'Loony lies': NY Times writer slams Trump for packing Cabinet with 'outlandish' thinkers

President Donald Trump's second term has been marked by the rise of conspiracy theorists into a level of political power they have not enjoyed for generations, the New York Times reported on Tuesday.

Even bizarre and fanciful ideas like the government concealing the Earth being flat are no longer disqualifiers for office in today's Republican Party, reported Tiffany Hsu, as "they’re running local Republican parties in Georgia and Minnesota and seeking public office in Alabama."

And 9/11 conspiracy theories, once roundly rejected by both parties, have run wild, with Trump honoring the attacks' anniversary alongside 9/11 Truther Laura Loomer, and Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) directly promoting debunked claims.

There are even government mind-control theorists getting the ear of the administration, noted the report: "Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, pledged the agency’s support last month for a fight involving so-called chemtrails, a debunked theory that the white condensation lines streaming behind airplanes are toxic, or could even be used for nefarious purposes."

Some have even suggested these "chemtrails" are being put in the air by the government to control the population or people's minds.

It's a long slide from just a few years ago when Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY), then the GOP's leader in the Senate, called out the "loony lies" being spread by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), who once speculated on social media that wildfires were being started by Jewish space lasers.

"Conspiracy theories that were relegated to random and often anonymous online forums are now being championed or publicly debated by increasingly powerful people," said the report. "Mr. Trump in particular has embraced, elevated and even appointed to his Cabinet people promoting these theories — giving the ideas a persuasive authority and a dangerous proximity to policy."

ALSO READ: ‘Pain. Grief. Anger’: Families heartbroken as Trump backlash smashes adoption dreams

Trump always embraced these ideas, exploding onto the political scene in the early 2010s with his false claims that former President Barack Obama wasn't born in the United States. And when he lost the 2020 presidential election, he drew a mob to attack the Capitol with his lies that the election was rigged, and later pardoned them.

Now, with him back in power, conspiratorial thinking is thriving on a new level — and perhaps most alarming, the report noted, Biblical demonic narratives are being weaponized against his enemies as well.

"Mr. Trump referred to 'demonic forces' on the campaign trail and called Democrats a 'very demonic party,'" noted the report. "Days before interviewing both Donald Trump Jr. and Mr. Musk at Mar-a-Lago on Election Day, Tucker Carlson, the former Fox News host, posted a YouTube video claiming he had been attacked in the night 'by a demon or by something unseen.' Dan Bongino, a right-wing pundit and podcaster who is now the deputy director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, said on his show that 'demon energy is real.'"