This was no false flag operation. But the reason people leapt to false flag suspicions is because of how perfectly this horrible event works out for Trump and the Republicans. You immediately get folks like Archy and JD Vance doing the predictable pearl clutching about violent rhetoric, which now allows Donald Trump to be the victim as opposed to the #1 perpetrator, while greasing the skids for reprisals. Joe Biden cancels his campaign events, Trump gets sympathy from unexpected quarters, and there's a sudden moratorium on criticizing him just days before he appears for what will be an almost Christ-like appearance at the Republican National Convention. A false flag operation could not have pulled off the perfection of that bullet grazing: no real injury but a trickle of blood that when combined with a defiant fist salute creates the money shot for an entire generation of rightwing resistance.
Donald Trump is one lucky motherf#&%er. Maybe God really does want America to destroy itself.
For the record, if Joe Biden had been shot dead yesterday, I would have flashed on a false flag operation, too, because it would have instantly solved a lot of problems for the Democrats.
I guess it's more comforting if our assassins are merely misfit loners with AR-15s.