You’ve probably seen the “quote” a million times.
“Don’t believe everything you read on the internet just because there’s a picture with a quote next to it.” — Abraham Lincoln.
You get the joke without having to be told it. Lincoln predated what we would call the modern internet by roughly a century and a quarter. But, even despite that, we see something that seems to good to be true and we jump all over it.
Such was the case with a viral video that’s made its way around social media and has been seen a countless number of times that purports to show the moment a bullet “ripped” through former President Donald Trump’s ear. One account has raked in over 9 million views as of Friday night. Another has raked in over 14 million.
And they’re both fakes.
Trending:
What’s ironic is that one of the accounts on X that’s spread the video, “Concerned Citizen,” declares that the footage “should silence the Left Wing Conspiracy Nuts who say the entire Trump shooting was staged.”
Clip of bullet ripping Trumps ear ‼️
This should silence the Left Wing Conspiracy Nuts who say the entire Trump shooting was staged. pic.twitter.com/E2tcmKsVcn
— Concerned Citizen (@BGatesIsaPyscho) July 18, 2024
Another one comes from the account of a site called armslist.com:
VIDEO SHOWS bullet punching a hole through Trump’s ear! pic.twitter.com/qzfsJ0u52V
— ARMSLIST.com (@armslist) July 18, 2024
However, as X users and community notes made sure to point out, this isn’t even the correct ear.
The video was mirrored, as you can see by the fact that the text on Trump’s “Make America Great Again” cap is backward.
Wrong ear
— Cordelia (@cordelia321) July 18, 2024
This is a fake.
It’s mirrored and edited.
You can see on this image that his right side has the 45-57 not the flag.
He was hit in his right ear. pic.twitter.com/6RvVHrlXBb
— ☦︎ 🔥 (MAGA MONTH APPRECIATOR) (@OrthoBlaze) July 18, 2024
Video is mirrored, look at the hat.
And it’s over blended and faked? pic.twitter.com/rCWg6h7C0l
— Lord Bebo (@MyLordBebo) July 18, 2024
The side of Trump’s head that was shot didn’t have the American flag on the side of the cap. Instead, it had 45-47 written on it — the numbers of the presidential administrations in which Trump served and hopes to serve.
Furthermore, those who have seen the footage are likely well aware that Trump was hit on the side of his head that was turned away from the audience; Trump said he had turned it to read a chart on illegal immigration figures, as ABC News noted.
So, why exactly would someone do this? Clicks, plain and simple. To too many, attention on social media is everything, and ghouls try to find way to monetize it in the most grisly of ways.
Will more videos of the Trump shooting give the public more insight into it?
However, what happened in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13, 2024, was the first attempted assassination to wound a president, present or former, since the attempt on Ronald Reagan’s life in 1981. Grisly, poorly put-together clips claiming to show the exact moment Trump was shot — which don’t even use particularly sophisticated technology to fake it — make a cloudy, confusing, chaotic situation even more so.
And perhaps that’s the point, too: To sow doubt. Did it really happen? Could it have been faked? Foreign powers or domestic frauds could be pumping this disinformation to further vitiate the integrity of the American political process. At least there are community notes and numerous replies calling out the obvious fakery here, but the damage is still done.
At times like this, it’s best to remember what Abe Lincoln didn’t — and couldn’t — have said.
