Trump Conspiracies
Soon after the election results, and even before, Donald Trump Conspiracy Theories took off, along with riots, protesting Universities, and business owners who refused to serve Trump supporters. One seemed to be gaining more traction than most, and it’s founded on the relationship that Trump has with the Kremlin, Vladimir Putin. To sum up the main and trending Trump conspiracy, it’s that Trump has a relationship with the Kremlin and is actively working with what was once perceived as the biggest threat to U.S interests.
1. Russian Alliance
There is much hard evidence that Russia interfered in the US election, and that this interference has been designed to damage Hillary Clinton’s campaign. There is substantial evidence linking Trump’s foreign policy advisers to Russia, and Trump’s stated policy ideas are extremely favorable to Russian interests. There are numerous interests between the Kremlin and Donald Trump, and they are effectively helping each other. Independent Cybersecurity firms have verified that the DNC hack was related to Russian linked groups, with an IP address linked to a Russian-based IP address that previously attempted to hack the German Parliament.
When seen in the light of critical thinking the Trump conspiracy is not really a Trump conspiracy after all, more of a probability based on objective reasoning. Trump is friendly towards Putin. Putin was most certainly not a fan of the American’s continued invasion of multiple countries and it’s nuclear threat to the world at large. Hillary claimed that Russia had a hand in hacking her campaign servers which resulted in the revelation of her satanic rituals, Podesta emails and open border policy. All of this is most likely exactly what it is, it’s the under lying conspiracy that gets people tripped up, the core conspiracy. That Hillary is tied to the Elites and the New World Order which aims to impoverish us all. Trump and Putin, though possibly not being angels themselves, have a common enemy of the old established deep state, in the eyes of the Trump Conspiracy Theorists.
The truth of the matter is much more straightforward. Trump simply wants more money asking why NATO should protect smaller countries which don’t pay, and Putin wants a restoration of the balance of power in an era of nuclear warheads. Trump wanted to get elected and Putin wanted to remove the more cohesive and established powers of which Clinton was seen to be a part of. What is more interesting is the reports from the various media outlets, spinning the “truth”, to tie in with which ever faction they happen to be tied to. In any case the truth can be hard to find and often multifaceted, with the Guardian reporting that the Hack might have been staged to look like Russia was behind it, citing former Trump advisor Carter Page. Also of interest are the allegiances of the Intelligence agencies, with the CIA more or less pro-Hillary and reporting on Russia’s definite involvement, and the FBI actively trying to indict Clinton. Trump responded to a CIA intelligence briefing reporting that Russia helped in securing his election with “These are the same people that said Saddem Hussein had weapons of mass destruction”. It is not a theory that America’s political class seem to be disintegrating and that there is open conflict between intelligence agencies and indeed in fighting within the agencies themselves. The old power structures seem to be breaking down.
2. Trump Conspiracy and Climate Change
About Climate change Trump has stated:
“The concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make U.S. manufacturing non-competitive“
“With the coldest winter ever recorded, with snow setting record levels up and down the coast, the Nobel committee should take the Nobel Prize back from Al Gore…Gore wants us to clean up our factories and plants in order to protect us from global warming, when China and other countries couldn’t care less. It would make us totally noncompetitive in the manufacturing world, and China, Japan and India are laughing at America’s stupidity”
“Ice storm rolls from Texas to Tennessee – I’m in Los Angeles and it’s freezing. Global warming is a total, and very expensive, hoax!”
Climate Change is a theory that has only grown more conclusive as more studies have been done. There is a direct link between the increasing temperature of the Earth and the burning of fossil fuels, and no other plausible theory to suggest an alternative reason as to why the Earth is actually heating up. Practically all scientists are in agreement with this. It has also been suggested that Trump is biased on this issue due to past experiences with environmental regulatory frameworks as an entrepreneur. A study carried out on different political parties on an international basis found out of 9 Conservatives parties The GOP was the only one to deny Climate Change and that Americans are the most likely to reject Climate Change. Trump wants to put Scott Peruitt in charge of the Environmental Protection Agency, who has stated that Scientists disagree on the man made effects of Global Warming. While most of Trump’s claims are motivated by political concerns to shift doubt on his opponents, Trump does seem to believe that Climate Change is not related to human activity and will doubtless be getting rid of Environmental Regulations which tend to hurt the private business sector.
3. Vaccines
Trump has asked Robert Kennedy Junior, a skeptic of childhood vaccines, to lead a panel on the safety of Vaccines. This resulted in widespread concern among the medical community, who are worried about the safety of objective science. There is a general consensus in mainstream science that vaccines do not cause autism and that more research is just wasted money. There is also a consensus that delaying and spreading out the frequency of vaccinations to children is ineffective, something which Trump advocates. Trump also met with Andrew Wakefield, who lost his license after being found to have conducted fraudulent research linking vaccines to autism.
Trump tweeted:
“A study says Autism is out of control – A 78% increase in 10 years. Stop giving Monstrous combined vaccinations !!”
Responses to this are usually measles related, with the Center for Disease Control and Prevention stating that Measles vaccines have prevented 322 million illnesses and saved nearly $1.4 trillion in costs. However to blindly believe such wild statements is incredibly naive, as this are just projections which are wrong far more often than they are right.
In any case it is unclear how much authority Trump will have over childhood vaccinations. There are no Federal laws mandating vaccinations, as it is done on a state by state basis. Most states require children who attend day care centers or schools provide documentation showing proof of vaccination. However there are many exceptions including medical, religious and philosophical reasons. Thus each state has its own vaccination requirements. However the Federal Government has power over policy, much of which is set by the Center for Disease Control. Trumps choice in this matter will set the vaccination schedule, which Trump believes should be spread out and which most scientists agree should stay the same. Trump did Tweet:
“I’m not against vaccinations for your children, I’m against them in 1 massive dose. Spread them out over a period of time & autism will drop! “
Trump is currently exploring the possibility of forming a committee on autism and wants to investigate whether or not vaccines are safe. The issue most have with this is that these safeguards are already in place and the results are not really contended. The American Academy of Pediatrics pointed out the importance of vaccines in response to the possible creation of a new Federal Commission under the Trump administration in relation to immunization.
“Vaccines have been part of the fabric of our society for decades and are the most significant medical innovation of our time. Vaccines are safe. Vaccines are effective. Vaccines save lives.Claims that vaccines are linked to autism, or are unsafe when administered according to the recommended schedule, have been disproven by a robust body of medical literature. Delaying vaccines only leaves a child at risk of disease. Vaccines keep communities healthy, and protect some of the most vulnerable in our society, including the elderly, and children who are too young to be vaccinated or have compromised immune systems”
Other Trump Conspiracies
Trump is himself a devout “conspiracy theorist”, on all issues, not just Vaccines and Climate Change. He has:
- Believed for quite some time that President Obama was not born in the United States.
“He doesn’t have a birth certificate, or if he does, there’s something on that certificate that is very bad for him. Now, somebody told me — and I have no idea if this is bad for him or not, but perhaps it would be — that where it says ‘religion,’ it might have ‘Muslim.’ And if you’re a Muslim, you don’t change your religion, by the way.”
After receiving his birth cert he eventually admitted that Obama is in fact a United States Citizen. Obama was born in Hawaii in 1961 and this claim is said to be what initially propelled Trump into politics. He also claimed that Obama did not write the book “Dreams from my father”, saying it was written by Bill Ayers, that the official who had the real copies of Obama’s birth cert died suspiciously in a plane crash, that he was originally born “Barry Sotoro”, that Obama never attended Colombia University, that Obama would start a war to win reelection among many other Obama related claims. It seems obvious that he does not believe most of what he says, just makes statements to generate controversy Trump related media. A tactic which quite possibly secured him the presidency.
- Questioned the murder of Vince Foster, aid to former President Bill Clinton. He says the murder was”fishy” and that there are people who believed that the Clinton’s had a hand in the killing as Foster had information damaging to the Clinton’s.
”I will say there are people who continue to bring it up because they think it was absolutely a murder. I don’t do that because I don’t think it’s fair”
- Claimed that the father of his Presidential rival Ted Cruz had a hand in the death of President Kennedy. After Cruz dropped out of the race he said he never really believed that Cruz had a anything to do with the assassination.
- Believes that Islams hates America, that hatred is at the core of the Islamic religion and that over a third of Muslims would wage war against America.
- Claimed That ISIS tried to attack him
- Claimed That Syrian refugees, are not properly vetted, that they are predominantly young males and that the same refugees bill ISIS for their phones. He also claimed that these refugees are sent only to Republican states and not Democratic ones, and that Syrian refugees are being brought in as part of a grand scheme.
“Obviously some people think it’s evil intentions, I think it’s incompetence, regardless, a lot of people think it’s evil intentions.”
Conclusion
Trump and Putin both worked to overthrow and discredit Clinton to an extent and Russia were most likely behind the hacks, but active collaboration is unlikely and Trump is most certainly not a mere puppet of Russia, as claimed by some. The Trump/Putin Conspiracy, by and large, is not really a Trump Conspiracy at all, more likely reasoned observations about recent political events.
Most of the allegations by Trump which hint at broad conspiracies were created for the sole purpose of attacking his opponent in an under hand manner. He just posits leading questions which don’t exactly say what he means but are designed to lead the consumer down a particular and definite line of thought.
While this is true Trump is definitely anti-vaccine and anti-Climate Change. He is going to bring in legislation and committees which investigate the effects of each of these. Unfortunately all people suffer from confirmation bias, the tendency to re construct reality to back up an already existing belief system. Thus Trump will being in scientists and politicians who already believe that Vaccines are unsafe and that Climate change is a hoax. And experiments will be carried out which prove that this is the case . The aim of all scientific experiments done under the Trump Administration will be carried out to prove that Vaccines are bad and that Climate Change is a hoax.
Documentaries
As the current President of United States, Donal Trump had several conspiracy theories surrounding him as discussed above. The documentaries below by BBC and the Fifth State make an attempt to examine those theories.
The Fifth State: Putin, The FBI and Donald Trump
The Conspiracy Files: The Trump Dossier – 2016 – BBC
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=spR-HCdEdfE