Black Twitter is calling foul after a reported shooting that had former President Donald J. Trump rushed off stage from a campaign rally.
According to AP News, Trump was minutes into a speech in Butler, Pa. on Saturday evening when loud popping noises came from the crowd. Trump reached his hand to the right side of his face, before ducking as a swarm of Secret Service agents ran on stage to surround him. Trump then stood back up, appearing to be bleeding from his right ear, and pumped his fist to the crowd as he was rushed to a nearby vehicle and taken off-site.
Butler County district attorney Richard Goldinger reports that the alleged shooter has died, along with an audience member.
The Secret Service has since issued a statement about the incident, according to MSNBC: “The Secret Service has implemented protective measures and the former President is safe. This is now an active Secret Service investigation and further information will be released when available.”
Representatives for Trump have also released a statement: “President Trump thanks law enforcement and first responders for their quick action during this heinous act. He is fine and is being checked out at a local medical facility. More details will follow.”
President Joe Biden, who was at his beach house in Delaware at the time of the incident, held an impromptu press conference to speak about the shooting. He said that he had been unable to successfully contact Trump, but that he’s been told that he’s safe and doing well.
“There’s no place in America for this kind of violence. It’s sick. It’s sick,” he said. “It’s one of the reasons we need to unite this country. ... We cannot condone this.”
Much of the reaction on Black Twitter is skepticism. With Trump’s propensity to use his platform to lie, and his quick reaction to pump his fist to the audience before being rushed off stage, many people believe that the incident was fake. “Staged” and “BB Gun” were two terms that were trending, with people questioning the authenticity of the situation and stating that the noises from the crowd weren’t loud enough to signify a real gun.
“This is the most staged shit I’ve ever seen. An *active shooter* and Secret Service just allows him to stand back up for a fucking fist up?!” tweeted @Jawn. “The crowd just sits back down?? Crowd just smiles and takes pictures??? WTF.”
User @Notdojaaa mirrored the doubt. “That shit had to be staged,” they posted. “Secret service was slow as hell to get to him and they let him do a photo op after.”
Another user agreed with the idea that the sound came from a BB gun, not a deadly weapon.
“If he got shot, it gotta a bb gun or something like that,” said user @Just_CallMeD. “Because ain’t no way he got shot with a real [bullet] to the side of head and ear and all he got was a bloody ear.”
@GothamCityGoon felt that Trump would use the incident to his advantage politically.
“That shooting so fucking staged dawg. They clipped Trump’s ear with a damn rubber bullet, now this nigga gon act like he 50 Cent in 2003. OMFG he just won the election.”
User @iamphella cautioned to users to not be as skeptical as they appear to be.
“’It was a toy gun.’ ‘Why didn’t nobody run?’ ‘That was so fake.’ Whole time an actual person is dead,” he tweeted. “Twitter experts: 0. Real Life: 18,560.”
The Root will update this story as it develops.