Apparently, Hollywood’s favorite “voice of God” and the high priestess of academic fiction have decided to spend their golden years moonlighting as amateur conspiracy theorists.
Over the weekend, Oscar winner Morgan Freeman and celebrated author Joyce Carol Oates decided to dust off one of the Left’s most desperate fever dreams: the claim that the 2024 assassination attempt on Donald Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania, was a theatrical production.
Freeman, whose authoritative baritone usually lends gravitas to nature documentaries, took to X to drop a baseless bombshell, claiming Trump “personally shut down the investigation into his staged assassination attempt.” Not to be outdone in the department of creative writing, Oates suggested that Trump is actually “embarrassed” by the “staginess” of the event, positing that it was “staged but not rehearsed,” resulting in an “awkward, amateurish” performance.
(to his credit, T***p has kept very quiet about the “assassination attempt” in Butler PA. likely, he is embarrassed about its staginess & doesn’t want to draw any more attention to it. among numerous theories is the theory that it was “staged” but not rehearsed & much went… https://t.co/IKZGPJN2K5
— Joyce Carol Oates (@JoyceCarolOates) April 18, 2026
There’s just one problem for the conspiracy crowd: the facts. Contrary to Freeman’s social media fiction, the investigation wasn’t “shut down”—it was completed with a mountain of bipartisan evidence. The House Task Force, chaired by Rep. Mike Kelly, released its final report in December 2024, meticulously documenting the security failures that allowed the shooter to take his position. In July 2025, a Senate report led by Rand Paul further slammed the Secret Service for “disturbing mismanagement.” Even the FBI’s criminal probe confirmed Thomas Matthew Crooks acted alone, a reality backed by the tragic, documented death of Corey Comperatore and the critical injuries of two others.
This isn’t the first time Oates has played detective from her ivory tower. Back in July 2025, she was already dissecting the “hokey publicity shot” of a bloodied Trump raising his fist, marveling at how anyone in their “right mind” would stand up after being shot. She wrote:
it seemed rehearsed, the positioning of officers to allow a hokey publicity shot of T***p with a fist raised for a MAGA poster. the call “shooter down!” certainly came quickly; how could anyone possibly know that there wasn’t a second shooter? Secret Service would surely be more thorough. … impossible to believe that in the confusion & panic of that moment anyone in his right mind would wish to stand up & face another bullet.
impossible to believe that in the confusion & panic of that moment anyone in his right mind would wish to stand up & face another bullet.
— Joyce Carol Oates (@JoyceCarolOates) July 14, 2025
The pedigree of these two critics is undeniable. Freeman has an Oscar for Million Dollar Baby; Oates is a perennial Pulitzer finalist. Yet, they seem trapped in a 2016-era loop of hysteria. Oates has been sounding the alarm for years, comparing Trump’s rise to Nazi Germany, while Freeman recently told MSNBC that Trump is leading the country “down a sh*thole.”
It appears that for the elite echelons of the arts, no fact is too stubborn to be twisted into a narrative of conspiratorial malice.
When the “voice of God” and a literary legend start sounding like fringe Redditors—ignoring bipartisan congressional reports just to keep a narrative alive—it’s clear that Trump Derangement Syndrome remains the most persistent pandemic in Hollywood.
