What to Know
Lots of conspiracy theories have emerged online after the White House Correspondents’ Dinner shooting that happened on Saturday, April 25. One of the most common theories circulating is that the shooting was staged. Actress January Jones, who portrayed Betty Draper on Mad Men, surprised people by leaning into those theories when reacting to the shooting on social media.
Like anything related to President Donald Trump or U.S. politics in general, the post was pretty divisive. Some critics of the Trump administration found her reaction amusing and praised her for speaking up more than other celebrities, while other people found it “embarrassing” that she used her platform to promote this conspiracy theory.
In her post, January mocked the Trump administration.
Briana Keilar describes the situation at the WHCD: The wall by those stairs is glass. And as he just started to ascend the stairs, all of the glass started to shatter and rain down, sort of from above. pic.twitter.com/kGZBuQ7eWY
— Acyn (@Acyn) April 26, 2026
The 48-year-old shared her thoughts via her Instagram Stories. Her post read like an advertisement. Sarcastically, she wrote, “Do you have a boring dinner party coming up, and lots of losers and fake friends have rsvp’d? Are you looking for help staging a small scale low risk assassination attempt to get out of it?”
She continued, “Look no further, the US Government is your man, call us now at 1-800-wehate-americans and they’ll add a bonus podium to talk at people at length about how cool and strong you are and ruin everyone’s evening.”
She then added that this did not appear to be a one-time thing. “*This is not a one time offer, you can do it as many times as you want, taxes don’t apply.”
She made her feelings abundantly clear.
lol dang girl ok pic.twitter.com/2PD01Akc54
— paige (@BonerWizard) April 26, 2026
And some people loved it, while others hated it. Although she originally shared it via Instagram and the post is no longer visible, screenshots of it have been circulating on other platforms, like Reddit and X. Some people were pleasantly surprised to see January share this. Reacting to January’s post on Reddit, one person wrote, “She just gained a fan in me👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻 This is bolder and braver than most left-meaning celebs would dare.”
“My apologies, January, I wasn’t familiar with your game,” someone else commented.
On X, reactions were more mixed. “‘Lots of losers and fake friends’ goes pretty hard,” one X user pointed out. But others thought January’s reaction was “pretty embarrassing” and “unhinged.” Many of those who disagreed with her argued that celebrities’ opinions on politics don’t really matter. “Where is her proof?” a critic questioned. “Without it… she is just promoting disinformation!!!”
Trump’s reaction to the shooting has also gone viral.
After the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, a reporter asked Trump why he thinks he’s faced multiple threats like this. He said, “I must tell you, the most impactful people, the people who do the most—you take a look at the people, Abraham Lincoln. I mean, you go through the people that have gone through this…the people who do the most, the people that make the biggest impact, they’re the ones that they go after.”
He added, “I hate to say I’m honored by that, but I’ve done a lot. We’ve done a lot. We have taken this country—we were a laughingstock for years and now we’re the hottest country anywhere in the world.”
The day after the shooting, Trump sat down with “60 Minutes” contributing correspondent Norah O’Donnell. O’Donnell asked him about the people spreading conspiracy theories. “I think they’re more sick than they are con people, but there’s a lot of con in there too,” Trump said. “I haven’t heard that last night didn’t happen. Usually, it takes a little bit longer. Usually, they wait about two or three months to start saying that.”
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