ANALYSIS<\/strong><\/p>\n President Trump<\/a> has been confronted with a series of false and unfounded conspiracy stories from the same liberal establishment that condemns the QAnon phenomenon, according to an analysis of the president\u2019s nearly four years in office.<\/p>\n The press has lambasted the right-wing mystery persona of QAnon and its internet-driven conspiracy theory that a cabal of Hollywood big shots, Democrats and federal officials is involved in a pedophile ring determined to bring down the president.<\/p>\n The unfounded claims have captured the emotions of some conservatives. Mr. Trump<\/a> hesitated at a press briefing to criticize the \u201cQ\u201d crowd even after Republican lawmakers roundly condemned its tales.<\/p>\n To be sure, Mr. Trump<\/a> has stirred up the liberal media by posting inflammatory tweets that bewilder even his conservative backers.<\/p>\n At the same time, anti-QAnon liberals have embraced and promoted scores of false Trump-centric stories and conspiracies. Among the more bizarre are rumors of an international White House<\/a>-based assassination scheme and a desire to exterminate Hispanics. More personal tales suggest that Mr. Trump<\/a> has had \u201cmini-strokes\u201d and mental illness.<\/p>\n The Washington Times analyzed the left\u2019s conspiracy culture and compiled a list of 34 items (not all-inclusive) dating back to Mr. Trump<\/a>\u2019s first day in office. Such stories fed thousands of social media blogs and cable news churn.<\/p>\n The Times\u2019 sources for this list include press stories, transcripts and social media posts.<\/p>\n Early days<\/p>\n \u2981 Mr. Trump<\/a> removed a bust of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. from the Oval Office, igniting a highly charged racial issue (Time magazine on Inauguration Day).<\/p>\n Not true. The reporter apologized to the White House<\/a> later that day.<\/p>\n \u2981 The day after Mr. Trump<\/a>\u2019s inauguration, the White House<\/a> bused a \u201ccheering committee\u201d to the CIA for a Trump talk to the workforce (CBS News).<\/p>\n The White House<\/a> said that of the 400 attendees, only 10 were connected to the White House<\/a>. None sat in the first row.<\/p>\n \u2981 Mr. Trump<\/a> discussed a classified response to North Korea missile fire during a large dinner gathering at his Mar-a-Lago estate for Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. The stories were based on a photograph that a diner had posted on Facebook. (New York Times, Feb. 13, 2017; CNN; The Washington Post, et al).<\/p>\n The White House<\/a> said the press jumped to a \u201cnefarious\u201d conclusion. The president had been briefed in a sensitive compartmented information facility about the missiles before the dinner. The discussion at the table was about press logistics for the next day.<\/p>\n \u2981 The new president was responsible for scores of bomb threats phoned to Jewish Community Centers around the country. (Vox.com; CNN: \u201cTrump<\/a> mentioned the bomb threats in his speech Tuesday, but did not outline a plan to stop them.\u201d)<\/p>\n In March 2017, authorities arrested Israeli teenager Michael Ron David Kadar on charges of making hundreds of hoax bomb threats to Jewish centers in the U.S. and other countries. The threats then stopped.<\/p>\n \u2981 Muslim American Olympic fencer Ibtihaj Muhammad was detained at Washington Dulles International Airport because of Mr. Trump<\/a>, who had imposed travel restrictions in January 2017. A Democratic congressman said he was \u201csickened\u201d by report (The Washington Post; The Hill; USA Today).<\/p>\n She was detained for two hours in December 2016 during the Obama administration.<\/p>\n \u2981 The president is mentally ill. \u201cYes it\u2019s OK to question Trump<\/a>\u2019s mental health.\u201d (CNN). \u201cAvoiding questions about Trump<\/a>\u2019s mental health is a betrayal\u201d (Columbia Journalism Review). \u201cPundits are beginning to question Trump<\/a>\u2019s Mental Health\u201d (Vanity Fair). \u201cCalifornia Democrats lead attack over Trump<\/a>\u2019s mental health\u201d (Politico).<\/p>\n In January 2018, Mr. Trump<\/a>\u2019s annual physical included a cognitive test that the White House<\/a> physician said he aced, 30 for 30. Afterward, some media reports said that result didn\u2019t prove the president was not mentally ill.<\/p>\n Russia<\/p>\n \u2981 Mr. Trump<\/a> is a Russian spy, asset or informant (Democratic Party-funded dossier; various Democrats; James R. Clapper, President Obama\u2019s top intelligence officer).<\/p>\n No investigative report has come to such a conclusion.<\/p>\n \u2981 U.S. intelligence possesses a large number of intercepted communications between the Trump<\/a> campaign and Kremlin spies going back to the campaign\u2019s beginning (New York Times, February 2017).<\/p>\n The FBI says it has no such material. Former FBI Director James B. Comey said the story was wrong.<\/p>\n \u2981 The Trump campaign was in a deep conspiracy with the Kremlin to hack Democratic Party computers and wage information warfare on social media (news media; Democrats; Christopher Steele dossier).<\/p>\n Special counsel Robert Mueller reported that he did not find any evidence of a conspiracy during his 22-month investigation.<\/p>\n \u2981 The Steele dossier has not been disproved. (Rachel Maddow, MSNBC; Sen. Diane Feinstein, California Democrat; et al).<\/p>\n FBI lead agent Peter Strzok said the dossier was filled with inaccuracies and disinformation that sent him on \u201cwild goose chases.\u201d The Justice Department inspector general\u2019s report dismissed the dossier as unreliable.<\/p>\n \u2981 The Trump Organization<\/a> maintained a secret dedicated computer server between Trump Tower and Alfa Bank, Russia\u2019s largest commercial bank, run by three oligarchs (dossier impresario\/Democratic Party opposition research firm Fusion GPS; Slate.com).<\/p>\n The FBI concluded there was no such server.<\/p>\n \u2981 Trump<\/a> attorney Michael Cohen traveled to Prague in 2016 to meet with staffers of Russian President Vladimir Putin to hand over cash to pay off hackers (dossier; Fusion GPS; McClatchy news service).<\/p>\n The FBI concluded that no such trip happened.<\/p>\n \u2981 Russia has laundered money through the Trump Organization<\/a> (Rep. Adam B. Schiff, California Democrat, citing \u201cpersistent allegations\u201d).<\/p>\n Cohen, a Trump detractor, told Congress he knows of no Russian money flowing into the organization.<\/p>\n \u2981 Russian money bailed out the Trump Organization<\/a> in the 1980s and 1990s (former White House<\/a> press secretary Joe Lockhart, CNN, May 2019).<\/p>\n No evidence has been publicly presented to support the claim.<\/p>\n \u2981 Trump<\/a> aides and Sen. Jeff Sessions conspired with the Russian ambassador to the U.S. at the Mayflower Hotel, where the presidential candidate delivered a foreign policy speech in April 2016 (NBC News; The Washington Post; The New York Times).<\/p>\n The Mueller report said there was no conspiracy talk at the Mayflower.<\/p>\n \u2981 The FBI obtained a wiretap warrant on Trump<\/a> campaign manager Paul Manafort, assessing that he was a foreign agent for Russia (CNN).<\/p>\n The FBI said no such warrant was sought.<\/p>\n \u2981 Manafort and campaign volunteer Carter Page worked as a team to conspire with the Kremlin (dossier; Fusion GPS).<\/p>\n Investigations have shown that the two did not know or speak with each other.<\/p>\n \u2981 Manafort made repeated trips to London to consult with WikiLeaks, which published Democratic emails stolen by Russian hackers (Guardian newspaper, November 2018).<\/p>\n The trips never happened. The Mueller team didn\u2019t even ask Manafort about the issue during hours of interrogation.<\/p>\n \u2981 The dossier is true, and the Mueller team corroborated its claims against Mr. Trump<\/a> and his aides (CNN; CBS News; MSNBC).<\/p>\n \u2981 The Kremlin funneled campaign cash to the 2016 Trump<\/a> campaign through the National Rifle Association (McClatchy news service).<\/p>\n No public evidence supporting this claim has been submitted. The Washington Times first reported that the NRA supplied information to a Senate committee about an outside audit that found no such money trail.<\/p>\n \u2981 The Kremlin\u2019s social media propaganda was so successful that it seeded inaccurate mainstream media stories helping candidate Trump<\/a> (The Washington Post, Nov. 24, 2016). The source was a group of shadowy research firms (one is called PropOrNot) that made unsubstantiated claims against various websites.<\/p>\n The Post attached an editor\u2019s correction note to story. \u201c\u2018PropOrNot\u2019 has smeared working journalists as agents of the Kremlin while wrapping itself in a cloak of anonymity,\u201d the liberal Nation magazine reported.<\/p>\n \u2981 Retired Army Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, Mr. Trump<\/a>\u2019s first national security adviser, maintained an improper relationship with the Kremlin (numerous press reports).<\/p>\n A secret Jan. 3, 2017, FBI memo, forced into the open by Attorney General William Barr, said agents found no improper contacts during a five-month counterintelligence investigation.<\/p>\n \u2981 Flynn had some type of improper relationship with a Russia-born scholar at Cambridge University (The Wall Street Journal; other major U.S. newspapers).<\/p>\n The FBI cleared Flynn. The scholar, Svetlana Lokhova, a British citizen, said she met Flynn once at a dinner honoring the Defense Intelligence Agency director at Cambridge University and never saw him again. In her lawsuit, she blames FBI informant Stefan Halper for the smear.<\/p>\n \u2981 Flynn \u201cposs [sic] caught in FSB honeypot w\/female Russian intel asset\u201d (Malcolm Nance, MSNBC analyst and retired Navy chief and intelligence expert, April 2017 tweet).<\/p>\n The FBI reported no evidence that Ms. Lokhova is a Russian asset.<\/p>\n \u2981 Billed as a \u201cbombshell if true,\u201d Mr. Trump<\/a> told his attorney, Cohen, to lie to Congress about an aborted Moscow-Trump hotel deal (BuzzFeed<\/a>).<\/p>\n Mr. Mueller\u2019s office issued a statement rebutting the story.<\/p>\n \u2981 2018 election. \u201cThe Russians might this time actually play with the voting totals if there is a wave election and that would throw the entire election into doubt. And would essentially set the pace for civil war and that is what the Russians are looking for. Chaos is their principal weapon system here\u201d (Malcolm Nance, MSNBC).<\/p>\n No evidence made public has supported the claim.<\/p>\n \u2981 Mr. Comey was fired by Mr. Trump<\/a> after he asked for more funds to conduct the Russia election probe (The Washington Post, The New York Times).<\/p>\n Mr. Comey\u2019s deputy director, Andrew McCabe, told a Senate committee that no such request was made. The Justice Department called the stories \u201ctotally false.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2981 Mr. Trump<\/a> talks on an open phone line so that Mr. Putin can listen in (Andrew Weissmann, former Mueller prosecutor\/MSNBC analyst).<\/p>\n No evidence has been publicly presented to support the claim.<\/p>\n Assassins and more<\/p>\n \u2981 A secret Defense Intelligence Agency report delivered to the White House<\/a> warned of a coronavirus outbreak in China in November 2019 (ABC News).<\/p>\n The Pentagon says there is no such report.<\/p>\n \u2981 Mr. Trump<\/a> may kill off Hispanics. \u201cHe ramped it up again to the invasion, the warning people of the caravan and words like \u2018infestation.\u2019 What do you do with an infestation? With an infestation? The natural conclusion is to attempt extermination\u201d ( Raul Reyes, MSNBC contributor, August 2019).<\/p>\n This has not happened.<\/p>\n \u2981 White House<\/a> senior adviser Jared Kushner, the president\u2019s son-in-law, delivered to Saudi Arabia a hit-list for assassinations (Rep. Joaquin Castro, Texas Democrat and a member of House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, October 2018).<\/p>\n No evidence has been presented to support the claim.<\/p>\n \u2981 Mr. Trump<\/a> is communicating subliminally with neo-Nazis. \u201cThese people feel that they are the foot soldiers executors of what the disenfranchisement that the white race is feeling and Donald Trump<\/a> is giving them subliminal orders in their head\u201d (Malcolm Nance, MSNBC).<\/p>\n \u2981 Mr. Trump<\/a>, a billionaire, has an interest in the French pharmaceutical firm Sanofi, which produces a brand-name version of hydroxychloroquine (New York Times).<\/p>\n The president has taken hydroxychloroquine and promoted it as a treatment for COVID-19, as have a number of physicians. Mr. Trump<\/a>\u2019s \u201cassertiveness\u201d in promoting the drug contrary to the recommendations of top health experts \u201chas raised questions about his motives,\u201d The New York Times said in April.<\/p>\n MarketWatch put Mr. Trump<\/a>\u2019s investment at less than $1,500; Forbes at less than $3,000.<\/p>\n \u2981 Mr. Trump<\/a> suffered a stroke or \u201cmini strokes\u201d (CNN analyst Joe Lockhart; author Don Winslow).<\/p>\n Mr. Lockhart tweeted Aug. 1: \u201cDid @realDonaldTrump have a stroke which he is hiding from the American public?\u201d<\/p>\n Mr. Winslow tweeted Aug. 1: \u201cOne of the benefits of making videos that garner 5 million + views is that you hear from a lot of people, including whistleblowers inside Trump administration. I\u2019ve received three communications saying that during his term Trump<\/a> has suffered a \u2018series\u2019 of \u2018mini-strokes.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Mr. Trump<\/a> and his doctor said he did not have any mini-strokes.<\/p>\n The press critic<\/p>\n Besides the president\u2019s railing against the \u201cfake news\u201d industry, the Trump administration\u2019s chief media critic is Mr. Barr. The attorney general calls the liberal media a \u201ccollection of liars\u201d for their muted coverage of antifa\/Black Lives Matter riots. Conservatives say media ignored the violence and lawbreaking, terming them \u201cmostly peaceful protests.\u201d<\/p>\n Mr. Barr also mocks the Russia-obsessed press for a lack of self-awareness.<\/p>\n \u201cI agree with you that it\u2019s been stunning that all we have gotten from the mainstream media is sort of bovine silence in the face of the complete collapse of the so-called Russiagate scandal, which they did all they could to sensationalize and drive,\u201d Mr. Barr told Fox News host Maria Bartiromo. \u201cAnd it\u2019s, like, not even a \u2018whoops.\u2019 They\u2019re just on to the next false scandal. So, that has been surprising to me: that people aren\u2019t concerned about civil liberties and the integrity of our governmental process.\u201d<\/p>\n He said on the podcast of Sen. Ted Cruz, Texas Republican: \u201cOne of the stunning things, I\u2019m sure you\u2019ll agree, is that the media just went hellbent for leather on pushing this Russiagate story that Trump<\/a> was essentially an agent of Russia. And they were merciless. And up until recently you had former senior government officials sort of talking knowingly about how the president was going to be indicted and so forth and so on.\u201d<\/p>\n