Trump dismisses theories as FBI explores senator’s death
Theories and calls for investigation
Analyzing the pattern of speculation
A preliminary medical examiner’s report found that Graham died from an aortic dissection, President Donald Trump disclosed Tuesday. Trump, himself a frequent purveyor of unsubstantiated claims including false stolen-election allegations, said he did not believe foul play was involved.
“I know there’s all sort of conspiracy theories,” Trump told reporters. “I think the FBI is wasting their time.”
The FBI — whose director, Kash Patel, said the agency was “assisting local authorities and has made every necessary resource available” in the wake of the senator’s death — has not said it is investigating Graham’s death as a crime. The phrasing helped fuel further speculation, with some commentators citing it as reason for suspicion.
Graham, a prominent Russia hawk who traveled to Ukraine shortly before his death and had called for the assassination of Russian President Vladimir Putin, had heart problems, Trump said. An aortic dissection is difficult to detect in advance.
Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) told reporters he wanted a toxicology report on Graham released to “rule out any foul play.”
“Given where he was and the sorts of things he was advocating for, I think we just ought to resolve all those questions by seeing what the toxicology reports show,” Cornyn said. Graham’s office said the cause of death on his death certificate “will be PENDING until all the toxicological and microscopic testing are finalized.”
Marc Thiessen, a political commentator and former George W. Bush speechwriter, said it was “entirely possible” that Graham died from a heart attack but “not a conspiracy theory to suggest something else might be at play.”
“Putin has poisoned and assassinated many of his opponents, and Graham was just in Kyiv where there are certainly FSB agents operating,” Thiessen wrote on X. “There should be a full autopsy and tox screen to rule out foul play.”
Laura Loomer, a right-wing commentator and Trump ally with nearly 2 million followers on X, questioned the circumstances.
“I didn’t realize 20 FBI agents were needed to convince everyone that Lindsey Graham died from an Aortic Dissection,” she wrote. “Did the toxicology report come back? 2 things can be true at once.”
McConnell’s weeks-long absence
The information vacuum that fueled rumors
For McConnell, conspiracy theories that he is not actually alive have circulated for weeks after the 84-year-old former Republican leader disappeared from public view in mid-June. His office created a prolonged information vacuum by not addressing the reason for his absence until this week.
As MSI reported, McConnell on Sunday disclosed for the first time that a fall led to his hospitalization last month, ending weeks of silence in which he was briefly unconscious, treated for mild pneumonia, and moved to a rehabilitation facility. A group of McConnell friends said they had spoken with him, but the disclosures only fueled further suspicion because the tweets appeared coordinated and shared a common tone.
Graham’s office subsequently released a photo of McConnell with his wife holding a copy of Sunday’s Washington Post sports section in an attempt to prove he was alive. The Washington Post analyzed the photo and its metadata, finding no evidence it was fake. But some users falsely claimed the image was recirculated from 2023, while others argued it could be AI-generated.
Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), who has a history of sharing conspiracy theories, told a right-wing news station: “I’ve just heard from some other sources that was an older photo. So I really don’t know.” Johnson later said that was a rumor and that he assumed it was false.
Cornyn said he wished McConnell’s office had been more transparent about the senator’s condition, arguing that more information would have “resolved a lot of questions.”
The broader context
Researcher says online visibility does not equal broad belief
Joseph Uscinski, a political science professor at the University of Miami who studies conspiracy theories, published a 2022 paper finding no evidence that conspiracy theories were on the rise, and said polling he has conducted since then shows conspiratorial belief has remained relatively stable.
“If we were having these conversations at the water cooler, our words would be here and gone, and nobody would see it,” Uscinski said. “But because social media is sort of there forever, people who want to know what other people are talking about can easily see it and access it. But it doesn’t mean that it’s persuading anyone.”
People pay more attention to major events, he said, so they are more exposed to conspiracy theories about them because everyone is discussing the same topic. Those already inclined to see conspiracies can be persuaded, Uscinski said, but “that is not most people.”
“That’s a difference between the online chatter and belief,” he said. “You can get a lot of people buying into something online, but then you go poll on it, and people are like, who’s Lindsey Graham, who’s Mitch McConnell?”
Trust in institutions, including politicians and the media, has fallen steadily while trust in the government is at one of its lowest points in seven decades, according to a 2025 Pew Research survey. People frequently get their news from sources that confirm their worldviews, the survey found.
The pattern of conspiracy theories spreading alongside high-profile deaths is not new. Some right-wing influencers have previously questioned the assassination attempts against Trump, including the July 2024 Butler, Pennsylvania, shooting, and have repeatedly cast doubt on the assassination of conservative commentator Charlie Kirk, whose alleged killer is on trial.