Hardly a week goes by without Donald Trump championing a new conspiracy theory, often qualifying his claims by saying that he is just asking a question or repeating what he heard or read from an unnamed source.
So it wasn’t too surprising to see Trump allege yesterday that the general election may be “rigged” and claim today that “there’s something phony” about polls which show him trailing Hillary Clinton.
Trump’s warning that the election will be stolen and that the polls are deliberately suppressing his level of public support came just days after his confidant Roger Stone and conspiracy theorist radio host Alex Jones similarly claimed that Clinton plans to rob Trump of the election and that her allies in the media are skewing polls against him so people won’t notice it when the election gets stolen.
The typical path that a bizarre or dubious story takes to get from the cesspool of the far-right fringe media to the mouth of a GOP politician goes something like this: A fringe right-wing outlets like Jones’ InfoWars or WorldNetDaily will report a “fact” that will then get picked up by conservative talk radio hosts, who either use the story in its entirety or refine it a bit. The story then makes its way to Fox News and, from there, to leading GOP politicians and even presidential candidates.
But not for Trump.
Rather than wait for them to percolate up through the right-wing media, Trump takes conspiracy theories straight from the source, often picking up bizarre claims directly from outlets like InfoWars, WorldNetDaily, Freedom Outpost, or even email chains and the National Enquirer:
Why does Barack Obama’s ring have an arabic inscription? http://t.co/upa00265 Who is this guy?
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 11, 2012
I LIVE IN NEW JERSEY & @realDonaldTrump IS RIGHT: MUSLIMS DID CELEBRATE ON 9/11 HERE! WE SAW IT! https://t.co/1SksZU9qlj
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 26, 2015
Wake Up America! See article: “Israeli Science: Obama Birth Certificate is a Fake” http://t.co/f7esUdSz
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 13, 2012
And he’s proud of it.
Trump has appeared alongside Alex Jones, hailing the unhinged radio conspiracy theorist’s “amazing” reputation.
He rejoiced at the news that WorldNetDaily — the site whose “reporting” he has cited to in his birther accusations against President Obama — named him its 2015 Man of the Year.
Trump has also made clear that he believes everything he reads in the National Enquirer because if what the grocery store tabloid publishes isn’t true, they can get sued.
He often boasts, while making one or another outrageous claim, that he has the best sources.
We can only wonder what will happen when Trump reads Infowars’ and WorldNetDaily’s coverage of such topics as false flag attacks or Obama’s “real” father.
