Obama Falsely Slammed for Ordering Supposed Hit on Trump
By Hope Talbot
What happened: Pro-Trump social media users are advancing the bogus claim that former President Barack Obama ordered the assassination of President Donald Trump — a plot that was supposedly revealed in a memo from Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard.
Context: In the July 18 memo, Gabbard accused Obama of taking part in “what was essentially a years-long coup” against Trump. Gabbard’s office also released numerous emails among members of the intelligence community, which her office said implicated the Obama administration in a plot to “subvert President Trump’s 2016 victory and presidency” using “manufactured and politicized intelligence” of Russian election interference in 2016.
In an emailed statement to USA Today (NewsGuard Trust Score: 100/100), Obama spokesperson Patrick Rodenbush said, “These bizarre allegations are ridiculous and a weak attempt at distraction.”
A closer look: Citing the memo, conservative accounts claimed that Gabbard also uncovered a plot by Obama to assassinate Trump in 2016.
A Barron Trump fan account, @BarronTNews, stated in an X post: “In what may become the most explosive revelation in U.S. political history, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard announced that declassified intelligence files directly implicate former President Barack Obama in authorizing a covert assassination attempt on then President-elect Donald Trump. The files, set to be publicly released, detail a sprawling, top-secret program initiated in the final 30 days of Obama’s presidency, with the explicit goal of preventing Trump from ever taking office.” The post received 1.6 million views and 30,000 likes in one day.
On July 22, conservative news site LewRockwell.com published an article titled, “BREAKING: DNI Tulsi Gabbard Confirms Former President Obama Authorized Assassination Attempt on Trump.”
Actually: Gabbard did not accuse Obama of ordering an attempt on Trump’s life. The claim originated as satire.
NewsGuard reviewed Gabbard’s statement and the government records that her office released and found no documents alleging that there was such a plot against Trump.
The claim appears to have originated in a July 21 Facebook post by a stand-up comedian named Jonathan Gregory, who has approximately 15,000 followers on the platform. However, the posts cited above did not disclose the claim’s apparent satirical origin.
Gregory’s Facebook page describes him as a “Digital Content Creator for the Trump Administration,” although there is no evidence he actually works for the federal government. The page does not describe itself as satire, although it does describe Gregory as a comedian.
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