiracy theories. Still, the poll highlights a growing undercurrent of suspicion among the party's base, one that mirrors the dynamics they once criticized.
Michael Katz ✉
Michael Katz is a Newsmax reporter with more than 30 years of experience reporting and editing on news, culture, and politics.
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