Wikipedia

List of conspiracy theories promoted by Donald Trump

"Trump conspiracy" redirects here. For Trump's charges of conspiracy relating to the 2020 U.S. presidential election, see Federal prosecution of Donald Trump (election obstruction case).

This article contains a list of conspiracy theories, many of them misleading, disproven, or false, which were either created or promoted by Donald Trump, the president of the United States from 2017 to 2021.[1][2][3][4]

Conspiracy theories

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Attacks on political opponents

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Barack Obama

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Bill and Hillary Clinton

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Ted Cruz

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Joe and Hunter Biden

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Biden Administration

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Kamala Harris

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Joe Scarborough

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Others

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Claims about clandestine opposition

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Deep State

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Antifa

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Robert Mueller investigation deflections

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2016 and 2020 election claims

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To sow election doubt, Trump escalated use of "rigged election" and "election interference" statements in advance of the 2024 election compared to the previous two elections—the statements described as part of a "heads I win; tails you cheated" rhetorical strategy.[38]

Claims of corrupt science, medicine, and statistics

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Exaggerating the threat of immigrants and non-whites

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Claims of wealthy funders of protestors

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  • Suggested violent protestors were being funded by "some very stupid rich people"[41]
  • Alleging that antifa activists were being funded by Democrats, George Soros or "other people".[41]

Claims about George Soros

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Questioning terrorism

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Conspiracy theorists endorsed by Trump

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Donald Trump has encouraged individuals who spread conspiracy theories.

  • Had dinner with Kanye West after he had promoted anti-Semitic conspiracy theories and had vowed to go "death [sic] con 3 On JEWISH PEOPLE". His dinner guest was Nick Fuentes, a well-known Holocaust denier.[62][63][64]
  • Alex Jones,[65] publisher of InfoWars, a climate change denialist who has said that the World Bank invented the "hoax" of climate change,[66] falsely claims that vaccines cause autism[67][68] and who encouraged his listeners to harass the victims of the Sandy Hook elementary school shooting, which he called a "hoax".[69][70] Trump appeared on InfoWars, where he praised Jones's "amazing reputation", and repeated Jones's claims on the campaign trail.[10][71]
  • Paul Joseph Watson, who worked for Alex Jones' InfoWars and whose conspiracy theory interests include chemtrails, the New World Order and the Illuminati.[72]
  • Laura Loomer,[73] who has made false claims about several U.S. mass shootings, including that they were affiliated with ISIS or that the shootings were entirely staged[74][75][76]
  • Jack Posobiec, known for promoting the Pizzagate conspiracy theory.
  • Sidney Powell, an attorney who joined the Trump legal team in 2020, although the team distanced itself from her after she publicly claimed that the 2020 election had been rigged by an elaborate international communist plot.[77] She filed and lost four federal cases, alleging voter fraud of "biblical" proportions and claiming that voting machines had been secretly programmed to switch votes from Trump to Biden.[78][79][80]
  • Rudy Giuliani, the former Mayor of New York City during the September 11 attacks, best known in more recent years for his role as Donald Trump's attorney in various lawsuits pertaining to and a leading proponent of conspiracy theories about the 2020 presidential election, such as that between 65,000 and 165,000 ballots in Georgia were illegally cast by underage voters, that between 32,000 and "a few hundred thousand" illegal immigrants voted in Arizona, and that from 8,021 to 30,000 votes in Pennsylvania were cast fraudulently by people voting in the names of deceased persons whose names had yet to be purged from voter rolls.[81]
  • L. Lin Wood, an attorney who promoted conspiracy theories about the 2020 presidential election, claiming that Trump had won the election with 70% of the vote, and that a secret cabal of international communists, Chinese intelligence, and Republican officials had contrived to steal the election from Trump.[82][83] Wood also claims that "no planes" hit the World Trade Center and Pentagon on September 11, 2001, and that planes visible in the footage are "CGI".[84] He announced that he had "entered the public debate around the 'flat earth' issue", endorsing the belief that it is flat.[85]
  • Kelly Townsend, an Arizona Senator sought out Trump in 2011 pushing the Obama birther conspiracy [86][87][88] Townsend along with Roger Stone associate Jerome Corsi, Sheriff Joe Arpaio, and 2020 Maricopa County Sheriff candidate and then chief Arpaio staffer Jerry Sheridan, worked with informant Dennis Montgomery.[87][89] In 2020, Townsend worked again with Jerome Corsi claiming the election was stolen from Donald Trump and emailed Corsi a document of Arizona Senators endorsing Trump electors for Vice President Pence, in an attempt to overturn the 2020 election.[90] In November 2020, Townsend assisted Sidney Powell along with her birther conspiracy associate Dennis Montgomery who back in 2011 alleged Hammer and Scorecard was spying and used to hack into government computers and change Obamas birth certificate, and in 2020 with Townsend and Powell shifted his claims stating the supercomputer was being used to hack and flip votes in favor of Biden in 2020, and Townsend was listed as a key witness in Powell's Arizona election fraud case.[91][90][92][93] In the lead up to January 6, 2021, Townsend sponsored a bill that would designate Trump electors to Arizona and promoted the Arizona audit and stolen election claims.[94][95] Townsend has also been a leader of the anti-vax movement claiming in 2019 that all vaccines are communist.[96]
  • Rick Wiles, founder of TruNews was granted press credentials by the Trump Administration.[97][98] Wiles is known for pushing homophobic and anti-semitic conspiracy theories, including that the Jews seek to take control of the United States to "kill millions of Christians" and stated, "9/11 wasn't done by the Muslims. It was done by a wildcard, the Israeli Mossad, that's cunning and ruthless and can carry out attacks on Americans and make it look like Arabs did it."[97][99] In July 2018, during the Trump Administration, he claimed that Anderson Cooper and Rachel Maddow were going to lead a "homosexual coup on the White House" that would result in the nationally televised decapitation of the Trump family on the White House lawn.[100]

See also

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References

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  11. ^ Fishel, Justin (June 15, 2016). "Donald Trump Pushes Conspiracy Theory That Obama Supports ISIS". ABC News. Retrieved May 29, 2022.
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  14. ^ Matthews, Dylan (November 14, 2019). "#ClintonBodyCount and Jeffrey Epstein, explained". Vox. Retrieved May 14, 2020.
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  42. ^ a b "Fact check: The COVID-19 pandemic was not orchestrated by pharmaceutical companies, investment groups and philanthropists". Reuters. January 30, 2021. Retrieved November 8, 2023.
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  44. ^ Rosenthal, Max J. (June 9, 2016). "The Trump Files: Donald Thinks Asbestos Fears Are a Mob Conspiracy". Mother Jones.
  45. ^ Goodkind, Nicole (June 7, 2018). "Donald Trump Called Asbestos Poisoning a Mob-Led Conspiracy, Now His EPA Won't Evaluate Asbestos Already in Homes". Newsweek.
  46. ^ Schulman, Jeremy (June 16, 2015). "13 Tweets That Definitively Prove That Donald Trump Is Not a Scientist". Mother Jones.
  47. ^ Welch, Ashley (September 17, 2015). "GOP debate fact check: Claims about vaccines and autism". CBS News.
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  49. ^ Farley, Robert (November 23, 2015). "Trump Retwerts Bogus Crime Graphic". FactCheck.org.
  50. ^ Dearden, Lizzie (November 29, 2017). "Donald Trump retweets Britain First deputy leader's Islamophobic posts". The Independent. Retrieved May 14, 2020.
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  55. ^ "'Dangerous and poisoned': Critics blast Trump for endorsing white nationalist conspiracy theory on South Africa". The Washington Post. August 23, 2018.
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  61. ^ Hodges, Lauren (January 2, 2022). "Trump still says his supporters weren't behind the Jan. 6 attack — but I was there". www.npr.org.
  62. ^ Nordliner, Jay (November 28, 2022). "Guess who came to dinner". National Review.
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  64. ^ Cohen, Haley (December 5, 2022). "Trump dinner with antisemites a 'breaking point' - Jewish former allies say". Jerusalem Post.
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  72. ^ Wilson, Jason (May 24, 2017). "How rightwing pundits are reacting to the Manchester attack". The Guardian. Retrieved June 3, 2017. Paul Joseph Watson, Alex Jones's British mini-me, has followed the same broad path that the rest of the organization has. He was never on the left, of course, but over time his commentary has focused less and less on the Illuminati and chemtrails, and more and more on pushing a stridently anti-Muslim, anti-feminist and anti-left message.
  73. ^ Obeidallah, Dean (February 9, 2020). "Laura Loomer, Trumpy Bigot Embraced by the Florida GOP, Could Actually Get to Congress". The Daily Beast. Retrieved September 2, 2020.
  74. ^ Palma, Bethania (May 18, 2018). "Conspiracy Theories Immediately Appear After Santa Fe School Shooting". Snopes. Retrieved September 6, 2018.
  75. ^ Sommer, Will (June 27, 2018). "Jack Posobiec and Laura Loomer Fight for Credit Over Vegas Shooting Conspiracy Theory". The Daily Beast. Retrieved September 6, 2018.
  76. ^ Weill, Kelly; LaPorta, James (February 21, 2018). "InfoWars Sends Professional Troll Laura Loomer to Parkland". The Daily Beast. Retrieved August 19, 2020.
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  84. ^ Lemon, Jason (October 2, 2021). "Lin Wood Claims Hit No Planes Hit Twin Towers and Pentagon on 9/11: 'We Got Played'". Newsweek.
  85. ^ Hart, Benjamin (June 12, 2022). "Lin Wood, Pro-Trump Attorney, is a Flat Earther". Intelligencer.
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  88. ^ "Surprise Tea Party Patriots pack hall for Arpaio and Zullo". September 26, 2016.
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  94. ^ "Townsend's bill would give Trump Arizona's 11 electoral votes". January 5, 2021.
  95. ^ "'You want to see a temper tantrum?': Arizona Republican sides with Democrats, blocks voting bill". NBC News. April 23, 2021.
  96. ^ Bella, Timothy (March 1, 2019). "'Something is in those vaccines': Lawmaker says mandatory measles shots are 'Communist'". The Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved May 16, 2023.
  97. ^ a b Kampeas, Ron (January 23, 2020). "Trump White House Again Credentials Website That Called Impeachment a 'Jew Coup'". Haaretz. JTA. Retrieved January 24, 2020.
  98. ^ Grynbaum, Michael M. (January 26, 2020). "Site That Ran Anti-Semitic Remarks Got Passes for Trump Trip". The New York Times. Retrieved February 7, 2020.
  99. ^ "Antisemitic Conspiracies About 9/11 Endure 20 Years Later". Anti-Defamation League. September 9, 2021. Retrieved June 22, 2022.
  100. ^ Williams, James (July 23, 2018). "Florida Talk Show Host Rick Wiles 'We Are 72 Hours Away From An Attack On The White House.'". News Talk Florida. Retrieved November 30, 2019.
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