Conspiracy theories — including claims that Barron Trump is a time traveler or that 11 dead scientists were killed by aliens — distract Americans from real issues, an analyst wrote Tuesday.
The Guardian's Arwa Mahdawi suggested that President Donald Trump, who once led the "birther" conspiracy that former President Barack Obama was not born in the United States despite the fact that Obama was born in Hawaii, has pushed forward other speculations and baseless ideas.
"Since then, Trump has fanned the flames of various other bonkers ideas," Mahdawi wrote. "The conspiracy theory du jour being that there is a coordinated plot, possibly involving UFOs, behind the disappearances and deaths of at least 11 US scientists linked to nuclear and space research programmes. Trump recently called the situation 'pretty serious stuff.' The House Oversight Committee chair, James Comer, also went on Fox & Friends to warn that 'something sinister could be happening'. Now the House Oversight Committee is looking into 'a possible sinister connection between the deaths and disappearances', and the FBI might get involved."
"I think the FBI would be better off spending its time doing almost anything else," Mahdawi explained. "Because when you spend more than five minutes researching this admittedly tantalising theory about missing scientists, you’ll quickly find more holes than a block of Swiss cheese. There is no 'sinister connection,' just a bunch of tenuous links."
Trump's claims have tried to cloud his real troubles.
"Still, you can see why the Trump administration is encouraging people to think about a shadowy conspiracy involving dead scientists instead of, you know, the fact that the president’s name appears not infrequently in the Epstein files," Mahdawi wrote. "Or the fact that the expensive and illegal war on Iran is driving up the cost of living. Or rocketing health insurance costs. Conspiracy theories are more than a good distraction; they have become a core part of the populist playbook."
Mahdawi cited a 2022 University of Pennsylvania study about conspiracy theories — and how authoritarian leaders have used misinformation "to attack opponents, galvanize followers, shift blame and responsibility, and undermine institutions that threaten their power."