Updates:
Might be best for mods to lock this post at this point (is that a thing on Lemmy?) because this story is basically wrapped. The FBI says a bullet caused some ear damage. Maybe it was bullet shrapnel from a ricochet or something like that, but later photos show the teleprompters in-tact so it wasn't shards of glass from those. Trump's usage of the bandage (and the assassination attempt) as symbols and political tools has been discussed at length and I don't think conspiratorial thinking beyond that is very productive. Pete Souza took his own account down after getting a lot of harassment, so no further conspiracies are needed regarding X-formerly-known-as-Twitter at this time.
A photo of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump taken on Saturday without his ear bandage has sparked a wave of speculation.
The image, taken by Alex Brandon of the Associated Press on July 27 and shared by photojournalist Pete Souza on X, formerly Twitter, shows Trump walking up an airplane staircase with an apparently fully healed ear wound just weeks after he was shot with a high-powered rifle.
Souza, known for his tenure as the chief official White House photographer for Presidents Ronald Reagan and Barack Obama, posted Brandon's photo on his now-deactivated X account on Saturday, writing, "AP photo this morning. Look closely at his ear that was 'hit' by a bullet from an AR-15 assault rifle."
Souza's profile, @PeteSouza, which had over 200,000 followers, now reads, "This account doesn't exist, try searching for another," implying that he has deleted or deactivated it. If he had been banned, it would read, "Account suspended. X suspends accounts which violate the X rules."
I genuinely, since the day it happened, have not believed that Trump was shot.
I watched over and over again and I swear what I saw was WWE theatre.
I would have believed an attempt on his life, from someone anywhere on the Political spectrum (I even said this before info about the shooter came out).
However, I don’t believe Trump. He has had a white mark on his ear for years. The “scab” that he’s playing off as a wound has been there for years.
He is the liar/the first beast!
Two people died. It's asinine to ignore that and let your desire to distrust trump metastasize into conspiracy theories.
It's conspiracy theories like the Obama birther movement that got us into this situation. So just zip it.
He was shot at, the bullet grazed his ear leaving very little substantial damage. We don't need leftwing misinformation any more than we need rightwing misinformation.
Let's be better than that, AND let's not bring that sort of vibe onto Lemmy. Because I guarantee you Russia and other foreign state actors are looking to promote misinformation this election season as they do any other. Lemmy don't need that stuff.
Stuff on your face and head bleeds a lot. It probably just barely grazed it.
He could be on blood thinners too.
Good point, all that McDonald's isn't good.
I mean just logically McD's thickens & clogs the blood. It's fucking horrible. I've donated plasma & it pulls the fat right out of your blood, it can clog the filter. Perhaps Trump can survive any superficial wound, because he eats so much McD's the wound just seals shortly after it's inflicted. Like a white trash Wolverine.
Question is, are the blood thinners powerful enough to counteract the McD's & their artery clogging effects? 🤔
Your tone is so ignorant, like there is no way you are wrong.
Did it not occur to people it was both, he was infact shot at, but it was shrapnel that hit him.
Either way, you are not correct and your attitude is shit. Get off your high horse.
Trump still believes his birther bullshit. His base still believes his birther bullshit.
Don't act like it's not possible for trump to have faked an assassination attempt as a means to seize power.
It fits his modus operandi. It fits the evidence I see.
The fact 2 people died, while sad, is a toll I believe trump would gladly pay for a chance at acting as Putin's puppet as POTUS.
The most likely thing is it was a real attempt on his life, but he just got a scratch from some shrapnel or glass and was playing it up until he got bored of it.
A little bit before the attempt, people were discussing the testimony surrounding a dropped case against him, the woman recounted being 13 and was orally raped by Trump in '94. She refused to continue to testify after receiving death threats or something.
https://www.mic.com/articles/158432/jane-doe-lawyer-lisa-bloom-calls-off-press-conference-on-donald-trump-rape-allegations
So this guy might have just been playing some pedo hunter fantasy out. He doesn't have an online presence, if he did there would be some indication of being recruited if that was the case.
Look, a bullet from an AR-15 passing that close to your head is going to create a shockwave sufficient enough to cause permanent hearing damage and probably a minor concussion.
If it connected with his flesh, even just a "graze", it would have done a lot more damage, and wouldn't be completely healed so quickly.
There's plenty of evidence of dishonesty here. Trump, at least to some extent, is playing this event up. For example, if the damage to his ear was this minor, why has he been wearing a huge obvious bandage over his whole ear? That alone shows some degree of performance here, the question is exactly how much of this was a performance.
Accusing a well know liar of lying is nowhere near the same as that racist smear campaign, and you fucking know it. Zip it.
"Let's not bring conspiracy energy to Lemmy" Immediately goes full Russiagate
This is the exact cockhead bullshit I'm talking about, coming online and pretending to be a ballistics expert...
As for saying I'm spreading some Russiagate nonsense, AP NEWS, bitch:
https://apnews.com/article/russia-trump-biden-harris-china-election-disinformation-54d7e44de370f016e87ab7df33fd11c8
So AP news publishes a story where literally every source is some 3-letter agency, with the message "even your fellow Americans are Russian Propagandists", and you're not even a little bit critical because...
checks notes
huh, well, I can't say I was expecting your critical thinking skills to be good, but somehow I'm still disappointed.
Says the guy arguing the Trump shooting was a political stunt.
....which by the way, just keeps it in the media cycle and makes it seem like people give a shit about Trump.
The conservatives were getting upset that the story went away so fast, the dumb asses like you bring it back to be all "Look at his ear!"
So thanks for keeping politics stupid.
This is absolutely false. A .50 cal can go right by your head, and as long as it doesn't contact, your head, you'll be fine, possibly with some hearing damage. 5.56 is a lot smaller than that.
Conspiracies are cool, but don't just make shit up.
“Young Fox” great name, it’s what the “T” in “tgs” stands for.
This is my point. I’ve grieved for those dead at the event. I believe they were killed.
I don’t believe Trump was shot and so I come to the conclusion he has planned this entire thing. This is what I’ve come to expect from Trump in his reach for Power.
If I am wrong, I’m sorry and willing to admit being wrong.
However, the reason I would be wrong is because Trump is a liar.
The word believe signals "conspiracy theorist". "Suspect" is better if there is doubt.
We know Trump is a liar. He could have released medical records, but he didn't. So everyone should be suspecting he is still lying about everything, whenever it's convenient. As for what, you decide. From the start, we knew shrapnel or gear from his bodyguards were possibilities. Those are still on the table.
Can you imagine how it would have been if instead of grandstanding, he would have immediately offered support for the deceased's families? If he's written off the wound as a scratch from the scuffle, instead of necessarily a bullet wound? That would have been a small positive end to a tragic situation. Instead we have reality. Meh.
Oh yes. Certainly be very suspicious of Trump faking injury (or at least exaggerating).
My point is "believe" implies you've 100% made up your mind.
I see it as asinine to believe that Trump wouldn’t have his own supporters killed.
You bring up Russia but false flags are right out of the Pig Putins Book. A man with much praise from Trump.
I won’t zip it because I don’t believe he was shot. Until he admits otherwise, I am under the belief that he had his own supporter killed to use their names as a Martyr and say he took a bullet for America
The thing is he couldn’t even wear the Pressure Bandage for more than one night at the RNC. He won’t even pretend he has a boo boo for America.
He is the liar
Edit. Let me add that since bringing this up I realized Trump met with a Putin puppet 2 days before shooting.
You're a conspiracy theorists idiot then. As bad as any of the "left wing are cultural marxist elites running Capitalism" people.
Because you're also operating on political assumptions rather than what's know.
The FBI has said he was shot, they will have brought in crime scene detectives and ballistics experts and mapped the trajectory of the bullet already, and they've ALREADY SAID he was shot. But stand back everyone "some guy on the internet" has the real facts!
You can't trust the FBI and US officials - because u/tgs1999 has decided they know more about it!
It's idiotic conspiracy mongering where it's not needed.
This is true though, but I don't see any reason they would lie about this
Call me what you will but I still don’t believe he was shot from the second i saw the video. I won’t be quiet about that the way my mother was never quiet about Kennedys assissination in Dallas.
I'm a conspiracy theorists they way my mother was a conspiracy theorists about a different conspiracy theory.
...do you at least get that backing a conspiracy theory up with reference to another conspiracy theory... And a family tradition, isn't a rational or reasonable argument to present to others.
Like, I don't care if your family believes in Gremlins or Dragons, but that's not a reason to bother other people about it. Believe what you like, but not expect others to consider "conspiracy theories backed by other conspiracy theories" as a valid approach to reality.
Kennedys assassination is no conspiracy either. It’s been proven and admitted to not be what was stated by the FBI.
To act like there is no real “conspiracy” in reality is not reality.
Trump is a liar no conspiracy there.