President Donald Trump is no stranger to conspiracy: he stands out by touting Barack Obama’s racist lies born in Kenya. Nor is his team: Hiring the Minister of Health Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s long-standing unfounded belief Childhood vaccines can cause autism or billionaire Elon Musk promotes 2016 “pizza” Conspiracy theory.
The embrace of conspiracy theory is nothing new, but now that Trump is back in power, there is a direct pipeline between online conspiracy theory and government policy – in some cases, this is happening at a staggering rate.
Sometimes the government takes the core of truth and then desperately distorts the truth. In other cases, it is completely unclear where these theories come from. Here are four examples of conspiracy theories:
1) No, USAID has not secretly bribed the media to gain democratic coverage
Musk targets politics and Reuters As a news agency, it publishes screenshots from the government payment database and mistakenly claims its newsroom received millions of dollars in federal grants. The Trump administration uses these payments as examples of government waste and demonstrates that the federal government is supporting anti-Trump media.
In fact, the federal government paid millions of dollars in the whole Employees Subscribe to Politico Proit provides “expert reports, data analysis and expert briefings” to audiences including industry stakeholders and government officials. These are not grants, but purchase subscriptions.
However, because technical issues are not relevant, Politico receives and depends on unfounded speculation about government grants and on government grants. Within a few days, Trump posted on his Truth social platform“Looks like billions of dollars [sic] At USAID and other agencies, most of it is to create a “reward” of good stories about the Democratic Party.
Musk also claimed that Reuters received millions of dollars from the U.S. government to conduct “Large-scale social deceptionThe campaign calls news organizations a “all scam”. However, he did not mention that Reuters’ data analysis unit, rather than its news unit, received the funds. Starting with the First Trump Administration Investigate the defense of such movements.
Since then, the Trump administration has ordered many Government agencies Cancel their subscription to news organizations, including The Economist, The New York Times, Politico, Bloomberg News, The Associated Press and Reuters. For example, the State Council recently issued a memorandum ordering Unsubscribe “Non-critical” publications, not “academic or professional journals.”
2) FEMA is not blowing up millions of dollars for immigrant luxury hotels
Earlier this month, Musk Posted On his social platform, his Doge team found that the Federal Emergency Administration “spatched $59 million to luxury hotels in New York City last week to accommodate illegal immigrants.”
What he mentioned is not clear at this time and he has provided no evidence of such payments.
He may refer to funds paid through the Shelter and Services program, which is approved by Congress and managed by the FEMA to support immigrants released in the United States after being arrested on the southern border.
The New York City mayor’s office told the Associated Press that during the time Musk mentioned, Received a direct hotel fee of $19 million as part of the plan. Although the city is currently sheltering 46,000 immigrants, including some hotels, it has never paid for luxury goods, most of which are sent out in hotels outside Manhattan, the Associated Press reported. On average, it pays $152 per night, while five-star accommodation is usually more than twice that price.
On February 11, the government withdrew Allocation of $80 million to New York CityApparently, Trump revoked the local government’s congressional approval for the first time. On Friday, Manchester City filed a lawsuit Trying to get the money back.
The lawsuit states that the Trump administration “takes these funds from New York City without any advance notice, it will do so and will not convey any decision or reason to the city.”
3) RFK Jr. is doubling his conspiracy theory about children’s vaccines
Kennedy, who was recently identified as health secretary, has been one of the main voices in the anti-vaccine campaign. He was pushed Disinformation about vaccines since 2005When he mistakenly claimed that certain childhood vaccines had dangerous levels of mercury levels, although scientists have proven that these vaccines have mercury levels No harm, no autism.
At the confirmation hearing, he Private pledge Senator Bill Cassidy reportedly (R-LA) is a doctor who has long advocated vaccination and will not change existing vaccine recommendations. This helped him get a key vote for Cassidy, who said he will talk to Kennedy several times a month to work with health policy.
But Kennedy is now taking steps to connect vaccines to chronic diseases, a potential pioneer in anti-vaccine policies. He announced that he is using the newly created team to investigate childhood vaccines for measles, polio and other diseases associated with other chronic diseases.
Kennedy is His first remark In the agency.
Kennedy also criticized the government group of vaccine experts, which advised the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Since Kennedy was confirmed, the so-called advisory committee on immunization practices should be held this month, but The meeting has been postponedthe committee itself is facing scrutiny of one of Trump’s recent execution orders.
4) Trump’s proposal to provide asylum to white South African minorities is based on conspiracy theory
Trump released Executive Order Earlier this month, U.S. aid was sent to South Africa and asylum to the country’s white minority, claiming that its government is discriminating against them. Executive Orders Quotes Recently Written Land Reform ActIt claimed that this allowed the capture of “agricultural property of minority Afrikaans without compensation” and “intensified disproportionate violence against racially derogatory landowners.”
In fact, the law allows the South African government to seize private land under limited circumstances (for example, when property is abandoned for public use), which often requires “fair and fair” compensation.
About 70% The land is still owned by white people, and they make up for it 7% of South Africa’s populationDecades after the end of the Afrikaan-controlled government segregation. have No evidence White farmers are disproportionately victims of racially motivated violence.
But Trump’s remarks on this echoed the remarks of the influential Afriforum, the Dutch rights group that has been pushing for years. The civil rights group Southern Poverty Law Center has called Afriforum’s leaders white supremacists.
Musk is an indigenous South African, and he also condemned what he described as “GenocideOppose white farmers.
Despite Trump’s extensive attempts to prevent relocation and asylum from refugees in the United States, his exceptions to white South Africans suggest that this conspiracy theory penetrates deeply into the minds of his administration.
