A Week of Conspiracies and Calls for War

Right after former president Donald Trump was shot at his campaign rally in Pennsylvania, conspiracy theories exploded online. Today on WIRED Politics Lab, we discuss the subsequent calls for violence and civil war, and the way that militias are recruiting off of the incident. Plus, we report from the Republican National Convention on the reaction to Trump’s vice presidential nominee, Senator J.D. Vance of Ohio.

Leah Feiger is @LeahFeiger. David Gilbert is @DaithaiGilbert. Makena Kelly is @kellymakena.Write to us at politicslab@WIRED.com. Be sure to subscribe to the WIRED Politics Lab newsletter here.

Mentioned this week:

Militias Are Recruiting Off of the Trump Shooting by Tess Owen
Far-Right Extremists Call for Violence and War After Trump Shooting by David Gilbert
Trump Shooting Conspiracies Are Coming From Every Direction by David Gilbert
Elon Musk Among Tech Heavyweights to Rally Behind J.D. Vance VP Pick by Makena Kelly
Influencers Are Racing to Profit From the Trump Shooting by Makena Kelly

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Transcript

Note: This is an automated transcript, which may contain errors.

Leah Feiger: This is WIRED Politics Lab, a show about how tech is changing politics. I'm Leah Feiger, the senior politics editor at WIRED.

[Archival audio]: If you're just joining us right now, as if this campaign couldn't get more historic and unprecedented, what law enforcement officials are now investigating as a possible assassination attempt of former President Donald Trump.

Leah Feiger: On Saturday, a 20-year-old from Pennsylvania shot at former president Donald Trump while he was speaking at a campaign rally.

[Archival audio]: What we did see following the shots was we saw the president hit the ground.

[Archival audio]: Secret Service rushing towards a former president, jumping on him and forming sort of a human shield as other law enforcement officers jump on the stage, the former president pumping his fist as the crowd started cheering when they saw that he was okay

Leah Feiger: And immediately after Trump was shot, conspiracies online exploded. At the same time, calls for violence and even civil war spread.

[Archival audio]: We are already seeing this incident being politicized. Some Republicans pointing a finger at the President already arguing, of course, baselessly that the President Biden is somehow to blame for this.

Leah Feiger: Joining me to talk about everything that happened is WIRED reporter David Gilbert, and after we'll hear from WIRED senior reporter Makena Kelly, who is currently at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee. David, you have been incredibly busy since Saturday.

David Gilbert: Yeah, it's been a crazy 48, 72, whatever it's been. I don't even know what day, or time, or week it is at this stage.

Leah Feiger: Yeah, this has been just so wild to watch it all unfold. Conspiracies have been everywhere since the shooting at Trump's Pennsylvania rally. Take us through the major ones.

David Gilbert: So yeah, from the minutes after the shooting it started, and it is probably something I've never experienced before, the volume, and the scale, and the scope of them. And I think what's interesting about this time is that they weren't just coming from one side or the other. They were coming from all sides. So, the most common narratives we saw from the pro-Trump side were that this was ordered by Biden or this was the result of Democrats pushing rhetoric, calling Trump "Hitler," or this was the result of the media. And one of the later ones was that this was to blame on DEI or women, because they were Secret Service agents who were women as part of his service. So, on the other side, on the left, we don't typically see this, but we saw that again, almost immediately, people started calling this staged or a false flag, suggesting that he had somehow orchestrated this shooting so that a sniper would graze the top of his ear and it would help him win the election. So, just the volume, and the scope, and the scale of the conspiracies that we saw were just unprecedented.

Leah Feiger: It's wild to hear you, David Gilbert conspiracy say that this is unprecedented even for what you've been reporting on for the last couple of years.

David Gilbert: Yeah, it really is. And obviously we've had Stop the Steal and all those election conspiracies. Even more recently after the invasion of Gaza by Israel, and previous to that, the Russian invasion of Ukraine, we saw this massive volume of conspiracies. But, this time around there was just something different. It was just all pervasive. It was coming from everywhere. It was impossible to get any verified information on platforms, particularly X, but other platforms like Facebook, and Instagram, and TikTok, all this stuff was trending as well. And so, it just felt different. We knew it was coming, because it happened my time, because I'm based in Ireland, it happened Saturday night. I knew when I woke up on Sunday morning that this would be an absolute mess. There would be a flood of conspiracies. And, I think, the main reason for this happening now, obviously because Trump is this divisive figure, but also I think the fact that there is such an information void about how this happened and who this guy who took the shot was. And when there's a void like that, conspiracies are going to fill it.

Leah Feiger: And, the FBI got in there ASAP. There's a part of me that's wondering if this is going to end up being on par with the JFK assassination conspiracy theories, new Moon landing conspiracy theories. Is this joining the Hall of Fame?

David Gilbert: It's getting there, because unless we find out more about the motive, and we may never find out anything about the motive, because right now there is very little digital footprint for the shooter that we know of. We know the FBI has gained access to his phone, so maybe we'll learn something from that or maybe we won't. And if there is no solid … A 10-page manifesto listing out all the reasons why he did what he did, then we're going to be left with the conspiracies to fill the void. We're going to be left with people speculating about this for years. And as you say, it may just become one of these conspiracies that joins the who's who of conspiracy theories like the JFK shooting, like the moon landing.

Leah Feiger: And this all comes as Republicans in the far right have been placing a lot of blame on Democrats and Biden for the assassination attempt. And at the same time you've been reporting that there've been calls for violence and even civil war from a lot of fun corners of the internet. How quickly did that start and who's spreading this?

David Gilbert: At the same time as the conspiracies began spreading the threats for violence, the calls for civil war began to spread in the normal places you'd expect to find them. So, private telegram channels for militias like the Proud Boys, and the Oath Keepers, the Three Percenters, active clubs, we saw all these messages where people talked about getting their guns to take retribution, to take up arms against whoever they believed were the enemy, whether it was the media, the left, Biden, whoever it was. And then on pro-Trump message boards like TheDonald, we saw a huge spike once again in calls for civil war taking up arms. Now, that's something that we see or we have seen multiple times over the course of the last two years since January 6th. And that was the big one where we saw people talking about taking action and actually taking action. And we've seen it multiple times since, but not every time. So, you can't say that when you see this spike in calls for violence that we will ultimately see violence. But, on Telegram, for example, I was looking at some data that was sent to me today by the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism, and it said, "Calls for civil war grew a staggering 1,244% in the 24 hours after the shooting."

Leah Feiger: Wow.

David Gilbert: Just the volume is just incredible.

Leah Feiger: Wow. This does feel new. This does feel big. And separately, this isn't just these corners of the internet either. Representative Mike Collins of Georgia wrote on X right after the shooting that the Republican District Attorney in Butler County PA should immediately file charges against Joseph R. Biden for inciting an assassination.

David Gilbert: I think that's a very important distinction to make, that the calls and the blame that is being put on Biden or the Democrats is coming from within the house literally. It's coming from elected members of Congress. We saw J.D. Vance who was announced this week as Trump's running mate, he made a comment kind of blaming the left. He didn't go as far as pinning it directly on Biden, but he insinuated that the shooting was a direct result of the left. And it's very important to be clear here, we have no idea what the motive was. We don't know if the shooter was a Democrat or had left-wing tendencies. We just don't know. So, to make those assertions is so dangerous in a febrile environment that America is today, and straight away after the shooting is just so dangerous when it comes from elected officials. Whereas the calls on the left, the conspiracies about it being staged or faked, we're not coming from elected members of the Democratic Party for the most part. It's an important distinction to make I think there.

Leah Feiger: And we have to talk about that this is also now being used, the shooting is being used as a recruitment tool for militias around the country. WIRED contributor Tess Owen reported a piece this week about how militias are quite literally using this shooting to try and spread their message.

David Gilbert: I think the most incredible thing about this is that a lot of it is happening in the open. Tess has reported for us before about how these groups are organizing quite openly on Facebook. While some are in private groups, some are quite open. And for another story, I was looking into militias, and you just put in militia into Facebook and you will get a whole host of groups. And these groups are talking about organizing, training and recruiting. And as Tess reported, they're now using this shooting to radicalize effectively their membership or to find new members, and talking about that this is a moment where people have to not join a political party but join a militia instead, because that is a more effective use of their time and their resources.

Leah Feiger: And I have to read even just one of the quotes from her piece, but go read it, it's linked in the show notes. But, this quote from a leader of a Kentucky militia on Facebook, "You can sit and enjoy the show or you can join it. There will come a time, you will have no choice." Like you said, it's happening so openly.

David Gilbert: It is, and it's been happening all along, but this seems to be, could potentially at least be a tipping point where it's going to get a lot more people off their seats or off their couches and actually go and do something. Because, I guess, a lot of people view it as because of the way Trump reacted to the shooting in his hands, his fist raised in the air and being defiant, a lot of the chatter you see online is how he is now viewed as this God appointed hero of America, this person who they tried to take down but they couldn't. And people are reacting to that online, people who have been on the fence about Trump. And you thought maybe they did support him, are coming out openly and full-throatedly in support of him now. Elon Musk is probably the best of example, who minutes after the shooting came out and said he fully endorsed Donald Trump, and he's now raising money for Trump as well. So, this is a big moment for Trump and for these groups who are trying to recruit on the back of what happened.

Leah Feiger: I feel like a broken record on this show, but now more than ever this year, it seems like social media companies should be taking this stuff down. Where is the content moderation here, and is it even possible at this point for them to tamp down on all of this?

David Gilbert: Randomly, the only place I saw any type of content moderation around this over the last few days was on TheDonald, this kind of extremist pro-Trump message board where they did delete a couple of messages.

Leah Feiger: That's wild.

David Gilbert: Yeah, it's crazy, with really explicit calls for violence and they deleted them. But, everywhere else that I've seen on X, on Facebook, on Instagram, on TikTok, there's just been very, very little content moderation. Either there has been some notes appended to videos about conspiracy theories, but the conspiracies are still spreading. They're getting viewed by millions and millions of people. And it's just what we've seen over and over again. As you said, social media companies have just abdicated their responsibility and are no longer taking this stuff seriously and are just having a free for all for everyone on their platforms.

Leah Feiger: David, thank you so much for all of your hard work on this. When we come back, WIRED senior reporter, Makena Kelly joins us from the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee.

[Archival audio]: It's my honor to nominate Donald Jay Trump for the office of President of the United States.

Leah Feiger: The Republican National Convention opened this week in Milwaukee. Trump also announced his running mate this week, Ohio Senator J.D Vance. WIRED senior reporter, Makena Kelly flew to Milwaukee to report on what's happening. Makena, what have you seen and heard so far? What's the mood there and how heavily does the shooting from over the weekend hang over the RNC?

Makena Kelly: Milwaukee is just covered in red, white, and blue stuff. Even from the airport to the hotels, everything is just decked out for this entire event. And just how everything is so patriotic and all that, everyone walking around, there's supposed to be 50,000 people descending on downtown Milwaukee. You see people with the lanyards walking around, people selling merchandise outside of the perimeter even. There was a guy selling Trump bumper stickers for $1 that I saw, just hawking them and yelling. So, the energy is really, really high. And something that I've noticed from talking to people and just paying attention to, I guess, the energy and just taking a sense, taking stock of everything going on, it's really positive. I feel like for the past four years when it comes to Republicans and the MAGA side of the Republican Party, and Trump, we think of this negativity, this looking back on the American project and being like, "We've lost. We've lost our soul," what, what, blah, blah.

Leah Feiger: The whole "Make America Great Again" implies that it's not currently great.

Makena Kelly: Exactly. And so, now it feels like after the announcement of J. D. Vance being Donald Trump's pick for Vice President, and even just coming after the assassination attempt on Saturday, there is this glee, this optimism where we're hearing Trump talk more about unity, sending more positive messages after everything that's happened in the past couple days. And you can feel it here on the ground too.

Leah Feiger: And they have every right to be positive right now. The polls are in Trump's favor. He is being hailed as a hero for surviving this shooting. And, of course, as you said, Trump picked J. D. Vance as his running mate for Vice President, which was arguably the most Silicon Valley pick of all. Talk us through that a little bit.

Makena Kelly: Sure. So, J. D. Vance ran for Senate in 2022, and one of his biggest financial backers was Peter Thiel, who is a giant Republican mega donor who came out in support of Trump in 2016. And J. D. Vance himself has dabbled in venture capitalism. He's helped spawn apps like AppHarvest. He's even incredibly online. What we've been hearing over the past couple hours is that he was in a group chat with a bunch of boys on X. And so he has this kind of red pilly brain, techie thing to him.

Leah Feiger: I'm really interested in Silicon Valley's presence at the RNC this year. The first story that you did after the shooting on Saturday was about how Elon Musk was officially endorsing Trump. And there was just reporting earlier this week as well about how Musk and David Sachs, another big Silicon Valley venture capitalist guy, were asking Trump to pick J. D. Vance. How is that energy of Silicon Valley everywhere percolating into what you're seeing in Milwaukee?

Makena Kelly: So, I think, when it comes to the base of support for Silicon Valley people, they're much more excited about Elon Musk. Obviously, he's more public facing, he's a meme guy. People are far more aware of him than let's say David Sachs. Last night, Monday night, David Sachs was asked to give a speech at the RNC. He went on late. Maybe people were tired, but there really wasn't a lot of applause for Mr. Sachs.

Leah Feiger: Interesting, okay.

Makena Kelly: He said some things and he got a little bit of applause, but compared to the Teamsters guy and everyone who spoke yesterday, he's not really the most popular person at the convention, I think.

Leah Feiger: Interesting.

Makena Kelly: But, I am sure that his money and the money that he's been able to bring in for Trump, and Trump's ticket now, is what's really getting him all the big invites to the

Leah Feiger: Convention. Yeah, absolutely. And tell us more about on the ground scene. I know the convention has just started, but you mentioned merch. I know that you've also already reported on how right wing influencers like Candace Owens, Sebastian Gorka, and others have already started selling merchandise that actually featured a picture of Trump with his fist in the air. What are you seeing now?

Makena Kelly: Yeah, that picture with the fist was on T-shirts, not even a couple hours after the shooting on Saturday. It was immediate. And so, of course, yeah, Candace Owens has their own shirt. A bunch of Donald Trump allies all got on there, the Hodge twins, the pair of influencers who were invited actually to the convention and are here in Milwaukee now as part of the RNC's influencer coverage group for the convention. So, the Hodge twins put out merch. And it's been everywhere. And I was on TikTok Shop Sunday right after the shooting, and as I was scrolling, it was so many T-shirts, and so many people who were just hosting TikTok lives, and being like, "Hey, buy my new shirt with this image on it." And, of course, I don't think any of the proceeds for those go to the victim families or anything like that. And then the merch is similar on the ground here. There's people who are just running around with T-shirts. I saw a guy, I couldn't exactly see what he was selling, but a guy was walking through one of the hotel bars holding a little red wagon. And in the little red wagon, it was just full of T-shirts that he was asking people to buy. And so, it's just everywhere.

Leah Feiger: Makes sense. There's 50,000 people take advantage.

Makena Kelly: Yeah.

Leah Feiger: Yeah, absolutely. It's become a mini city. David, I know that you've gotten very obsessed with seeing all of the influencers hawking their merch as well. Is that still what you're seeing online too?

David Gilbert: It is, and I suppose we really shouldn't be surprised by it should we. It's just incredible how quickly and how that whole ecosystem is in place now that the minute something like this happens they just kick into gear. I'm assuming none of them are paid for the rights to use that picture on any of their merch. But, in Milwaukee, this moment, obviously that picture encapsulates this whole thing, that it's a celebration. You were talking about positivity there. Is it seen as … I know it's weird to talk about it being a celebration given that there was an assassination attempt against him just days ago. But, it does seem to me that some of the people that I see online are using it as a celebration moment where they're cheering on Trump because he is this hero now that has survived an assassination attempt.

Makena Kelly: I think that actually has shown really well with the pick of J. D. Vance as the VP. J. D. Vance, of course, several years ago, said that Trump would be America's, "Hitler" that Trump, he was a never—

Leah Feiger: Allegedly—

Makena Kelly: Allegedly.

Leah Feiger: Allegedly in those texts. Yep, for sure.

Makena Kelly: Yeah. Allegedly said things like that. But, when he was in interviews and doing TV, he was saying that he was a never Trumper. And so, after the assassination attempt, it was a lot of Republicans, regardless if they were rhinos or the more MAGA wing of the party were coming together, putting a lot of their differences aside, especially with the Democratic Party, which is tearing itself apart right now over concerns about Biden as the nominee. So, I think the Republican Party has really taken and leveraged this moment to be like, "Hey, we're all together." I think we even saw that with the Teamsters guy talking on Monday, who was like … He didn't explicitly endorse Trump, but he said, "I would talk to anyone. I'm just trying to bring us all together." It's definitely been celebratory more than anything. I think people feel extremely confident. Leah, like you were saying, the polls are in Trump's favor, and I feel like with the pick of Vance, with the ticket being set, people are ready to keep going, keep pushing for Trump through November.

Leah Feiger: What are you keeping an eye on for the next couple of days at the RNC?

Makena Kelly: Sure. Oh my goodness. Everything. But, I think, the main thing is—

Leah Feiger: The best answer that your editor could hope for for sure.

Makena Kelly: Yes. I'm running to a little couple of crypto events, which could be fun.

Leah Feiger: Oh, interesting.

Makena Kelly: I'm expecting maybe some of the techie people to be there.

Leah Feiger: The crypto of it all is so interesting. Trump has gone all in on this, and this … And you've reported on this, but this intersection of crypto and Silicon Valley, now with Vance, this spells out to me an entirely different campaign.

Makena Kelly: Sure, yeah. And, it's big money. And so, the crypto people are here, they're having a series of events. I think it's mostly the Blockchain Association, which is kind of a think tanky group. And then, David Sachs, of course, like I said, was giving this speech. But, we even read this morning, I was reading as I was waking up this morning, that Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz were considering making big donations to Trump now as well.

David Gilbert: It does seem Makena that it's expanded. There's so many people who just no longer seem to be worried about endorsing Trump fully now, and it seems his appeal is growing very quickly.

Makena Kelly: Yeah, I think, the assassination attempt gave a lot of people the opportunity to come out in support of Trump. We not only have seen this with the tech people, but even influencers. As soon as the shooting happened on Saturday, I was on Twitter scrolling, Jake Paul who did ask Donald Trump to come to a fight he was going to have with Mike Tyson, fully endorsed Trump. FaZe Banks, who is the CEO of this giant eSports team. He's a huge creator. A creator named Sketch is really popping off on TikTok right now with his sports coverage and stuff, and he's part of FaZe Banks' friend group if that triggers any memories for anyone. But, these people are just saying, "Trump 2024," coming out in support of him. And, I think, the opportunity is leaning back into that unity. People see this man, they saw something terrible happen, and even if they were quiet about it before, I feel like now they've been given permission to be incredibly loud and to donate and to get their friends to join them as well.

Leah Feiger: David, Makena, thank you so much for joining us. We'll be right back to talk about Conspiracy of the Week. Welcome back to Conspiracy of the Week, the portion of this podcast where I ask our guests to bring their favorite conspiracies that they've come across recently, and I pick my favorite. This week I asked our reporters to go for something slightly less political, perhaps slightly more fun, because our entire jobs are political conspiracies at the moment. David, what do you have for us?

David Gilbert: It was very hard to find a conspiracy that did not link to what's been happening in the last 48 hours. I just want to put that out there.

Leah Feiger: I appreciate all the effort that you put into this.

David Gilbert: But, this is a really interesting conspiracy because it's based on possibly the biggest conspiracy ever. The fact that the Moon landing was faked.

Leah Feiger: Oh, incredible. Good.

David Gilbert: Unless, maybe you don't know about it, but there's a new movie that's out called "Fly Me to the Moon," which stars Scarlett Johansson, and Woody Harrelson, and Channing Tatum. And it's about the efforts to sell the idea of going to the Moon to the American people.

Leah Feiger: And I assume romance.

David Gilbert: I haven't seen it, I don't know. But, there's one part of it where they decide in the movie to construct a fake Moon landing just in case the real Moon landing doesn't happen. Just to be clear—

Leah Feiger: Oh. No.

David Gilbert: This did not happen, but this is the basis of some of the major Moon landing conspiracies. This goes back to what I was talking about last week, where it's predictive programming. The Moon landing conspiracy groups on the internet have exploded claiming that this is what actually happened.

Leah Feiger: Oh, God.

David Gilbert: So, the Moon landing conspiracy, which they just take away, they're there all the time, it's fine. But, they've kind of exploded into life in the last week since this movie has been released. And they are absolutely convinced that NASA, or the U.S. government, or someone, or Nixon from beyond the grave maybe is telling them through this movie that what they believed all along is true and that the Moon landing is fake. But again, that's not true.

Leah Feiger: Amazing. Oh, that's such a good one. Wow. All right. Big fan. Makena, what do you have?

Makena Kelly: Wow. Mine is also centered around a movie that just came out. So, before everything happened over the weekend, I was going to … What my husband and I do, we love, if there's nothing to do on a Saturday, we love going to Chili's and then going to a movie.

Leah Feiger: Oh my gosh. Actually, I have to tell our listeners that when I called you and was like, "It appears that Trump was shot." You're like, "Okay, I'm leaving Chili's now. I'll be home in 10 minutes." Arguably, one of my favorite things you've ever said to me. Continue.

Makena Kelly: And so, I had to cancel my tickets and get a refund. We were going to go see Long Legs with Nick Cage.

Leah Feiger: Oh, fun.

Makena Kelly: And this reminded me of an old Nick Cage conspiracy theory that he was born during the Civil War and is a vampire.

Leah Feiger: Oh, my God. Wait, this is not real. This is not a real conspiracy.

Makena Kelly: No, it's 100% real. There was an antique seller 10, maybe 12 years ago or something, who found this old Civil War picture of a guy who looks remarkably like Nick Cage, and he went to the press, he was like, "Stop the presses. Nick Cage is a vampire." And Nick Cage was forced to respond to it and be like, "I don't drink blood." And so, yeah, that's what I was reminded of this weekend.

Leah Feiger: I'm melting over here. That is so good.

David Gilbert: That's a great conspiracy.

Leah Feiger: I'm so sorry, David. I love anything related to Moon landing conspiracies, I'm a permanent fan. But, Nick Cage having to respond to allegations of being a vampire from the Civil War—

David Gilbert: I cannot compete with Vampire Nick Cage. It's okay.

Leah Feiger: No one can.

Makena Kelly: I want our listeners to go look up the photo. Look up the antique photo—

Leah Feiger: I'm about to.

Makena Kelly: … of Nick Cage. Write in, "Does it look like Nick Cage?" I need to know. I must know what everyone thinks. It does look a lot like him.

Leah Feiger: Amazing. Oh, this was so good. Thank you both so much for joining us this week.

David Gilbert: Yeah, it's been great.

Makena Kelly: Yeah. Good to be back.

Leah Feiger: Thanks for listening to WIRED Politics Lab. If you like what you heard today, make sure to follow the show and rate it on your podcast app of choice. We also have a newsletter, which Makena writes each week. The link to the newsletter and the WIRED reporting we mentioned today are in the show notes. If you'd like to get in touch with us with any questions, comments, or show suggestions, please write to politicslab@WIRED.com. That's politicslab@WIRED.com. We're so excited to hear from you. WIRED Politics Lab is produced by Jake Harper. Pran Bandi is our studio engineer. Amar Lal mixed this episode. Stephanie Kariuki is our executive producer. Chris Bannon is Global Head of Audio at Condé Nast. And I'm your host, Leah Feiger. We'll be back in your feeds with a new episode next week.