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Trump's Team: The Bigoted, Unhinged Conspiracy Theorists Benefiting From Donald Trump's Campaign

Donald Trump’s obsession(link is external) with(link is external) conspiracy(link is external) theories(link is external) didn’t come out of nowhere.

Before the GOP presidential frontrunner started winning the backing of Republican leaders, he assembled a team of ardent right-wing conspiracy theorists whose bigoted and bizarre beliefs once put them decidedly on the fringe of American politics.

Trump himself has spread a wide range of bizarre and bogus claims, winning state after state by questioning the facts about President Obama’s birthplace and religion, bashing immigrants as “killers and rapists,” parading discredited stories to demonize Muslim-Americans and, at one point, linking an opponent’s father to the Kennedy assassination.

As more “establishment” and “mainstream” Republicans declare their support for Trump, it is critical to remember the people whom Trump initially invited into his campaign: a range of pundits and preachers who have pushed racist, xenophobic and truly insane beliefs throughout their careers.

No endorser was out of bounds for Trump, whether it was a pastor who believes Starbucks injects semen from gay men into its lattes in order to spread Ebola or a radio host who thinks that alien creatures secretly run the government.

These activists have now also become some of Trump’s most outspoken defenders. And, in return, Trump has elevated their profiles by appearing on their radio programs, inviting them to share the stage with him and even praising them to national audiences.

Trump’s apparent victory in the Republican presidential primary gives these figures an unprecedented platform from which to spew their paranoia and bigotry. And it presents a strange turning point at which conspiracy theories that previously only lurked around the edges of political discourse are suddenly thrust to center stage.

The Pundits

Alex Jones

The fact that the Republican Party is about to nominate a candidate who has embraced conspiracy theorist broadcaster Alex Jones is downright terrifying(link is external).

Trump appeared on Jones’ radio show(link is external) in December, when he was already the frontrunner for the GOP nomination, and complimented Jones for his “amazing” reputation(link is external).

Trump’s top confidant, Roger Stone, a conservative operative who has called for Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders to be killed(link is external), has been on Jones’ show nearly every week during the campaign. The two are even working together on an effort(link is external) to track down Republican delegates who don’t support Trump and hound them at their hotel rooms at the party convention in Cleveland.

Jones has bragged(link is external) that he advises Trump off-air and took credit(link is external) for the candidates’ conspiracy theory about Rafael Cruz, the father of Trump’s former rival Ted Cruz, being involved in the assassination of John F. Kennedy(link is external).

When Trump falsely(link is external) claimed that thousands of Muslims in New Jersey celebrated on 9/11, he cited a post on Jones’ InfoWars website(link is external) and told Jones during an appearance on his program(link is external) that his assertion was correct because people on Twitter told him so.

Jones’ “news” program is a natural outlet for Trump, as poll(link is external) after(link is external) poll(link is external) shows that Trump supporters disproportionately subscribe to shocking conspiracy theories, including ones championed by Jones and by the candidate himself.

It’s hard to describe how utterly bizarre Jones’ worldview is and how unbelievable it is that a major presidential candidate is promoting it.

Jones has broadcast numerous “false flag” conspiracy theories, alleging that the U.S. government was involved in the September 11 attacks(link is external); the Oklahoma City bombing(link is external); and the massacres of school children in Newtown, Connecticut(link is external), black churchgoers in Charleston, South Carolina(link is external), moviegoers in Aurora, Colorado(link is external), and police officers in Las Vegas, Nevada(link is external).

Jones thinks(link is external) that President Obama is literally “a demonic creature(link is external)” who is out to assassinate Trump(link is external) after successfully murdering Justice Antonin Scalia and conservative activist Andrew Breitbart, and that he, along with Pope Francis, is determined to kill anywhere between 90 million(link is external) and 1 billion(link is external) people. He also says that "chemtrails" from the backs of planes spread a deadly “weaponized flu(link is external).”

He even believes that juice boxes are turning children gay(link is external) — “the reason there’s so many gay people now is because it’s a chemical warfare operation!(link is external)” — and that the LGBT rights movement is bent on the extermination of humanity(link is external).

Like Trump, Jones is a vocal critic(link is external) of vaccines: Both have wrongly(link is external) suggested that they cause autism.

Jones has also targeted Justin Bieber, claiming that the Canadian pop star is trying to brainwash children as part of a plot to disarm Americans and create a police state(link is external), and Beyoncé, telling his audience that she is a CIA plant out to stir racial violence and “literally” eat the brains of children(link is external).

And that’s not all.

Jones believes that an “alien force, not of this world(link is external),” is specifically targeting Trump, and has frequently promoted(link is external) the claim that shape-shifting reptilian humanoids from outer space surreptitiously control the world, regularly hosting(link is external) David Icke(link is external), one of the leading propagators of this belief(link is external), as an expert guest.

In one segment(link is external), Jones dressed up as a space lizard(link is external) in a top hat to explain the “origins of Obamacare.”

Hoping that “no amount of fluoride in the water(link is external)” can stop Trump, Jones has used threatening language against the GOP candidate's critics, calling Hillary Clinton a “bitch(link is external),” telling Bernie Sanders supporters that they need to have their “jaws broken(link is external),” and urging conservative writer George Will to “put a .357 Magnum to your head and blow what little is left of your brains out all over yourself(link is external)” after he wrote a column condemning Trump.

Michael Savage

Trump has become a regular guest on “The Savage Nation,” a right-wing radio program hosted by Michael Savage that has the fifth-largest(link is external) radio audience in the country, often appearing on the show immediately before primary election days in order to drum up support from Savage’s listeners.

It was on Savage’s program that Trump wondered if Justice Antonin Scalia was murdered(link is external), denounced Jewish people who support Obama(link is external) and suggested that the president doesn’t want to fight terrorism(link is external) and may have “evil intentions” with regard to Syrian refugees(link is external). Trump also told Savage that he will appoint ultraconservative jurists to the Supreme Court(link is external) and would consider naming Savage himself to a position(link is external) in his administration.

Savage, who calls himself “the architect of Trump's messaging(link is external),” has told his listeners that Trump based his immigration policies on one of his books(link is external).

He believes(link is external) that(link is external) God is lifting Trump to victory, hailing the candidate as “the Winston Churchill of our time(link is external)” and hoping that he will become a dictator who rules by decree(link is external) and stop Obama before he begins arresting and killing Americans en masse(link is external). Trump has returned the favor, thanking Savage for his “amazing(link is external)” support and praising him as a “special guy(link is external)” who would bring “common sense(link is external)” if he were to join the government.

Savage gained widespread notoriety(link is external) back in 2003 when, on his short-lived television program, he lashed out at a gay caller by saying:

Oh, you're one of the sodomites. You should only get AIDS and die, you pig. How's that? Why don't you see if you can sue me, you pig. You got nothing better than to put me down, you piece of garbage. You have got nothing to do today — go eat a sausage and choke on it. Get trichinosis.

Savage has not moderated since then.

He lashed out at veterans with PTSD(link is external), saying that they are “a bunch of losers” who “cry like a little baby” and have turned America into “a weak, sick nation.” (Ironically, Savage himself says he suffers “post-radio stress disorder(link is external)” from reporting on the Obama family.)

Savage has also called autism is “a fraud(link is external)” and argued that seltzer water causes insanity(link is external).

He claims that Obama is a Hitler-like leader(link is external) bent on rounding up conservatives(link is external), staging shootings like the massacre in Charleston(link is external), setting up internment camps(link is external) and death camps(link is external), beheading his critics(link is external), nullifying the upcoming election(link is external), creating a private army composed of Crips and Bloods gang members(link is external) and Syrian refugees(link is external), and committing white genocide(link is external) — a claim which he backed up by citing a prophesy from a Mayan woman he saw on television(link is external).

With a long record of violent rhetoric(link is external), Savage seems excited about the prospect of fighting in a(link is external) race(link is external) war(link is external) between(link is external) white(link is external) conservatives(link is external) and(link is external) Obama(link is external), telling listeners that the president is a secret(link is external) Muslim(link is external) determined to ban dogs(link is external) and deliberately spread(link is external) diseases(link is external) like(link is external) Ebola(link is external).

“You have Satan in the White House,” he said(link is external) last year. “Get the child out of the White House. He is going to set the nation on fire like he set the world on fire. Stop him before he kills all of us.”

Ann Coulter

Like Savage, far-right columnist Ann Coulter has claimed credit(link is external) for shaping Trump’s extremist stance on immigration. Trump has invited her to speak at a number of his campaign rallies, including one at which she declared that God is using Trump’s candidacy to save America(link is external).

While Coulter has long managed to attract attention by making over-the-top remarks, such as when she declared her opposition to women’s suffrage(link is external), called John Edwards a “faggot(link is external)” and smeared a group of 9/11 widows as “people enjoying their husbands’ death(link is external),” she has recently become almost single-mindedly focused on the issue of immigration, dazzling Trump with her warnings about “Latin American rape culture(link is external)” and the “browning of America(link is external).”

“Ann’s been amazing,” Trump said(link is external) earlier this year. “I’m a big fan and you know that.”

Indeed, Trump’s extremist plan of mass deportation, constructing a massive border wall, impounding remittances, expelling refugees and curtailing legal immigration seems to resemble the proposals laid out in Coulter’s book, “Adios, America: The Left’s Plan to Turn Our Country into a Third World Hellhole,” in which she called on the government to adopt draconian policies(link is external) to curb both lawful and unlawful immigration and refugee resettlement programs because, in her view, America has too many Latinos(link is external).

Coulter has urged(link is external) GOP candidates to win elections by stoking anti-immigrant sentiment and “unapologetically opposing the transformation of America into a Third World country.”

Coulter claims that unless immigration is drastically curbed, parents will have to “get used to your little girls being raped(link is external)because(link is external) “gang rape, child rape, elder rape, and murder rape are highly correlated with specific ethnic groups — ethnic groups we are bringing to America by the busload.”

Those who back immigration reform, according to Coulter, deserve to be targeted by “death squads(link is external),” just as immigrants who overstay their visas should get the death penalty(link is external). Coulter, who said that Trump “won me over with that Mexican rapist speech(link is external),” has praised the presumptive GOP nominee’s “genius(link is external)” plan to ban Muslims from entering the country and has hailed his anti-immigrant plan as “the greatest political document since the Magna Carta(link is external).”

If Trump doesn’t win the election, Coulter has warned, it’s “lights out for the entire world for a thousand years(link is external),” as only Trump will stop changes to the “demographics of the country(link is external).”

“Thank God, and I am not using the Lord’s name in vain, I mean that absolutely literally, thank God for raising up Donald Trump and giving us a chance to save the country,” she said.

The Preachers

Carl Gallups

Ahead of the crucial Florida primary, Trump released a statement(link is external) touting the endorsement he received from Pastor Carl Gallups, and then asked Gallups to deliver the invocation(link is external) at a campaign rally in Pensacola.

Gallups and Trump share a passion for promoting(link is external) birther conspiracy theories (link is external)and denouncing (link is external)the Common Core academic standards, which Gallups warns will ensure that “our smallest children in pre-school” will learn about “the mechanics of homosexual sex.”

Homosexuality has been a major focus of Gallups’ activism; he has repeatedly warned that same-sex marriage will completely(link is external) destroy(link is external) society(link is external) by bringing about economic turmoil(link is external), severe persecution(link is external), the “enslavement” of Christians(link is external) and divine punishment(link is external).

“This ruling may prove to be the final death knell of divine judgment upon our once great nation,” he said(link is external) in response to the Supreme Court’s landmark decision on marriage equality.

Gallups has also latched on to the Sandy Hook truther movement(link is external), which claims that the government faked the murder of schoolchildren and educators in Newtown, Connecticut, in order to justify new restrictions on firearms.

He called(link is external) the massacre a “hoax” and said that grieving parents were actually crisis actors(link is external).

“[T]his dude is a Hollywood actor, his so-called wife is a Hollywood actor,” he said(link is external) of two parents who lost children in the shooting.

A Trump spokeswoman said that the campaign “was not aware(link is external)” of Gallups’ views, but the campaign still boasts(link is external) of his endorsement on its website.

Unsurprisingly, Gallups has also speculated(link is external) about whether Obama is the Antichrist, ultimately concluding(link is external) that while the president is “an anti-Christ,” it is more likely that “he is a depiction of some of the characteristics of the anti-Christ who is to come.”

Robert Jeffress

Trump was very proud(link is external) to land the endorsement of Robert Jeffress, a prominent Southern Baptist preacher and Fox News contributor who has hit(link is external) the(link is external) trail(link is external) with the candidate at a number of events.

At one rally, Trump invited Jeffress to join him on stage(link is external) as he decried the supposed persecution of Christians in America through the “War on Christmas” and lamented that he wouldn’t have been criticized if he had proposed a ban on Christians from entering the U.S., as he did with Muslims.

Jeffress made waves in the last presidential election when, after endorsing Rick Perry, he told Christians that they shouldn’t vote for Mitt Romney because of his Mormon faith(link is external), which wasn’t too surprising since he once blasted Mormonism as “a cult(link is external)” from “the pit of hell(link is external).”

Jeffress has similarly stated that Satan created Roman Catholicism(link is external), declared that Jews, Mormons, Muslims and gay people are all destined for hell(link is external) and maintained that President Obama “is paving the way for the future reign of the Antichrist(link is external).”

No fan of the gay community, Jeffress believes(link is external) that gays and lesbians are “perverse” people who are either pedophiles or likely to abuse children in the future(link is external); compared homosexuality to bestiality(link is external) and called it “a miserable lifestyle(link is external)”; accused gay people of using “brainwashing techniques(link is external)” to have homosexuality “crammed down our throats(link is external)”; said that gay people “are engaged in the most detestable, unclean, abominable acts you can imagine(link is external)”; predicted that the gay rights movement “will pave the way for that future world dictator, the Antichrist(link is external)”; and labeled homosexuality a “filthy practice(link is external)” that will lead to the “implosion of our country(link is external).”

James David Manning

Update: Following the massacre at a gay nightclub in Orlando, James David Manning said he was outraged by Trump’s remarks expressing support for the LGBT community and has withdrawn his support. “Sodomy is more dangerous to America than radical Islam,” he said(link is external).

Among the pastors invited to Trump Tower(link is external) for what the GOP presidential candidate described as an endorsement meeting in December was James David Manning, who proudly endorsed Trump(link is external) and stood beside him(link is external) as he spoke to press about the event.

“I’m going to have and enjoy a long relationship with Mr. Trump,” Manning said(link is external) after the meeting. “I pray he becomes president.”

The Harlem-based pastor has:

  • Said that Satan(link is external) authored the Supreme Court’s marriage equality decision and that it will lead to the destruction of America(link is external);
  • Accused Obama of murdering his “love child(link is external)” outside the U.S. Capitol.

And that list barely scratches the surface of the many absurd and offensive things that Manning has actually said.

While Trump of course cannot be held responsible for all of the statements these individuals have made, he can and should be held responsible for embracing them and, at times, promoting their baseless conspiracy theories.