John Cleese Gets Schooled on Wild Trump Assassination Theory
Monty Python vet runs afoul of journalist who heard shots ring out
John Cleese knows everything there is to know about “silly walks.”
More importantly, he’s well versed in the free speech fight of our age.
The Monty Python alum has been making us howl for decades, but his work supporting free expression has made him an an essential voice during the woke era.
Few comedians have his wit and experience on that front. And he hasn’t been shy about using both.
He’s also a late-stage Trump Derangement Syndrome sufferer, and it flared up in dramatic fashion Monday.
Cleese shared an X post that suggested President Trump’s brush with death at a Butler, Pa. rally in 2024 didn’t actually happen as shown.
It was an act, a scripted moment to boost his presidential aspirations. Cleese concurred.
Looks staged https://t.co/aLCRLbVptW
— John Cleese (@JohnCleese) January 12, 2026
That didn’t sit well with Salena Zito.
The Pennsylvania-based journalist was on-site during that fateful rally. She watched as a bullet clipped the former and future president’s ear, a shot heard ’round the world.
More shots rang out that day, including one that took the life of father and husband Corey Comperatore. Two other attendees were struck by the assassin’s bullets but survived.
Zito, a professional journalist, gently schooled Cleese on his claims the tragic shooting was part of a Trumpian conspiracy.
I was 4 feet away. I saw a man die in front of me.
— ZitoSalena (@ZitoSalena) January 12, 2026
Cleese has yet to respond to Zito’s note.
Editor’s Note: It’s a brutal time to be an independent journalist, but it’s never been more necessary given the sorry state of the corporate press. If you’re enjoying Hollywood in Toto, I hope you’ll consider leaving a coin (or two) in our Tip Jar.
The sheer lunacy of believing that Trump would willingly let himself be shot at by someone hundreds of feet away, with nothing more than the assurance that the shooter would intentionally miss, in the cold calculated service of his reelection bid…. How can he be serious?
EXACTLY why I told you COMPLETE RIGHT WING MORONS not to fall in love with this idiot because he swerved like a toddler on too much OOUGH SYRUP into the “Free Speech” lane we like. I’m right wing. But I’m not a MORON fooled by people like Joe Rogan, Jordan Peterson or Nick Dumbass Fuentes. You people so desperate for validation glom onto any left wing idiot who farts something you care about.
I am 63 years old. I saw Star Wars in the movie theater BEFORE it was Part IV. I watched my Doctor, Tom Baker, as a first airing, not re-runs. Sadly, I have seen my TV and Movie icons show their truth and forever ruin my viewing of the seminal shows and films of my youth. I can not watch Star Wars and not know that Luke and Han are whackjobs. Now I can’t watch Monty Python or Wanda without the ire every time I see this moron. As funny has his skits are, John Cleese is a moron. A “Staged Trump Assassination” ranks right up there with “The Apollo Landing Was Staged” and “the Nazis did not have concentration camps” and “the Holocaust is a Jewish Hoax”. I can’t stand stupid. When will actors, singers, sports figures, and entertainers learn to just perform and then keep their mouth’s shut?
With you 100%, can’t stand to watch people that lost their minds.
Probably never! Evidently those that are hired to entertain are hired by similar whack jobs and real thinkers are relegated to other lines of work! (Unless they keep their thoughts shielded from oversight by management.)
“The Apollo Landing Was Staged” … on location
I love John’s work and he was a creative creator as well, not just (dead) parroting the words written by others.
But he has shown that he has come so far but no further to date. Maybe in time and upon reflection.