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Did Donald Trump fake the assassination? “From a technical point of view, it’s absurd,” says a security expert about this conspiracy theory – and explains why.
Since the assassination attempt on US presidential candidate Donald Trump, all kinds of conspiracy theories have been circulating on social media. One of them is that Trump is crazy enough to stage such an attack on himself so that he can US election emerge as the winner. Some people think it’s strange that his Secret Service let him pose for the cameras. Or that his security team didn’t protect him from that shot.
“From a professional point of view, it is absurd to think that Trump sympathizers carried out the shot,” says Malte Roschinski BuzzFeed News Germany from IPPEN.MEDIA. With his company, he advises other companies, NGOs and political institutions on security issues. Several details leave no doubt that it was an intentional assassination, he says, and gives two reasons why.
Trump assassination attempt: Were the Secret Service’s “hair-raising mistakes intentional”?
A man had spoken at a campaign speech in the state of Pennsylvania on Saturday, July 13, Donald Trump and wounded him in the ear. The perpetrator, a 20-year-old man from the region according to the FBI, was killed by security forces. Investigators have not yet determined a motive, but the FBI reportedly believes that the shooter acted alone. He fired with a semi-automatic AR-15 rifle.
After the Trump assassination, the Secret Service in particular is now under criticism, several republican are calling for a detailed investigation into the incident. “The fact that the Secret Service made such hair-raising mistakes can only be explained by some people if it was intentional,” says Roschinski. But this assumption is wrong.
This is an article by BuzzFeed News Germany. We are part of the IPPEN.MEDIAnetwork. Here you can find all contributions from BuzzFeed News Germany.
Expert gives reasons why assassination attempt on Trump was not staged
The first reason for this: “These mistakes could have led to Trump’s death. The fact that he was not killed was pure coincidence. The Secret Service would never accept such a scenario.” The security group of the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA), which protects German politicians, would also never participate in such a scenario, says a BKA spokesman on BuzzFeed News Germany-Inquiry.
If it had been a conspiracy, it would only have been an anti-Trump conspiracy, meaning that the Secret Service had been infiltrated by Trump opponents, says Roschinski. However, he does not believe in such a plot. “It was simply a chain of substantial errors in the preparation of the event.”
![Republican presidential candidate and former President Donald Trump is shot at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.](https://www.merkur.de/assets/images/35/90/35090726-der-republikanische-praesidentschaftsbewerber-und-ehemalige-praesident-donald-trump-wird-bei-einer-wahlkampfveranstaltung-in-butler-pennsylvania-PUBG.jpg)
Conspiracy theories about Trump assassination: “Would have been a suicide attempt”
A lack of knowledge of ballistics (weapon technology) and physics is the second reason why such conspiracy theories about the Trump assassination could spread in the first place. “The fact that people believe it is possible to shoot an ear accurately at 120 meters is, to put it nicely, a misunderstanding,” says the security expert BuzzFeed News Germany. He himself is a sports shooter and knows: “Even under optimal conditions, with a rifle scope and tripod, you cannot predict a dispersion range of five to ten centimeters.”
The rifle used can be bought in supermarkets in the USA. It is designed for long distances, but not for hitting an ear or a very small target precisely at a great distance. To influence the trajectory of a projectile, the shooter only needs to pull the trigger with the wrong part of his finger, says Roschinski, referring to reports that the Trump assassin was distracted by a police officer before pulling the trigger.
“It is a complete coincidence that the bullet did not hit Trump in the head. His life was in acute danger,” he says. “It is 100 percent clear that it was an assassination attempt with the intent to kill. If it had been staged by Trump, it would have been practically a suicide attempt.” (With material from dpa)
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