A California chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine claimed the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump was “staged” and called it a distraction from a recent “massacre” in the Gaza city of Khan Younis.
University of California San Diego’s chapter for Students for Justice in Palestine – which has amassed 17,000 followers – posted the message to their Instagram story shortly after the shooting.
“[T]here was a horrific massacre of close to 100 palestinians in khan younis today and people won’t be talking about it at all because we just have to accept that apparently people care more about trumps staged assassination attempt!!!!!! WAKE UPPPP,” the post reads.
The post came in the form of an Instagram story, a temporary message that automatically deletes one day after being uploaded.
The College Fix obtained a screenshot of the story.
The Fix reached out to SJP UCSD on Monday via email but did not receive a reply to its requests for comment.
The attempted assassination took place July 13, leaving one rally attendee dead.
Trump and two rally attendees were injured in the shooting.
Hours before the assassination attempt on Trump, Israeli Air Force planes conducted a strike in Khan Younis killing Rafa Salama, a commander of a major Hamas brigade in Gaza. The strike also targeted Mohammed Deif, the military leader of Hamas, though the IDF has not yet publicly confirmed if he was killed, Reuters reported.
The IDF’s statement announcing Salama’s death in the strike called him “one of the closest associates” of Deif, and “one of the masterminds” of Hamas’ attack on Oct. 7.
According to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry, approximately 90 civilians were killed in the strike, which appears to have inspired the SJP post. The IDF has not released a separate casualty assessment of the incident yet.
While SJP UCSD is seemingly the most prominent account to claim the Trump assassination attempt was a staged distraction from the war in Gaza, others have followed suit.
“[T]he fact that trumps shooting is just a publicity stunt to distract people from whats happening in palestine,” one X user wrote.
“The Trump assassination attempt was a staged it was their to distract you from Palestine and the Trans genocide,” another said.
SJP UCSD’s claim that a “staged” assassination attempt distracts from the Israel-Hamas war is one of many posts from prominent left-wing sources arguing the shooting was orchestrated. Some of these received hundreds of thousands of likes and tens of millions of views on prominent social media platforms such as X.
“If you don’t think that shit was staged? Look at how fast they got trump outta there at just the mention of someone in the crowd having a gun in 2016. Then look at this goofy as s**t,” one user wrote, receiving 126,000 likes.
Patrick Schoettmer, Seattle University associate teaching professor, said during a July 14 appearance on Sky News Australia that reactions to the shooting calling it “staged,” such as SJP UCSD’s post, were quite common across social media.
“Many on the far left were accusing this of being a false flag operation or a staged operation,” Schoettmer told the news outlet.
“As our partisan affiliations have intensified, since 2011 or 2012 … Americans have been more welcoming of violence, or have been more quick to blame it on the other side,” Schoettmer said.
MORE: Academics seize on Trump assassination attempt
IMAGES: social media screenshots/ SJP UCSD and X
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