Washington, D.C. – A vehicle accident that sent former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani to the hospital over the weekend, together with President Donald Trump’s four-day hiatus from the public spotlight last week, has sparked a storm of conspiracy theories on social media. Online commenters are connecting the two occurrences, even though they are officially unrelated. They are coming up with all sorts of theories, from planned distractions to secret political objectives.
Michael Ragusa, Giuliani’s spokesman, said that the 81-year-old was taken to the hospital on Saturday night after the Ford Bronco he was riding in was hit from behind by another car in New Hampshire. Giuliani broke a vertebra and got scratches and bruises. Ragusa said that before the disaster, Giuliani had stopped to help a victim of domestic violence, and the crash had nothing to do with it. The New Hampshire State Police said they were looking into the crash, but no one has been charged yet.
People were also very interested in President Trump’s short “disappearance” from public view. Last week, the president didn’t make any public appearances for four days. This led to a lot of concerns about his health or possibly his death. People saw him leave the White House on Sunday, and subsequently he uploaded a picture of himself with Jon Gruden on Truth Social. But Internet detectives quickly pointed out that the photograph looked like it was taken on August 23, which means it wasn’t a recent one.
The combination of these two occurrences has led to a lot of conspiracy ideas. People on X (previously Twitter) have been coming up with a lot of ideas on how things are connected:
One person questioned the official story of Giuliani’s accident, saying, “This is very fishy.” His spokesman said that the disgraced former mayor stopped his automobile to “help a victim of domestic violence.” That’s not true. Rudy Giuliani has never helped anyone in his life. Except for Donald Trump.
Another person made a snarky joke about the timing, stating, “Give credit where it’s due: Rudy dying to distract from Trump dying is some next level lawyering.”
Some people thought the accident was meant to distract people from other things, and one person asked, “Could Rudy’s accident be a distraction from Trump’s disappearance, which is a distraction from the Epstein files and Wednesday’s hearings?”
Some others even said that the tragedy had anything to do with the Trump administration. One person even said, “I wonder if the Trump administration set up the accident because Rudy was going to tell what he knows about Epstein.”
Giuliani’s spokesperson has said that the crash was “not a targeted attack” and has asked people not to disseminate “unfounded conspiracy theories.” However, people are still talking about it online. The incidents show how rapidly public concern and unverified information may come together to make a strong, though false, story in today’s digital world.