What to Know
Tons of conspiracy theories have surfaced online in the aftermath of the White House Correspondents’ Dinner shooting. People have pointed to several confusing moments from that night, including how White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said there would be “shots fired” when talking about President Donald Trump’s speech. What happened as people evacuated the ballroom has also sparked a lot of conversations.
Footage circulating on social media shows Trump falling on the ground. People have also noticed that Vice President JD Vance appeared to evacuate the space before Trump, leading some to question whether Vance was treated as more of a priority.
A lot of people wanted to know why Vance was whisked away first.
🚨 Vice President JD Vance was escorted out by the Secret Service, followed by agents quickly surrounding President Trump after an incident at the annual White House Correspondents' Dinner
— TMZ (@TMZ) April 26, 2026
🎥: Getty pic.twitter.com/t25GMqCfL7
Many social media users found this detail extremely bizarre. “Weird … Vance escorted out before Trump,” one person captioned a clip on X. “Then Trump falls down as he’s getting escorted out.” And a lot of others left comments like, “Why did they protect Vance first?”
Some people speculated that it might have something to do with Trump’s age: “First, we need to save JD; that old man will wait there.” Someone else said, “Maybe coz you can move a 40 year old man, a lot faster than a 80 year old man?”
Multiple conspiracy theories emerged or were at least exacerbated because of this moment.
View on Threads
A common theory spreading on social media is that the shooting was “staged.” On Threads, one critic wrote, “they took the f—ing VP first and they’re now trying to get people to believe this was real?” Meanwhile, others believed the shooting was a real threat, and seemed more fixated on the fact that Vance appeared to be prioritized. “They already know Vance’s life is more important because Trump’s political life is done,” someone else commented.
However, several people urged people not to read into it too much. “We’re reading too much into all of this,” someone said. “It was chaos.” Another person argued, “They were pulling both out at the same time. Vance is in better shape and Trump stumbled.”
Trump tried to explain what happened.
President Trump says that he did not fall down while being evacuated from the WHCD. He says he was asked to get closer to the ground by agents. pic.twitter.com/gdMGp0RIBn
— Acyn (@Acyn) April 26, 2026
During a 60 Minutes interview, Norah O’Donnell also asked Trump about why Vance was evacuated first. “You see the security moving quickly, within seconds, grabbing the vice president by his coat, lifting him up, bringing him out,” O’Donnell said. “Then, the counterassault comes in, took 10 seconds for them to flank you, Mr. President, and then 20 seconds to get you out. It looked chaotic. At one point, you were down. What was happening?”
Trump said this actually happened because he was making things a bit difficult. “Well, what happened was, it was a little bit me,” Trump responded. “I wanted to see what was happening, and I wasn’t making it that easy for them. I wanted to see what was going on. And, by that time, we started to realize maybe it was a bad problem. A different kind of a problem. A bad one…And I was surrounded by great people.”
He continued, “And I probably made them act a little bit more slowly. I said, ‘Wait a minute, wait a minute. Let me see, wait a minute.'” O’Donnell also questioned Trump about the moment when he appeared to fall down.
However, he insisted that he did not actually fall. “I started walking, and they said, ‘Please go down, please go down on the floor,'” Trump said. “So I went down, and the first lady went down also. But we were asked to go down by the agents as I was walking.”
