President Donald Trump is using his Twitter account to seemingly push a conspiracy theory, this time surrounding the dozen (and counting) bombs sent to critics of his administration.
Throughout the week, authorities have responded to alerts of explosive devices sent to prominent Democratic figures like former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, former President Barack Obama, and former Vice President Joe Biden.
As the number of packages increased to 12 on Friday morning, Trump used Twitter to seemingly push an unsubstantiated conspiracy theory among the right-wing fringe that the bombs may be a false flag meant to give Democrats a sympathy boost in the upcoming midterm elections. Shortly after Trump’s tweet, news broke that an arrest had been made in connection with the packages.
Republicans are doing so well in early voting, and at the polls, and now this “Bomb” stuff happens and the momentum greatly slows – news not talking politics. Very unfortunate, what is going on. Republicans, go out and vote!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 26, 2018
The focus here is on Trump’s use of quotation marks around the word bomb, suggesting that perhaps he doesn’t believe the bombs are real or that they’re of concern.
The false flag theory has been circulating on conservative corners of the internet the last few days. Conservative pundits like Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter have made unsupported claims on the subject and the topic has come up a number of times on Fox News.
Trump’s son, Donald Trump Jr., apparently liked a tweet claiming with no evidence that the bombs were fake and made by Democrats.
Additionally, posts suggesting it’s all a hoax have been quite popular on “The Donald,” a pro-Trump subreddit.
In the past few days, Trump has reacted angrily on Twitter to the bomb scares. At 3:14 a.m. ET on Friday, Trump published a tweet lashing out at CNN’s reaction to the bomb sent to their office — addressed to former Central Intelligence Agency Director John Brennan — on Wednesday.
Funny how lowly rated CNN, and others, can criticize me at will, even blaming me for the current spate of Bombs and ridiculously comparing this to September 11th and the Oklahoma City bombing, yet when I criticize them they go wild and scream, “it’s just not Presidential!”
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 26, 2018
And prior to his Friday tweet about the “‘Bomb’ stuff,” Trump seemed to pushed another unfounded conspiracy theory that Twitter was somehow throttling his follower count (the shadow ban theory.) Twitter has since insisted that it was routine removal of fake or spam accounts.
Twitter has removed many people from my account and, more importantly, they have seemingly done something that makes it much harder to join – they have stifled growth to a point where it is obvious to all. A few weeks ago it was a Rocket Ship, now it is a Blimp! Total Bias?
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 26, 2018
The reaction to Trump’s “‘Bomb’ stuff” tweet was swift and critical.
Holy shit. The president is suggesting a string of bombs mailed to his critics is a false flag. This is Alex Jones-level stuff. https://t.co/fQgrBfdbiR
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) October 26, 2018
And there it is. The president of the United States embracing yet another online conspiracy theory.
Congrats @GOP
This is who you are now. https://t.co/DTQweJyEEb
— Peter W. Singer (@peterwsinger) October 26, 2018
This, though, shouldn’t really come as a surprise given that Trump has a well-documented penchant for floating conspiracy theories. As long as he continues to do so (and Twitter allows him to get away with it) he’ll continue to create an incendiary environment that could spiral into violence.
from Trendy News Today https://ift.tt/2PnN48N
via IFTTT
0 Comments