Billionaire Tweets Then Deletes Wild Claim About Donald Trump's Attempted Assassination

Former President Donald Trump's assassination attempt on July 13, prompted several conspiracy theories on the internet. Americans couldn't fathom how such an attack could unfold despite the stringent security that Trump is privy to. Netizens had a field day speculating various rhetorics, including billionaire Bill Ackman, who recently posted a wild claim, only to delete it within 10 minutes. 

On X, formerly Twitter, Ackman shared a clip that argued that 20-year-old, Thomas Matthew Crooks, the reported "lone gunman," was, in fact, not alone. Dr. Chris Martenson, an economist, had created the video, deeming the horrific act an inside job, allegedly orchestrated by the "deep blue state," as reported by the Daily Mail. 

Martenson analyzed audio from the Butler rally to prove Crooks wasn't operating alone in his attempt at assassinating the former president. He claimed that a second gunman was positioned about 100 ft away from Crook's rooftop location. To back his argument, he presented recordings from the event, in which multiple shots could be heard— the ones fired by the 20-year-old, followed by the Secret Service sniper, and a few more shots with a distinct audio signature that indicated the presence of a third shooter. 

Ackman re-tweeted the same and opined, "Makes a highly credible case that there were at least two shooters/assassins who attempted to kill [Trump]." However, the billionaire cautioned, "I have no expertise in this field. None. I welcome further analysis and rebuttal." Minutes later, he removed the multiple shooter theory and posted another including "an extremely impressive rebuttal to the multiple shooter theory." 

Interestingly, a CNN report too cited at least three weapons to have been fired at the Pennsylvania rally— from weapon A, three consistent shots were fired, the next five consistent shots were followed with weapon B, and the final "acoustic impulse" was shot by a possible weapon C as per audio analysis by Catalin Grigoras, director of the National Center for Media Forensics at the University of Colorado in Denver, and Cole Whitecotton, Senior Professional Research Associate at the same institution.

Following the shooting, Ackman endorsed the GOP nominee. He posted on X, "I am going to formally endorse @realDonaldTrump. The reason why I have not yet formally done so is that I want to explain my thinking in detail and address the arguments put forth by others against Trump. I assure you that I have made this decision carefully, rationally, and by relying on as much empirical data as possible." 

Elon Musk is another billionaire to back Trump in the 2024 presidential elections. A day after his assassination attempt, the Tesla founder posted a video of him chanting "Fight!" after being shot in his right ear, and wrote, "I fully endorse President Trump and hope for his rapid recovery." In a subsequent tweet, he praised, "Last time America had a candidate this tough was Theodore Roosevelt." 

Other notable CEOs like Microsoft's Satya Nadella, Amazon's Andy Jassy, Marc Benioff of Salesforce, Qualcomm's Cristiano Amon, GM's Mary Barra, and Tim Cook of Apple mostly steered clear of any political comment, except wishing the former president a speedy recovery, condemning the political violence, as reported by Fortune.