During his 2024 campaign, Donald Trump promised his supporters that re-electing him would be “our final battle.”
Throughout his campaign, he emphasized the need of having you by his side in order to defeat the deep state. “Our nation will be freed from these despots and evildoers forever and ever.”
Now that he’s four months into his second term in office, Trump has wasted no time spreading conspiracy theories about his predecessors and other prominent politicians and lawyers. Most recently, he brought up the possibility that former president Joe Biden used an autopen to sign documents with malicious intent. With the release of almost 63,000 pages of papers pertaining to President John F. Kennedy’s assassination, the current government has taken action to declassify certain documents and has promised to restart investigations. Still, a sizable portion of Trump’s base feels this is inadequate.
Those who believe him are starting to grow antsy, wondering why his administration—which has the power to investigate these claims of national secrets—is withholding the proof and punishment they had hoped for.
Even while the president has been posting cryptic memes and videos disparaging Democratic leaders, his Justice Department has not yet detained hordes of “deep state” operatives, contrary to what some of his followers had imagined.
Last week, conservative pundit Damani Felder remarked on podcaster Tim Pool’s show, “People are tired of not knowing.”. We are genuinely seeking answers and genuine openness. The delivery isn’t that difficult.
A pledge to expose and destroy the “deep state”
The University at Buffalo’s Yotam Ophir, a communications professor, said that Trump has long pledged to develop his base of support by dismantling the “deep state” – an alleged covert network of influential people controlling government decisions behind the scenes.
“He created a fraction of this universe, which is ultimately a work of fiction,” he stated.
His followers anticipate that everything will be exposed now that Trump is in power and has appointed loyalists across his cabinet. Political scientist Joseph Uscinski of the University of Miami who researches conspiracy theories said that it is tough for him to deliver on that since many of the conspiracies he claimed aren’t true.
Sure enough, in his second term in office, the president has made vengeance a top priority. He has used executive orders to terminate government employees and single out law firms that he dislikes. His political opponents and former workers who voiced disapproval during his first tenure have had their government security clearances revoked by his command. His administration has dismissed the prosecutors who probed him and examined the work of professional FBI agents who looked into the assault on the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021.
But many of Trump’s backers still feel that his administration hasn’t done enough. They desire action against those he has long asserted were complicit in malevolent schemes against him, including former FBI Director James Comey and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. Furthermore, the administration has failed to provide evidence of the “egregious crimes” that Trump asserts have permeated the federal government for an extensive period of time.
Epstein and Trump’s attempted assassination are the main points of attention for conspiracy theorists.
This month, tensions flared up when FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino and Director Kash Patel rejected two of the most reviled, unfounded conspiracy theories held by Trump’s base: the first, that the assassination attempt on Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania, was part of a government plot, and the second, that financier and sexual abuser Jeffrey Epstein was covered up.
Patel described Epstein’s death as a suicide in an interview with Fox News.
Adding, “I have seen the whole file,” Bongino continued. “He took his own life.”
In response to Bongino’s previous comments as a podcast presenter in which he implied the government was concealing information on Epstein, conservatives online asked to see the proof.
“The foreign policy and economic policies will remain the same no matter who gets elected,” right-wing podcaster and former Fox News personality Tucker Carlson remarked on his show.
“For months before the election, they assured us that it wasn’t suicide,” wrote Newsmax presenter Todd Starnes on X. It was suicide, they say today. “Excuse me, but what the fuck is happening at DOJ?” he continued.
This month, Attorney General Pam Bondi announced that the FBI is now reviewing “tens of thousands” of films pertaining to Epstein. Bondi added that further documents would be made public after the necessary measures have been taken to safeguard the victims.
Patel and Bongino both stated in the same Fox News interview that they had been told on the July Trump rally attempted assassination and that no shocking plot was to be unveiled.
According to Bongino, “the ‘there’ you’re looking for is not there” in certain instances.
Doubt among adherents of the “deep state”
By announcing this week that the agency will revisit some high-profile cases that have garnered public attention, Bongino seemed to be trying to provide a bone to Trump’s supporters. He announced that the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) will look into the following cases: the pipe bombs discovered near the DC headquarters of the Democratic and Republican National Committees on the day of the attack on January 6, 2021; the 2022 leak of the Supreme Court’s draft opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson, which nullified the constitutional right to abortion; and the 2023 discovery of cocaine in the White House.
However, not everyone who commented on his X account thought it was sufficient.
One user responded to his statement by saying, “Anything to distract from the Epstein files.” That was his announcement. “No results,” another observer said.
During an appearance on Thursday’s “Fox & Friends,” Bongino said that the FBI is about to disclose data pertaining to Trump’s attempted assassination as well as footage shot outside of Epstein’s prison cell.
He acknowledged the public’s desire for openness but pleaded for patience, saying that not all material belongs to the FBI to declassify. Not everyone seeking explanations for the conspiracy ideas was satisfied by that.
According to Philip Anderson, a right-wing figure who was involved in the Capitol riot, “I am convinced that the deep state can only be defeated by God at this point” (X, Thursday). There is no need whatsoever for Kash Patel, Dan Bongino, or Pam Bondi.
Supporting the use of conspiracy theories as a diversionary strategy
Despite this, Trump has persisted in spreading conspiracy theories throughout his platforms, including Truth Social.
With the caption, “ALL ROADS LEAD TO OBAMA, RETRUTH IF YOU WANT MILITARY TRIBUNALS,” he posted a video last month discussing purported connections between the Clinton family and certain unexplained deaths. Another user uploaded a photo of him with Obama.
According to Ophir, a professor at the University at Buffalo, this strategy serves to divert attention away from Trump’s core supporters and shields him from criticism.
“Trump is great and his agenda is brilliant,” Ophir stated, claiming credit whenever positive outcomes occur. “Any time something goes wrong, it’s because of the Clintons, Obamas, or whoever is trying to undermine him in Washington.”
This week, Trump stoked further theories—without providing proof—that Biden’s use of an autopen during his administration resulted in his not freely signing executive orders or that aides benefitted from managing it. He has demanded that anyone responsible for its operation face charges of “treason.”
On the right, the story has been gaining steam due to claims that Biden’s advisors hid his deteriorating mental and physical health. For a long time now, presidents have signed official papers using autopens.
“It should be very easy to find out who that person (or persons) is,” Trump wrote on Truth Social, asserting that whomever used it was usurping the power of the Presidency.
A dissatisfied platform user questioned the lack of responses from Trump and his friends, who had all the power, and expressed their disapproval.
“IF IT’S EASY,” the responder replied. “Since when did your administration fail to discover these criminals?”
