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List of conspiracy theories promoted by Donald Trump

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"Trump conspiracy" redirects here. For Trump's charges of conspiracy relating to the 2020 U.S. presidential election, see Federal prosecution of Donald Trump (election obstruction case).

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This article contains a list of conspiracy theories, many of them misleading, disproven, or false, which were either created or promoted by Donald Trump, the president of the United States from 2017 to 2021.[1][2][3][4]

Conspiracy theories

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Attacks on political opponents

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Barack Obama

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Bill and Hillary Clinton

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Ted Cruz

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Joe and Hunter Biden

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Biden Administration

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Kamala Harris

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Joe Scarborough

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Others

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Claims about clandestine opposition

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Deep State

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QAnon

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Antifa

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Robert Mueller investigation deflections

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2016, 2020 and 2024 election claims

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To sow election doubt, Trump escalated use of "rigged election" and "election interference" statements in advance of the 2024 election compared to the previous two elections—the statements described as part of a "heads I win; tails you cheated" rhetorical strategy.[38]

Claims of corrupt science, medicine, and statistics

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Exaggerating the threat of immigrants and non-whites

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Claims of wealthy funders of protestors

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  • Suggested violent protestors were being funded by "some very stupid rich people"[41]
  • Alleging that antifa activists were being funded by Democrats, George Soros or "other people".[41]

Claims about George Soros

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Questioning terrorism

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Conspiracy theorists endorsed by Trump

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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 [sic] con 3 On JEWISH PEOPLE". His dinner guest was Nick Fuentes, a well-known Holocaust denier.[63][64][65]
  • Alex Jones,[66] publisher of InfoWars, a climate change denialist who has said that the World Bank invented the "hoax" of climate change,[67] falsely claims that vaccines cause autism[68][69] and who encouraged his listeners to harass the victims of the Sandy Hook elementary school shooting, which he called a "hoax".[70][71] Trump appeared on InfoWars, where he praised Jones's "amazing reputation", and repeated Jones's claims on the campaign trail.[10][72]
  • Paul Joseph Watson, who worked for Alex Jones' InfoWars and whose conspiracy theory interests include chemtrails, the New World Order and the Illuminati.[73]
  • Laura Loomer,[74] 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[75][76][77]
  • 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.[78] 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.[79][80][81]
  • 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.[82]
  • 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.[83][84] 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".[85] He announced that he had "entered the public debate around the 'flat earth' issue", endorsing the belief that it is flat.[86]
  • Kelly Townsend, an Arizona Senator sought out Trump in 2011 pushing the Obama birther conspiracy [87][88][89] 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.[88][90] 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.[91] 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 Obamas 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.[92][91][93][94] 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.[95][96] Townsend has also been a leader of the anti-vax movement claiming in 2019 that all vaccines are communist.[97]
  • Rick Wiles, founder of TruNews was granted press credentials by the Trump Administration.[98][99] 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."[98][100] 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.[101]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Zeballos-Roig, Joseph; Haltiwanger, John; Kranz, Michal (October 9, 2019). "24 conspiracy theories Donald Trump has floated over the years". Business Insider. Retrieved May 14, 2020.
  2. ^ a b c d e Bump, Philip (November 26, 2019). "President Trump loves conspiracy theories. Has he ever been right?". The Washington Post. Retrieved May 14, 2020.
  3. ^ a b Shesgreen, Deirdre (December 16, 2019). "Donald Trump, Russia and Ukraine: Five conspiracy theories debunked". USA Today. Retrieved May 14, 2020.
  4. ^ "United States of Conspiracy". PBS Newshour.
  5. ^ Barbaro, Michael (September 16, 2016). "Donald Trump Clung to 'Birther' Lie for Years, and Still Isn't Apologetic". The New York Times.
  6. ^ "How Donald Trump Perpetuated the 'Birther' Movement for Years". ABC News. September 16, 2016.
  7. ^ Serwer, Adam (May 13, 2020). "Birtherism of a Nation". The Atlantic.
  8. ^ Haberman, Maggie; Rappeport, Alan (September 16, 2016). "Trump Drops False 'Birther' Theory, but Floats a New One: Clinton Started It". The New York Times. Retrieved October 12, 2021.
  9. ^ Tashman, Brian (May 30, 2016). "58 Donald Trump Conspiracy Theories (and Counting!): The Definitive Trump Conspiracy Guide". Right Wing Watch.
  10. ^ a b Finnegan, William (June 23, 2016). "Donald Trump and the "Amazing" Alex Jones". The New Yorker.
  11. ^ Fishel, Justin (June 15, 2016). "Donald Trump Pushes Conspiracy Theory That Obama Supports ISIS". ABC News. Retrieved May 29, 2022.
  12. ^ Jacobson, Louis (June 15, 2016). "Donald Trump suggests Barack Obama supported ISIS, but that's a conspiracy theory". PolitiFact. Retrieved May 29, 2022.
  13. ^ Haberman, Maggie (September 16, 2016). "Trump Drops False 'Birther' Theory, But Floats a New One: Clinton Started It". The New York Times.
  14. ^ Matthews, Dylan (November 14, 2019). "#ClintonBodyCount and Jeffrey Epstein, explained". Vox. Retrieved May 14, 2020.
  15. ^ Beggin, Riley (August 11, 2019). "Trump retweets conspiracy claiming Bill Clinton killed Jeffrey Epstein". Vox. Retrieved May 14, 2020.
  16. ^ "What to Know About Pizzagate, the Fake News Story With Real Consequences". Time. December 5, 2016. Retrieved November 8, 2023.
  17. ^ Calderone, Michael (January 8, 2017). "Trump Linked To Fox News' Bogus Seth Rich Story, Lawsuit Alleges". HuffPost. Retrieved May 16, 2020.
  18. ^ Fader, Carole (July 29, 2016). "Fact Check: Did Ted Cruz's father consort with Lee Harvey Oswald?". The Florida Times-Union. Retrieved March 17, 2021.
  19. ^ Mccaskill, Nolan D. (May 3, 2016). "Trump accuses Cruz's father of helping JFK's assassin". Politico. Retrieved March 17, 2021.
  20. ^ "AP Explains: Trump seizes on dubious Biden-Ukraine story". AP News. October 15, 2020. Retrieved October 30, 2020.
  21. ^ Subramaniam, Tara; Lybrand, Holmes (October 15, 2020). "Fact-checking the dangerous bin Laden conspiracy theory that Trump touted". CNN. Retrieved March 17, 2021.
  22. ^ Kessler, Glenn; Usero, Adriana (January 21, 2023). "Analysis | How a Hunter Biden conspiracy theory grew, from lone tweet to a big megaphone". Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved November 8, 2023.
  23. ^ Lee, Devan Cole, Paula Reid, MJ (November 2, 2023). "Hunter Biden accuses right-wing critics of 'weaponization' of his addiction in USA Today op-ed | CNN Politics". CNN. Retrieved November 8, 2023.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  24. ^ Astor, Maggie (May 22, 2024). "Trump Falsely Claims Biden Administration Was 'Locked & Loaded' to Kill Him". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on May 23, 2024. Retrieved May 23, 2024. Former President Donald J. Trump misrepresented a standard Justice Department policy to claim the F.B.I. was ready to kill him when searching his home in 2022.
  25. ^ Forgey, Quint (May 12, 2020). "Trump promotes conspiracy theory accusing TV show host of murder". Politico. Retrieved May 14, 2020.
  26. ^ Coleman, Justine (May 24, 2020). "Trump ramps up Twitter push on unfounded Scarborough conspiracy theory". The Hill.
  27. ^ Major, Darren. "Trump repeats conspiracy theory that PM Trudeau 'could be' son of Fidel Castro".
  28. ^ Cillizza, Chris (February 14, 2020). "Donald Trump's 'Deep State' conspiracy theory just took a big hit". CNN Politics. Retrieved May 14, 2020.
  29. ^ Sullivan, Margaret (May 19, 2020). "'Obamagate': Fox News helping Trump turn conspiracy theory into 2020 version of Clinton's emails". The Independent. Retrieved May 19, 2020.
  30. ^ "Opinion: The absurd cynicism of 'Obamagate'". The Washington Post. May 16, 2020. Retrieved May 19, 2020.
  31. ^ Corn, David (December 9, 2019). "Inspector General's Report Shows Trump's "Spygate" Conspiracy Theory Was the Real Hoax". Mother Jones. Retrieved May 16, 2020.
  32. ^ Kessler, Glenn (February 15, 2022). "Here's why Trump once again is claiming 'spying' by Democrats". The Washington Post. Retrieved June 4, 2022.
  33. ^ Reimann, Nicholas (February 17, 2022). "Trump's Latest Claim That Clinton 'Spied' On His Campaign, Explained". Forbes. Retrieved June 4, 2022.
  34. ^ Kertscher, Tom (February 28, 2022). ""Hillary Clinton spied on President Trump."". PolitiFact. Retrieved June 4, 2022.
  35. ^ Nicholas, Peter (November 29, 2019). "Why Trump Loves – And Depends on – Conspiracy Theories". The Atlantic. Retrieved May 14, 2020.
  36. ^ Shuster, Simon; Bergengruen, Vera (October 3, 2019). "How Trump's Obsession With a Conspiracy Theory Led to the Impeachment Crisis". Time. Retrieved May 14, 2020.
  37. ^ Benen, Steve (May 11, 2020). "The political significance of Trump's odd new conspiracy theory". MSNBC. Retrieved May 14, 2020.
  38. ^ Yourish, Karen; Smart, Charlie (May 24, 2024). "Trump's Pattern of Sowing Election Doubt Intensifies in 2024". The New York Times. Archived from the original on May 24, 2024.
  39. ^ Benner, Katie (June 5, 2021). "Meadows Pressed Justice Dept. to Investigate Election Fraud Claims". The New York Times.
  40. ^ "Donald J. Trump, Twitter". Donald Trump. November 8, 2020. Retrieved November 8, 2020.
  41. ^ a b c Dale, Daniel (September 2, 2020). "Fact check: A guide to 9 conspiracy theories Trump is currently pushing". CNN. Retrieved May 29, 2022.
  42. ^ Feiner, Lauren (August 19, 2019). "Trump tweets without evidence that Google 'manipulated' votes in the 2016 election and 'should be sued'". CNBC. Archived from the original on April 23, 2020.
  43. ^ a b "Fact check: The COVID-19 pandemic was not orchestrated by pharmaceutical companies, investment groups and philanthropists". Reuters. January 30, 2021. Retrieved November 8, 2023.
  44. ^ Lopez, German (September 26, 2016). "Donald Trump absolutely did say global warming is a Chinese hoax". Vox.
  45. ^ Rosenthal, Max J. (June 9, 2016). "The Trump Files: Donald Thinks Asbestos Fears Are a Mob Conspiracy". Mother Jones.
  46. ^ Goodkind, Nicole (June 7, 2018). "Donald Trump Called Asbestos Poisoning a Mob-Led Conspiracy, Now His EPA Won't Evaluate Asbestos Already in Homes". Newsweek.
  47. ^ Schulman, Jeremy (June 16, 2015). "13 Tweets That Definitively Prove That Donald Trump Is Not a Scientist". Mother Jones.
  48. ^ Welch, Ashley (September 17, 2015). "GOP debate fact check: Claims about vaccines and autism". CBS News.
  49. ^ Oshin, Olafimihan (May 24, 2022). "6 in 10 Trump voters agree with core tenet of great replacement theory: survey". The Hill. Retrieved November 8, 2023.
  50. ^ Farley, Robert (November 23, 2015). "Trump Retweets Bogus Crime Graphic". FactCheck.org.
  51. ^ Dearden, Lizzie (November 29, 2017). "Donald Trump retweets Britain First deputy leader's Islamophobic posts". The Independent. Retrieved May 14, 2020.
  52. ^ "What ABC News Footage Shows of 9/11 Celebrations". ABC News. December 4, 2015.
  53. ^ Beauchamp, Zack (February 13, 2017). "Trump's counter-jihad". Vox.
  54. ^ Perwee, Ed (2020). "Donald Trump, the anti-Muslim far right and the new conservative revolution". Ethnic and Racial Studies. 43 (16): 211–230. doi:10.1080/01419870.2020.1749688. S2CID 218843237.
  55. ^ Denvir, Daniel (September 2, 2016). "The "Mexico sends them" myth: Trump's not just racist but channeling far-right immigration conspiracies". Salon.com.
  56. ^ "'Dangerous and poisoned': Critics blast Trump for endorsing white nationalist conspiracy theory on South Africa". The Washington Post. August 23, 2018.
  57. ^ Picciotto, Rebecca (September 10, 2024). "Presidential debate live updates: Trump goes off script with false conspiracy, claims 'They're eating the dogs'". CNBC. Retrieved September 11, 2024.
  58. ^ Jamieson, Amber (October 6, 2018). "Trump's Lawyer Retweeted That 'Anti-Christ' George Soros Is Funding Anti-Kavanaugh Protests". Buzzfeed News. Archived from the original on October 6, 2018. Retrieved October 6, 2018.
  59. ^ "Trump: "A Lot of People Say" George Soros Is Funding the Migrant Caravan". Vanity Fair. October 31, 2018. Archived from the original on September 14, 2020. Retrieved September 15, 2020.
  60. ^ Dale, Daniel (March 31, 2023). "Breaking down Trump's 'Soros' attack on the Manhattan DA". CNN. Archived from the original on April 2, 2023. Retrieved April 2, 2023.
  61. ^ "Trump says 'nobody's gotten to the bottom of 9/11'". New York Daily News. July 28, 2022.
  62. ^ Hodges, Lauren (January 2, 2022). "Trump still says his supporters weren't behind the Jan. 6 attack — but I was there". www.npr.org.
  63. ^ Nordliner, Jay (November 28, 2022). "Guess who came to dinner". National Review.
  64. ^ Kampeas, Ron (November 29, 2022). "Trump's dinner with a Holocaust denier draws rare criticism from Jewish allies". Times of Israel.
  65. ^ Cohen, Haley (December 5, 2022). "Trump dinner with antisemites a 'breaking point' - Jewish former allies say". Jerusalem Post.
  66. ^ Corn, David (June 13, 2017). "Here's the Alex Jones story Megyn Kelly and other reporters should probe". Mother Jones. Retrieved September 2, 2020.
  67. ^ Blakeslee, Nate (January 20, 2013). "Alex Jones Is About To Explode". Texas Weekly. Retrieved October 23, 2019.
  68. ^ Belluz, Julia (June 16, 2017). "I talked to Alex Jones fans about climate change and vaccines. Their views may surprise you". Vox. New York City: Vox Media. Retrieved August 7, 2018.
  69. ^ Woolf, Nicky (February 7, 2015). "Anti-vaccine activists waging 'primordial cosmic war' despite measles backlash". The Guardian. Retrieved November 29, 2017.
  70. ^ Crawford, Amanda (December 14, 2022). "Ten Years After Sandy Hook, Alex Jones is Being Held Accountable for Spreading Falsehoods". UConn Today.
  71. ^ Hastings, Dorothy; Nawaz, Amna (October 12, 2022). "Jury orders conspiracy theorist Alex Jones to pay Sandy Hook families nearly $1 billion". PBS Newshour.
  72. ^ "Alex Jones and Donald Trump: How the Candidate Echoed the Conspiracy Theorist on the Campaign Trail". Frontline. July 28, 2020.
  73. ^ Wilson, Jason (May 24, 2017). "How rightwing pundits are reacting to the Manchester attack". The Guardian. Retrieved June 3, 2017. Paul Joseph Watson, Alex Jones's British mini-me, has followed the same broad path that the rest of the organization has. He was never on the left, of course, but over time his commentary has focused less and less on the Illuminati and chemtrails, and more and more on pushing a stridently anti-Muslim, anti-feminist and anti-left message.
  74. ^ Obeidallah, Dean (February 9, 2020). "Laura Loomer, Trumpy Bigot Embraced by the Florida GOP, Could Actually Get to Congress". The Daily Beast. Retrieved September 2, 2020.
  75. ^ Palma, Bethania (May 18, 2018). "Conspiracy Theories Immediately Appear After Santa Fe School Shooting". Snopes. Retrieved September 6, 2018.
  76. ^ Sommer, Will (June 27, 2018). "Jack Posobiec and Laura Loomer Fight for Credit Over Vegas Shooting Conspiracy Theory". The Daily Beast. Retrieved September 6, 2018.
  77. ^ Weill, Kelly; LaPorta, James (February 21, 2018). "InfoWars Sends Professional Troll Laura Loomer to Parkland". The Daily Beast. Retrieved August 19, 2020.
  78. ^ Sherman, Jake; Palmer, Anna; Ross, Garrett; Okun, Eli (November 19, 2020). "POLITICO Playbook PM: Rudy". Politico. Archived from the original on November 20, 2020. Retrieved November 19, 2020.
  79. ^ "Trump lawyer Sidney Powell says Georgia election lawsuit "will be biblical," suggests GOP governor helped Biden". Newsweek. November 22, 2020. Retrieved November 23, 2020.
  80. ^ "Trump campaign cuts ties with attorney Sidney Powell after bizarre election fraud claims". The Guardian. Associated Press. November 23, 2020. Retrieved November 23, 2020.
  81. ^ Fichera, Angelo; Spencer, Saranac Hale (November 13, 2020). "Bogus Theory Claims Supercomputer Switched Votes in Election". FactCheck.org. Archived from the original on November 15, 2020. Retrieved November 15, 2020.
  82. ^ Kiely, Eugene; Farley, Robert (June 24, 2021). "Rudy Giuliani's Bogus Election Fraud Claims". FactCheck.org. Retrieved November 4, 2022.
  83. ^ Winters, Jeremy (November 11, 2020). "Tucker Carlson Dared Question a Trump Lawyer. The Backlash Was Quick". The New York Times. Retrieved November 22, 2020.
  84. ^ Judd, Alan (December 18, 2020). "Amid personal turmoil, libel lawyer Lin Wood goes on the attack for Trump". The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Retrieved January 3, 2021.
  85. ^ Lemon, Jason (October 2, 2021). "Lin Wood Claims Hit No Planes Hit Twin Towers and Pentagon on 9/11: 'We Got Played'". Newsweek.
  86. ^ Hart, Benjamin (June 12, 2022). "Lin Wood, Pro-Trump Attorney, is a Flat Earther". Intelligencer.
  87. ^ "Trump Plans Meeting on Arizona Birth Bill". April 7, 2011.
  88. ^ a b "Trump's lies and costly investigations have marred Arizona for a decade". MSNBC. September 24, 2021.
  89. ^ "Surprise Tea Party Patriots pack hall for Arpaio and Zullo". September 26, 2016.
  90. ^ https://kjzz.org/content/196890/chief-deputy-sheriff's-office-paid-250k-informant's-secret-investigation[permanent dead link]
  91. ^ a b Jaci (March 7, 2022). "In the Documents: New Details About the Origins of the Arizona Senate's Discredited Election 'Audit' - American Oversight". American Oversight.
  92. ^ "Pursuing the chink in Obama's armor / October 13, 2010 / Sonoran News". Archived from the original on October 22, 2010.
  93. ^ "Pt 1 Blixseth on Montgomery "I Hacked into All of America for Brennan & Clapper" Trump Zillion Times".
  94. ^ "Objection – #63 in Bowyer v. Ducey (D. Ariz., 2:20-cv-02321) – CourtListener.com". CourtListener. Retrieved April 28, 2023.
  95. ^ "Townsend's bill would give Trump Arizona's 11 electoral votes". January 5, 2021.
  96. ^ "'You want to see a temper tantrum?': Arizona Republican sides with Democrats, blocks voting bill". NBC News. April 23, 2021.
  97. ^ Bella, Timothy (March 1, 2019). "'Something is in those vaccines': Lawmaker says mandatory measles shots are 'Communist'". The Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved May 16, 2023.
  98. ^ a b Kampeas, Ron (January 23, 2020). "Trump White House Again Credentials Website That Called Impeachment a 'Jew Coup'". Haaretz. JTA. Retrieved January 24, 2020.
  99. ^ Grynbaum, Michael M. (January 26, 2020). "Site That Ran Anti-Semitic Remarks Got Passes for Trump Trip". The New York Times. Retrieved February 7, 2020.
  100. ^ "Antisemitic Conspiracies About 9/11 Endure 20 Years Later". Anti-Defamation League. September 9, 2021. Retrieved June 22, 2022.
  101. ^ Williams, James (July 23, 2018). "Florida Talk Show Host Rick Wiles 'We Are 72 Hours Away From An Attack On The White House.'". News Talk Florida. Retrieved November 30, 2019.
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