December 6, 2016

Donald Trump Is Building a Team of Fake-News Lovers and Conspiracy Theorists

It’s not just Pizzagate.

John Locher/AP

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.


On Sunday, a man wielding an assault rifle walked into Comet Ping Pong pizzeria in Washington, DC, and fired his weapon. No one was injured, but the suspect, 28-year-old Edgar Welch, reportedly told police that he had traveled six hours from North Carolina to “self-investigate” a conspiracy theory known as #Pizzagate that falsely claimed Hillary Clinton and her Democratic allies were secretly running a child sex-trafficking operation inside the business. The theory had been roundly discredited by nearly every major news outlet, including the Times and the Washington Post.

The incident marks the most concrete, physical example of the dangerous consequences when unhinged, fabricated news moves unchallenged from social media to the real world. It also raises questions about the effects from the actions of Donald Trump, an avid conspiracy theorist himself, and some members of the team he’s building to help him lead the next White House.

Just take a look at what Michael Flynn, the son of Trump’s pick for national security adviser who reportedly also has an official transition email address, tweeted the day after the Comet Ping Pong shooting:

Last month, his father tweeted a similar false report linking Clinton to other forms of child abuse.

But these are not isolated instances. Here’s a small sampling of other wild conspiracy theories pushed by Trump’s inner circle:

  • Ben Carson, Trump’s pick to lead the Department of Housing and Urban Development:

  • Sid Miller, Trump’s rumored choice for secretary of agriculture:
  • Laura Ingraham, possible White House press secretary and owner of LifeZette news:

  • Rudy Giuliani, Trump surrogate and possible choice for secretary of state:

  • Donald Trump, president elect and future commander in chief:

The presidential election has already catalyzed a debate over how to fix the rise and amplification of false stories masked as “news.” Following intense criticism, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg pledged to fight the spread of misinformation. (He initially denied social media’s role in perpetuating fake news.) But while pundits, the media, and tech companies race toward a solution, the next administration is getting stacked with powerful figures pushing the very stories at the center of the problem. As the Post aptly described in a headline this week, “In Trump’s America, Pizzagate could be the new normal.” And the president-elect’s failure to speak out could very well inspire another gunman seeking justice, and this time someone might get hurt.

Update, November 7: A Trump spokesman confirmed the younger Michael Flynn was a part of the transition team but has since been removed.

WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

If you can, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones—that exists to make a difference, not a profit—with a donation of any amount today. We need more donations than normal to come in from this specific blurb to help close our funding gap before it gets any bigger.

payment methods

WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

If you can, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones—that exists to make a difference, not a profit—with a donation of any amount today. We need more donations than normal to come in from this specific blurb to help close our funding gap before it gets any bigger.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate