A disgraced journalist with a history of questionable decision-making has been named as the architect of President Donald Trump's national address on Thursday night.
Teased bits of Trump's address suggest that he will use the primetime slot to rekindle some of his favorite conspiracy theories about the 2020 general election, like that he won the election, that China actually interfered in the election, and that the two Democratic senators from Georgia are illegitimate because of alleged voter fraud. All of those points seem to have the fingerprints of John Solomon, a Trump-aligned journalist who has a history of making untruthful statements and creating "every MAGA grievance narrative," reported Will Sommer of The Bulwark.
Solomon seems like the "Walter Cronkite" of conservative journalism when compared to other MAGA media figures, Sommer argued, but that actually makes him more dangerous. For instance, he was at the heart of the Trump administration's attempt to use Ukrainian officials to dig up dirt on Joe Biden ahead of the 2020 election. He has also tried to prove that Hillary Clinton approved the sale of American uranium to Russia in exchange for campaign donations, a claim that has never been proven true.
Solomon, who recently joined the Trump White House as a Special Government Employee, has also been assigned to go through government documents to find information that can be used to prosecute the president's perceived enemies, according to the report. One such case is against former CIA director John Brennan, who has been fighting back against the Trump administration's attempts to have his case heard before a friendly judge in Florida named Aileen Cannon.
"Solomon has openly admitted that his role in declassifying government documents is central to helping that same grand jury, suggesting the once-ridiculed group involved in crafting the anti-Biden Ukraine narrative is now helping Trump pursue his enemies through the Justice Department," Sommer reported.
However, Sommer noted that not everything Solomon touches turns to gold, especially among conservative audiences.
"But Solomon’s decades-old reputation for letting down his audience is starting to reach conservatives, too. Popular conspiracy theory blog Conservative Treehouse has grown skeptical of Solomon’s promises, even adding a bolded warning label of sorts to a preview of Trump’s Thursday speech so readers wouldn’t get too excited," he added.