“Thoughts & prayers,” conspiracy theories, and laughing emojis

Abstract This article examines online responses to the 14 July 2024 assassination attempt on Donald Trump. Using large language model embeddings and machine learning algorithms, we analyze 26 thousand Facebook comments in near real-time reacting to “breaking news” stories from six national mainstream media outlets covering the assassination attempt. The themes we identify are consistent with historical studies on political assassination attempts and death, indicating evidence of public dismay, but also other widespread reactions including conspiratorial thinking, mocking, and trolling. Facebook’s laughing emoji features as one notable troll-like response to this traumatic event, with news of the shooting prompting nearly nine thousand ‘haha’ reactions. Within this online language is a political response apportioning blame, where both the political left and right accuse one another of inciting political violence. Our paper further connects these empirical observations with literature on affective publics, digital mourning, and RIP-trolling.