The Google search engine’s autocorrect feature appears to be avoiding any mention of the assassination attempt against President Trump, instead directing those searching to lesser-known attempts against the likes of President Truman in 1950 and Reggae singer Bob Marley in the 1970s. Trump’s brush with death is the first assassination attempt on an American president in more than 40 years.
If one uses Google’s search bar to look for information about the would-be Trump assassination, it’s autocorrect feature makes no suggestion for links to the 45th president’s rally at Butler, Pennsylvania on July 13. Searching for “attempted assassination” in the Google search bar directs users to the attempted killings of Presidents Reagan, Ford, Teddy Roosevelt, Pope John Paul II, and Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico, among others.
When users specify further, search for “Attempted assassination of Trum–”, the algorithm suggests they look into the attempt on the life of President Truman, who in 1950 was targeted by two Puerto Rican nationalists while he was sleeping at Blair House. The two attackers got into a gunfight with Secret Service agents before they could reach the president.
When users specify as much as possible, writing “Trump assassination” or “attempted assassination of Trump”, the search engine’s autocorrect feature offers no suggestions to direct them.
A number of conspiracy theories have spread about the attack since Trump was shot in the ear just hours before the Republican convention in Wisconsin earlier this month. Some on the far right have said the Secret Service were working with the shooter, Thomas Matthew Crooks, and allowed him to fire at the former president. On the far left, some have said Trump staged the event in order to win sympathy with the American people.
Those theories were renewed when the FBI director Christopher Wray told a congressional committee last week that his agency had not determined what struck Trump that day in Pennsylvania. Days later, the FBI announced that they had concluded Trump was, in fact, struck in the ear by a bullet.