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List of conspiracy theories promoted by Donald Trump

Donald Trump, the 45th and 47th president of the United States, has created or promoted many deceptive or disproven conspiracy theories, to a degree unprecedented in American politics.

Conspiracy theories

Attacks on political opponents

Barack and Michelle Obama

Bill and Hillary Clinton

Ted Cruz

Joe and Hunter Biden

Kamala Harris

Joe Scarborough

Others

Claims about clandestine opposition

Deep State

QAnon

Antifa

Anarchists

Russian interference, Robert Mueller investigation deflections

  • Allegations of Obama spying on Trump, including Spygate and Trump Tower wiretapping allegations
  • Allegations of Hillary Clinton spying on Trump
  • Russiagate hoax. Trump and his defenders have used terms like "Russia hoax", "Russian collusion hoax", and "Russiagate hoax" to delegitimize accusations and investigations of alleged impropriety, cooperation, collusion, or conspiracy between the Trump campaign and the government, officials, and intelligence agencies of Russia. They assert that such accusations are a hoax perpetrated against Trump by his critics and that he is the victim of a witch hunt. Trump and his supporters have produced no evidence of such a hoax.
The "hoax" accusation has been debunked by numerous sources and is contradicted by investigative findings of what "the president, members of his campaign and his associates actually did".
  • Pursued the theory that Ukraine, rather than Russia, interfered in the 2016 election

2016, 2020 and 2024 election claims

Claims of corrupt science, medicine, and statistics

Claims about national, ethnic, religious or racial groups

Claims of paid protesters

  • Suggested violent protesters were being funded by "some very stupid rich people"
  • Alleging that antifa activists were being funded by Democrats, George Soros or "other people".
  • Claimed that protesters against his crackdown in Washington D.C. were paid by the Democrats
  • Accused California Governor Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass of paying protesters in Los Angeles.
  • Repeated a claim that Renée Good was part of a “left-wing network” trying “to incite violence” against ICE and federal agents in Minneapolis.

Claims about George Soros

Questioning terrorism

  • 9/11 conspiracy theories
  • Negationism regarding the January 6 Capitol attack
  • Claim that Hamas terrorists are "pouring into our once beautiful USA, through our TOTALLY OPEN SOUTHERN BORDER"
  • Claimed that the FBI had planted 274 agents in the January 6 crowd and implied they helped provoke the attack on the Capitol.

Other

  • Referenced a conspiracy theory about Antonin Scalia's death, saying "they say they found a pillow on his face, which is a pretty unusual place to find a pillow."
  • Claimed that the FBI knows the identity of the individual who placed two pipe bombs outside the DNC and RNC on January 6th.
  • Claimed that Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro controls Tren de Aragua, which Trump says is invading the U.S.
  • Cast doubt on whether the U.S. gold reserves were still at Fort Knox.
  • Alluded to the conspiracy theory that Imran Awan was hiding “missing” DNC servers in the middle of remarks about Russian election interference, asking “What happened to the servers of the Pakistani gentleman that worked on the DNC? Where are those servers?”
  • Shared and then deleted an apparently AI-generated video, starring himself, promoting “medbeds”, a pseudoscientific medical device popularised by QAnon.
  • Accused the Supreme Court of being influenced by "foreign interests" after the Court ruled against him on tariff powers.

Conspiracy theorists endorsed by Trump

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 con 3 On JEWISH PEOPLE" on his Twitter account. His dinner guest was Nick Fuentes, a well-known Holocaust denier.
  • Alex Jones, publisher of Infowars, a climate change denialist who has said that the World Bank invented the "hoax" of climate change, falsely claims that vaccines cause autism and who encouraged his listeners to harass the victims of the Sandy Hook elementary school shooting, which he called a "hoax". Trump appeared on Infowars, where he praised Jones's "amazing reputation", and repeated Jones's claims on the campaign trail.
  • Paul Joseph Watson, who worked for Alex Jones' Infowars and whose conspiracy theory interests include chemtrails, the New World Order and the Illuminati.
  • Laura Loomer, 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
  • 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. 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.
  • 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.
  • 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. 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". He announced that he had "entered the public debate around the 'flat earth' issue", endorsing the belief that it is flat.
  • Kelly Townsend, an Arizona Senator sought out Trump in 2011 pushing the Obama birther conspiracy. 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. 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. 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 Obama's 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. 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. Townsend has also been a leader of the anti-vax movement, claiming in 2019 that all vaccines are communist.
  • Rick Wiles, founder of TruNews was granted press credentials by the Trump administration. 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." 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.
  • Roger Stone, long-term political advisor to Donald Trump. Suggested Seth Rich’s parents were paid off to avoid pursuing an investigation into his murder. Posted a screenshot from Laura Loomer and claimed that Nikki Haley was "Constitutionally ineligible to be President". Pardoned by Trump in connection with the Mueller investigation.
  • Michael Flynn, retired U.S. Army lieutenant general and former National Security Advisor to Trump. Pledged an oath to the QAnon movement. Asserted the COVID-19 pandemic was fabricated as "a distraction to what happened on 3 November," referring to the 2020 presidential election which he maintains was stolen.
  • Marjorie Taylor Greene, member of the United States House of Representatives. Supported the QAnon conspiracy theory. Promoted the theory that the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting was staged.
  • Tucker Carlson, political commentator. Promoted "the Great Replacement" conspiracy theory, that Democrats are importing immigrants to replace the current electorate with more "obedient" voters. Alleged that the January 6th Capitol attack was a "false flag" FBI operation.
  • Donald Trump Jr., businessman, political activist and eldest child of Donald Trump. During the 2020 presidential election he called for "total war" as the results were counted. Amplified Russian propaganda which claimed that the US and Ukraine were developing biological weapons.
  • Lou Dobbs, political commentator, author, and television host. Gave air time to birtherism theories as early as 2009. One of three Fox Corporation program hosts named in a $2.7 billion defamation lawsuit by Smartmatic. Supported the claim that Dominion’s machines were rigged to switch votes from Trump to Biden.
  • Candace Owens, commentator and political activist. Endorsed the conspiracy theory that Brigitte Macron, wife of French President Emmanuel Macron, was secretly transgender. Claimed on Twitter that the gunman involved in the Robb Elementary School shooting could be transgender and said that he was "cross-dressing".
  • Mike Lindell, businessman and political activist. Directed and starred in Absolute Proof, in which he claimed that hackers infiltrated local election office computer systems to alter vote counts — which he calls the “largest cyber-crime in global history.”
  • Christina Bobb, lawyer, television personality and Republican Party official. Named in a $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit by Dominion Voting Systems against OANN. Promoted the 2021 Maricopa County presidential ballot audit. Said during a podcast that she believed the political left sought to "normalize pedophilia."
  • Dinesh D'Souza, political commentator, author, and filmmaker. Produced the film "2000 Mules”, which claims that 2,000 “mules” illegally collected and delivered 400,000 mail ballots to drop boxes across several key swing states during the 2020 presidential election.
  • Rush Limbaugh, radio talk show host. Suggested that the October 2018 United States mail bombing attempts were likely a false flag operation carried out by a "Democratic operative". Suggested that the Christchurch mosque shootings of March 2019 may have been a false-flag attack.

Conspiracy theorists in the second Trump administration

See also

Notes

References