President Trump has exhibited a yearslong pattern of directly espousing or leaning into conspiracy theories, often those that smear his political opponents or critics.
Trump’s Long History With Conspiracy Theories
Issues: conspiracy theories
Social Media Posts Dredge Up Baseless ‘Child Trafficking’ Conspiracy Theory
Social media posts are once again making false and baseless claims about high-profile Democrats being involved in child trafficking and sex crimes.
Brad Parscale’s Suicide Threat Sparks Conspiracy Claims
Social media accounts that boost conspiracy theories make a baseless claim that the Clintons were involved in a recent incident at the home of Brad Parscale, President Donald Trump’s former campaign manager. The police report describes a domestic dispute during which Parscale threatened suicide.
California Bill Doesn’t Make Pedophilia ‘Legal’
Contrary to QAnon-fueled claims that a California bill would legalize pedophilia, the bill would actually standardize the rules about who is required to be on the state’s sex offender registry.
CDC Did Not ‘Admit Only 6%’ of Recorded Deaths from COVID-19
The CDC hasn’t drastically reduced the number of deaths attributable to COVID-19, but that bogus claim has been circulating widely — boosted by President Trump.
New ‘Plandemic’ Video Peddles Misinformation, Conspiracies
The second part of “Plandemic” — a documentary-style video that presents a sweeping conspiracy theory about the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic, patents and vaccines — landed on Aug. 18, spinning together many of the falsehoods about the disease that we’ve been debunking for months, plus some new misleading claims.
Facebook Post Makes Baseless Claim About Bill Gates’ Family Ties
A Facebook post makes the baseless claim that Bill Gates’ mother was related to Ghislaine Maxwell, an associate of convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein. The post also shows an image of a young man who is misidentified as Gates.
COVID-19 Testing Truck Logo Depicts an Aardvark, Not Death Deity
A popular post on social media pages for conspiracy theorists claims that a mobile COVID-19 testing station bears a logo that depicts an ancient deity of death. It actually shows an aardvark, which is the name of the company that designs and manufactures the trucks.
Conspiracy Theory on Floyd’s Death Disproved by Footage
A conspiracy theory on Facebook is falsely claiming that the killing of George Floyd was “filmed before covid19” because “[n]ot a single person is wearing a mask” in the videos. Some of the officers and officials in the videos can clearly be seen wearing masks.
Sarah Huckabee Sanders Did Not Post Conspiratorial Tweet
A tweet that suggests a conspiratorial “pattern” — from the protests over George Floyd’s death, to the pandemic, to the presidential impeachment, to the 2016 election – is being falsely attributed to former White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders. The tweet is actually from an unverified Twitter account that misspelled her name.