Trump’s latest media attack brings him close to white nationalists


Developments on Day 310 of the Trump Administration:

Trump Retweets Far-Right Conspiracy Account as Proper News

Continuing his five-day Thanksgiving vacation, Donald Trump promotes a far-right conspiracy theorist website, minutes after attacking CNN and praising Fox.

Trump’s attempts to remake the media landscape in his favor are far from new, but he went a step farther on Saturday with a pair of tweets.

First he tried to place CNN beyond the acceptable, not only in the US but across the globe:

Then he found a supposedly reliable alternative, a site lauding his supposed accomplishments:

Whether or not Trump realizes it, MagaPill is well known for its own “fake news”, a series of unfounded conspiracy theories attacking Democratic politicians and other prominent figures, and may have links with white nationalists.

MagaPill is a play on “red pill”, a term popular with white nationalists and far-right activists — based on a plot line from The Matrix, the metaphor refers to the process of normalizing extreme views. MagaPill is also active on Gab, a social network favored by white nationalists and banned from the Google app store violating hate speech policy.

A few hours before its endorsement by Trump, MagaPill posted a video from Liz Cronkin, a conspiracy theorist involved in the false Pizzagate story which claimed Hillary Clinton was part of a pedophile ring. In her latest message, Cronkin claims there is a sex tape of Clinton with an underage girl on the laptop of the former Congressman Anthony Weiner.

MagaPill has claimed that the singer Lady Gaga is a “spirit cooker”, participating in satanic rituals, and another recent post features a flow chart which combines “false flag terrorism,” “organ harvesting”, “child/human sacrifice”, “weaponized forced vaccination”, and “earthquake machines”.

Former High-Level Officials: “Scary If This is Our New Normal”

Trump’s latest attacks and exaltations drew a sharp response from former Government officials, including former Deputy Director of the CIA, John McLaughlin; former National Security Agency director Michael Hayden; and retired Rear Adm. John Kirby, who was the Pentagon’s spokesperson from 2015 to 2017.