Aide to Dem Megadonor Reportedly Suggested Trump Rally Shooting Might Have Been ‘Staged’

A top adviser to Democratic megadonor Reid Hoffman appeared to suggest in an email to various media outlets that the failed assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump may have been “staged,” Semafor reported Sunday.

Dmitri Mehlhorn sent an email to a group of “sympathetic” journalists at 7:34 p.m. on Saturday encouraging them to consider the possibility that the shooting had been “staged” for the benefit of Trump, Semafor reported. Hoffman has donated millions to pro-Democrat political committees, funded lawsuits against conservatives and joked about killing the former president the day before the failed assassination attempt.

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,” Mehlhorn reportedly wrote to members of the press, according to Semafor. “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.”

Mehlhorn, who Politico described as Hoffman’s “right hand man,” co-founded a fund called “Investing in US” with the Democratic megadonor, according to Semafor.

“I know I am prone to bias on this, but this is a classic Putin play and given the facts seems more plausible,” Mehlhorn continued in his email, Semafor reported. “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.” (Read more from “Aide to Dem Megadonor Reportedly Suggested Trump Rally Shooting Might Have Been ‘Staged’” HERE)