In Agence France-Presse, Media Matters’ Angelo Carusone Highlights The Danger Of Alex Jones’ Fabricated Information Seeping Into Trump’s Policies

An Agence France-Presse article highlighted the “disturbing” number of instances in which President-elect Donald Trump has “recycled” claims from conspiracy theorist Alex Jones and his website Infowars and discussed the danger a conspiracy theory-inclined president could present to U.S. policy making.

Jones has a long history of making inflammatory, conspiracy theory-laden comments that had previously been confined to far-right arenas. However, Trump made clear early in his campaign that he had sympathy for Jones’ ideas and throughout his campaign appeared or had allies appear on his show. As Jones himself explained, the two are “totally synched” and Trump “finishes” Jones’ sentences when they speak. Media have highlighted how conspiracy theories and “information” make their way from Jones’ show to Trump -- whether it's pushing the false assertion that Trump actually won the popular vote, denouncing “globalism” in his acceptance of the Republican nomination, or claiming that Clinton was “wearing an earpiece” during a campaign forum.

In a November 30 article, Agence-France Presse discussed Media Matters’ efforts to document many of the more outlandish claims Jones has made, and it noted that though many of them are “pure nonsense,” as Media Matters vice president Angelo Carusone said, Trump seems to be echoing them. "‘What [Jones] is presenting is an alternative universe,’” Carusone continued. “‘He is advancing a broader world view that there is a global world government and every day they are going out there to take away your power.’" From Agence France-Presse:

Left-leaning media watchdog group Media Matters for America has documented dozens of instances where Trump has recycled claims from Jones and infowars.

Trump has not repeated some of the most outlandish claims on infowars -- that aliens from space had landed in Florida or that the mass killing of children at Sandy Hook Elementary School was faked to win support for gun control -- but critics say that it would be troubling for the president-elect to rely on the site for information.

“A lot of what he (Jones) says is just pure nonsense,” said Angelo Carusone of Media Matters.

“What he is presenting is an alternative universe. He is advancing a broader world view that there is a global world government and every day they are going out there to take away your power.”

For Carusone, it remains unclear if Trump believes what was published on infowars or is merely pandering to its readers, but he said either scenario would be disturbing.

'Fear Of Sharia'

For example, Carusone said that infowars ran “completely fabricated” stories saying that Muslims were imposing sharia law in US cities.

“If the president believes that and starts to make policy based on the belief that we have sharia law, we have a problem,” said Carusone.

[...]

In the most recent incident, Trump appeared to echo the claim by infowars that he would have won the popular vote against Clinton in addition to the Electoral College if votes by illegal immigrants were discounted.

As it stands, Clinton won the popular vote by more than two million ballots and both experts and officials across the political spectrum have disparaged Trump's unsubstantiated claim of mass fraud.

Trump was interviewed during the campaign by Jones, who also claimed to have had several phone conversations with the Republican billionaire, raising concerns about influence on policy.