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One in five voters and a third of Republicans believe the FBI was behind the assassination attempt on Donald Trump
False claims of a 'deep state' conspiracy spread rapidly in the hours after a gunman tried to assassinate former President Donald Trump.
And an exclusive poll reveals the shocking number of people who believe the shooting was an inside job.
Some 21 percent of people surveyed for Dailymail.com said they believed the FBI was responsible for the attempted assassination.
That number includes a third of Republicans.
In contrast, less than half (46 percent) accept the official explanation that the attack was carried out by a lone shooter.
Blood is seen coming from Donald Trump's ear, where he said he was shot. Trolls online claimed the event was staged immediately after it happened
The results come in a poll of more than 1000 likely voters conducted last week by J.L. Partners.
Prof. Robert Shapiro, of Columbia University's political science department, said the numbers buying into conspiracy theories were alarming.
'It's high but it's also not surprising,' he said, 'because you find what we call perceptual biases because of partisan conflict and polarization, and we saw the same kind of thing with regard to who won the 2020 election.
'These are predominantly Trump supporters who buy into these conspiracy theories. This is a well-known phenomenon now.'
In other words, repeated attacks on the FBI for its role in investigating Trump and subsequent court cases have made his supporters deeply suspicious of federal bodies.
The election campaign was upended on the evening of July 13 when a gunman's bullet grazed Trump's ear as he delivered a rally speech in Pennsylvania.
Secret Service agents quickly opened fire and shot dead the would-be assassin who was later identified as Thomas Crooks, a 20-year-old kitchen worker.
He had been spotted on a nearby roof before opening fire. Since then, a series of Secret Service and law enforcement missteps have been identified that showed moments where he could have been stopped.
Investigators have not offered a possible motive for the attack. But they said they believed Crooks was acting alone.
J.L. Partners asked 1054 likely voters for their thoughts on a range of political issues
Actress Amanda Seales posted a video online claiming the attempted assassination of Donald Trump that killed one man and injured others was staged
Even so, questions about how he was able to take a shot at the world's most protected man triggered a string of conspiracy theories suggesting there was more to the shooting than meets the eye.
For example, Elon Musk, the billionaire owner of the X social media platform, posted: 'Extreme incompetence or it was deliberate. Either way, the SS leadership must resign.'
Others went even further. Alex Jones, who falsely claimed the Sandy Hook massacre was not real, said the attack was part of a 'failed coup' by the 'deep state.'
Some questioned whether the shooting was real.
'It looks very staged,' said another user on X in a post that quickly attracted more than a million views.
'Nobody in the crowd is running or panicking. Nobody in the crowd heard an actual gun. I don't trust it. I don't trust him.'
Joseph Uscinski, a professor at the University of Miamian and an expert on conspiracy theories, said he was not surprised by the high number of people who said they believed in a bigger plot.
He said it was wrong to think of conspiracy theories as a 'one-off idea' but were spread by people who were already prone to believing them.
'In this case, the believers likely already have a worldview (which is not measured in your survey, but is likely indirectly reflected in Trump and RFK support) in which conspiracies tend to dictate events and circumstances… for these folks, that is just how the world works,' he said.
'For them, it makes perfect sense that there was some broader conspiracy behind the assassination attempt on Trump.'
Some theories have been quickly debunked.
A post purportedly from a sniper at the rally, claiming to have been ordered not to fire on the shooter, was revealed as a hoax when it emerged that no one of that name was at the event.
Secret Service agents raced to the stage and bundled Trump to the floor after shots were fired
Other social media users posted an image of an uninjured Trump, but it turned out to be from 2022.
Plenty of Republicans blamed President Joe Biden for creating the conditions where someone might take matters into their own hands, pitting the election as the last chance to save democracy, and even saying that he wanted to put a 'bull's eye' on Trump during a call with donors.
Republican Rep. Mike Collins took that further, posting on X that: 'Joe Biden sent the orders.'
Meanwhile some on the left wondered whether Trump could have staged the whole thing to attract sympathy.
An adviser to Democratic donor and LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman sent an email to journalists saying 'this "shooting" was encouraged and maybe even staged so Trump could get the photos and benefit from the backlash.' Dmitri Mehlhorn later apologized.
And in a now-deleted social media post actress Amanda Seales said it was a stunt to help Trump show his strength.
'I lived in Harlem long enough to know gunshots do not sound like making popcorn on the stove,' she said.