Top Democratic strategist pushed reporters to consider ‘staged’ shooting

The top political adviser to Democratic mega-donor Reid Hoffman suggested that the attack on Donald Trump could have been “staged,” even as Hoffman was criticized for joking before Saturday’s attack about Trump becoming a “martyr.”

The adviser, Dmitri Mehlhorn, apologized for his remarks after Semafor published this story, and said his email laying out his claims was “drafted without consultation from team members or allies.”

Hoffman, the founder of LinkedIn, whose net worth is reportedly $2.5 billion, joked at last week’s billionaire confab in Sun Valley that he wished he had made Trump “an actual martyr.” Sunday, he said on X that he was referring to “accountability to the rule of law” and that he’s “horrified and saddened” by the attack.

The scale of Hoffman’s political donations isn’t public but Mehlhorn said on a recent private conference call that “Reid and I have invested nine figures of our own money to prevent Trump from getting back into office.” (The money appears to be largely Hoffman’s.)

In an email Saturday at 7:34 pm that appeared to be addressed to sympathetic journalists, and which was also sent to Semafor, Mehlhorn wrote that one “possibility -- which feels horrific and alien and absurd in America, but is quite common globally -- is that this ‘shooting’ was encouraged and maybe even staged so Trump could get the photos and benefit from the backlash. This is a classic Russian tactic, such as when Putin killed 300 civilians in 1999 and blamed it on terrorists to ride the backlash to winning power. Others who have embraced this tactic of committing raw evil and then benefitting from the backlash include Hamas on October 7. If any Trump officials encouraged or knew of this attack, that is morally horrific, and Republicans of decency must demand that Trump step down as unfit.”

The other possibility, Mehlhorn wrote, “is that some crazy anti-Trumper in this chaotic moment decided to assassinate the former President.”

Mehlhorn, who co-founded a fund called “Investing in US” with Hoffman, made clear his impulse was toward the false flag theory. “I know I am prone to bias on this, but this is a classic Putin play and given the facts seems more plausible. Look at the actual shot. Look at the staging. Look at how ready Trump is to rally; this pampered baby shit his pants when an eagle lunged at his food. Look at how quickly Trump protects himself at the expense of others, but showed few of those lifelong instincts in this moment. And consider how often Putin and his allies run this play.”

He continued: “I know it feels yucky to discuss such a possibility. But in this case, the odds are so high, and the stakes so consequential, we must as[k] the question.”

Mehlhorn wrote that he was disappointed that journalists were not already raising the possibility of a fake shooting. “Ask the question, people. If it proves wrong, we should respond appropriately to a non-staged act of political violence, as outlined above. But your credibility and our entire system of truth and justice depends on being certain of the answer.”

Mehlhorn said in response to a follow-up question that his words were “not a public statement,” and a spokesperson said she didn’t have further immediate comment.

At about 2:40 pm Eastern, Mehlhorn sent another statement updating his original email: “Last night, I sent an email I now regret. It was drafted and sent without consultation from team members or allies. I have apologized to them directly. I also want to apologize publicly, without reservation, for allowing my words to distract from last night’s central fact: political violence took yet another innocent American life last night. We must unite in condemnation of such violence in every instance, without reservation. Any other topic is a distraction. I am grateful that those injured last night appear to be on the path to full recovery. Again, I apologize, and wish I had reacted as thoughtfully as Reid Hoffman this morning.”

Hoffman and Mehlhorn emerged as central figures Democratic politics in the Trump era, directing uncounted millions to both mainstream Democratic causes, like Joe Biden’s campaign operations, and more exotic and controversial private-sector efforts, including ersatz news sites.

The origins of Hoffman’s and Mehlhorn’s main organization, Investing In Us, date to early 2017, when, Vanity Fair reported, “Mehlhorn sent Hoffman a 10-page memo laying out his fears that the norms of the Enlightenment era— ‘the rule of law, respect for people as people, basic belief in the scientific method”—faced an existential threat in Trump.’”

Mehlhorn isn’t alone. “Staged” was trending last night on X, indicating the baseless conspiracy is becoming widespread. I’ve heard some of the same rhetoric in social circles. In fact, as I write this, I’m at a Washington, DC nail salon, and the man next to me getting a pedicure (who I do not know) just asked, “So you think yesterday was fake, huh?”

We’re used to conspiracy theories festering in the bowels of the internet behind animated profile pictures, and to hearing crazy theories in random conversations. But these views also spread widely in elite circles, like the big money Silicon Valley wing of the Democratic Party that Mehlhorn represents. Educated Democrats like to sneer at the “disinformation” spread on the American right, but the same patterns of thinking seem to affect all parts of American politics.

• “It was the first attempted assassination of a current or former American president in the era of social media, and the conspiracy theories, finger-pointing and campaign gamesmanship moved at the speed of the internet, far faster than the actual facts,” the New York Times noted.
  
• Widely shared posts on X misidentified the shooter as an Italian man who runs the fan site for the Italian soccer club AS Roma.
• Mehlhorn last made news when he said on the private conference call that a “dead” or “comatose” Joe Biden would have a better chance of defeating Donald Trump than Kamala Harris.
• Hoffman was most recently in headlines for funding a voting machine company’s defamation lawsuit against Fox.