Latest news with #InfoWars
The Independent
5 days ago
- Politics
- The Independent
InfoWars' Alex Jones says he's in a ‘conundrum' over Trump's refusal to release the Epstein files
Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones is still struggling to come to terms with Donald Trump 's dismissal of the ongoing furore over the Jeffrey Epstein files, reacting with dismay to the president calling it 'total bulls***' earlier this week. The InfoWars host posted a clip of Trump in the Oval Office taking questions from the press corps on Wednesday and saying of the scandal: 'Look, the whole thing is a hoax. 'It's put out by the Democrats because we've had the most successful six months in the history of our country. That's just a way of trying to divert attention to something that's total bulls***.' Jones commented on the exchange: 'Trump's disastrous handling of the Epstein firestorm last month was starting to die down and now he has let the corporate media bait him into re-launching a new Streisand effect.' His latter reference is to the phenomenon through which a public figure's attempt to suppress information only succeeds in drawing more attention to it. Jones subsequently posted a video of his own in which he said that he had been left facing a personal 'conundrum' by the whole affair. 'This is just crazy,' he said, observing that 'Trump is not stupid' but suggesting he had been 'caught off guard with a new issue' and had underestimated the strength of feeling about Epstein among his supporters. 'I don't know what to say at this point. I am actually in a conundrum. I'm gobsmacked.' The uproar over Epstein began after the Justice Department and FBI ruled last month that the deceased sex trafficker left behind no 'client list' and died by suicide in his New York jail cell in August 2019. The verdict incensed many of Trump's followers, who have long suspected foul play and have continually demanded the release of all federal files on the investigation into the financier's crimes, which stretches back for more than two decades. Trump himself has not been accused of any wrongdoing over his past association with Epstein and is currently suing The Wall Street Journal for reporting that he once sent the sex offender a 'bawdy' doodle for his birthday, but remains under pressure to publish the files. Among the most extreme reactions to the Justice Department's initial announcement came from Jones, who filmed a video behind the wheel of his car in which he almost burst into tears of frustration as he accused Trump officials like Attorney General Pam Bondi, FBI Director Kash Patel, and his deputy Dan Bongino of being involved in a cover-up. Before that, Jones had responded to Elon Musk, alleging during his war of words with Trump in early June that the president was withholding the files because he was mentioned in them by writing simply: 'God Help Us ALL….' The bear-like and emotional Texan has been at the forefront of America's conspiracy theory movement for more than two decades, entertaining such unlikely paranoid myths as Lady Gaga 's Super Bowl half-time show serving as a front for a Satanic ritual, Michelle Obama living as a man in disguise and the Pentagon inadvertently turning frogs gay after its experimental love bomb leaked chemicals into the water supply. More disturbingly, he has spread misinformation about the 9/11 terror attack and claimed that the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre of December 2012 was 'completely faked with actors,' a hoax sponsored by the Obama administration to provide a pretext for introducing stiffer firearms restrictions. He was sued for defamation by the grieving families caught up in that tragedy for pushing that falsehood and was ultimately forced to pay $1.5bn in damages in 2022, forcing both him and Infowars to declare bankruptcy.
Gizmodo
01-08-2025
- Politics
- Gizmodo
Alex Jones Claims Trump Officials Have Asked Him to Stop Talking About Jeffrey Epstein
Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones claimed during his InfoWars show this week that White House officials have been calling him in an effort to get him to stop talking about the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Jones even suggests he's been offered some kind of quid pro quo to shut up. And while it's important to take everything you hear from Jones with a huge grain of salt, the claim is close to other reporting from reputable news outlets. Jones insisted at the top of his show with Nick Fuentes on Wednesday that 'of course' he would expose Trump 'if he's screwing kids.' Jones insisted 'I'm not tied to that wagon,' suggesting that he's not all-in for Trump as a political entity, despite all evidence to the contrary. But later Jones made clear that he's been getting calls telling him to stop talking about Epstein in order to make Trump happy. 'I got a bunch of calls the last three weeks, and the calls go like this, 'what do you want?' And I've never asked for anything. What I want is good policy. I always want to be the outsider,' said Jones. 'And I'm just like, what do I… what do I want? I want to make America great again. I want America first. So there's a real understanding of this administration that we're it, we're in charge. This is the way it is,' Jones said, referring to Trump-aligned influencers having real power. Jones went on to make it abundantly clear that he was talking about powerful people in the Trump administration. 'And the fact that I get these calls like… the top of the administration and they're just cut and… they're cut and dry. What do you want? And I'm just like, uh huh, uh huh…' Jones said ominously. Epstein died in prison during Trump's first term in 2019, and almost immediately, many people assumed he must have been killed by powerful forces to silence anything he might know. Trump has been asked for weeks now about why the Department of Justice closed its investigation into Epstein despite promises by people like FBI Director Kash Patel and Attorney General Pam Bondi that they'll get to the bottom of it. But Trump can't make the story go away, especially as new details seem to come out daily. That hasn't stopped Trump from trying to get his own folks to shut up behind the scenes. Rolling Stone reported on July 17 that the White House has been engaged in a 'senior-level outreach campaign' to right-wing influencers to get them to shut up about Epstein. The magazine even reports that Trump himself has worked the phones, and for a time, it did seem like Fox News tried to move on to other stories. But it's much harder to control the internet, where MAGA influencers like Benny Johnson, Charlie Kirk, and Laura Loomer can't just ignore Epstein without their audiences getting very suspicious. One tactic that Trump supporters have tried, with only mixed success, is repeatedly insisting that Trump's political enemies are the ones who don't actually want the truth about Epstein to come out. Trump was reportedly told by the DOJ that his name is in the files, but other prominent figures, like Bill Clinton, were associated with Epstein. Trump even recently called out Clinton by name, saying that people should be investigating the former Democratic president. Jones insisted on Wednesday that the Democrats and the Anti-Defamation League were the ones who actually don't want to discuss Epstein. And mentioning the ADL wasn't just some random aside, as the show was promoted as a 'debate' with white supremacist Nick Fuentes, a Holocaust denier who's previously praised Adolf Hitler. Fuentes is one of the most prominent antisemites in the country and has been appearing on Jones's show more frequently these days. Jones and Fuentes tried to present the Epstein controversy through the lens of Israeli foreign influence by claiming Epstein was an agent of Mossad, a claim that's never been proven. Julie K. Brown, one of the most important journalists on the Epstein beat, recently told Ross Douthat of the New York Times that she didn't believe Epstein was engaging in sex trafficking of minors for traditional blackmail purposes and instead was just engaging in criminally predatory behavior with other powerful men because they enjoyed it. That said, Brown wants the Department of Justice to release any classified assessments of Epstein from a national security angle to hopefully learn more about any potential connections to intelligence agencies. Fuentes kept talking about Trump with Jones, and the white supremacist demonstrated perfectly why the story is bad for Trump, even giving the president the benefit of the doubt. 'I don't even think it's necessarily true that Trump was on the island or that Trump was raping kids or that there's a videotape of Trump. I don't think that's even likely,' Fuentes said. 'But when he has covered it up in the way that he has, and as he's dug this hole deeper and deeper—having the DOJ cover it up, asking the FBI to look for his name, they told him his name was in there. Now he says his name was planted in there. He says the whole thing's a hoax. You actually have to draw a negative inference and assume if he's covering it up, there must be something there.' Obviously, this isn't the story Trump wants his defenders like Jones and Fuentes to be talking about right now. And it doesn't seem like it'll go away anytime soon.
Metro
16-07-2025
- Politics
- Metro
Trump loved Epstein conspiracy theories - now he's at the heart of one
For well over a decade, Donald Trump has thrived on conspiracy. He questioned Barack Obama's birthplace and citizenship, claimed the 2020 election was stolen from him without a shred of evidence, and has endorsed and promoted far-right figures who gleefully stoked the lie that Hillary Clinton ran a child sex ring from the basement of a pizza restaurant. These weren't fringe ideas muttered in back rooms or basements. They were central to Trump's political theatre – designed to paint his opponents not just as wrong, but satanically evil. So when the President recently told reporters he didn't understand why his supporters are interested in late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, dismissing the entire saga as 'a very boring story', the response from the conspiratorial base was, predictably, swift and furious. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video From InfoWars and Telegram channels to MAGA influencers and mainstream news, the reaction boiled down to one thing: how dare he? Today, Trump ramped up his criticism, saying that the discussions around the former banker were a 'scam', labelling it a 'bulls**t Jeffrey Epstein hoax' and urging his supporters not to be 'hoodwinked.' Well, tough luck – conspiracies can't be controlled. Not even by Trump. Let's remember, Epstein's story isn't boring – it's horrifying. A convicted child sex trafficker with friends in high places. A mysterious prison death. A long list of alleged enablers and abusers still unnamed, still unaccountable. Rumours (encouraged by Trump and his allies) of a blackmail 'client list' held by Epstein. People are obsessed because they should be. Because justice, clearly, hasn't been served. The President has made a rod for his own back. He fuelled the fire for years, and not just on this. He platformed figures who are prominent in the QAnon conspiracy movement (which believes, among other things, that President Trump is battling satanic elite paedophiles), posted cryptic messages about 'the storm' (a QAnon dog whistle), and appointed people like Mike Flynn who actively amplified such theories. Trump's years of conspiracy indulgence were based on set rules: suspicion by association, trust no institution, and believe only him. But now, scrutiny has edged closer to Trump himself – with people on the left and right revisiting his long-standing friendship with Epstein, sharing those awkward photos and the quote where he called Epstein a 'terrific guy' who liked women 'on the younger side' To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Suddenly, the President is no longer interested. You can't unleash a monster and then act surprised when it turns on you. Trump made himself the hero of the anti-elite, anti-paedophile crusade. But when people apply that same lens to his own past, he retreats. And not with his usual bluster, either. Lately, Trump's tone has changed. Usually, he has his supporters eating out of his hand. Now, he's reduced to begging them not to be 'taken in' by a 'hoax' he endorsed. But this isn't a rebrand. It's fear. Trump's scared. Because his supporters are asking questions he can't answer with a soundbite or a slogan. And the timing couldn't be worse for him. Public frustration over Epstein hasn't faded – it's deepened. It's not just that Epstein was a monster, although he was. It's that the system seemed to protect him. He maintained his network of powerful friends even after conviction. He secured sweetheart deals. And he died before a trial could truly begin and victims could get even a whiff of justice. The result, instead of accountability, is a vacuum, into which QAnon and other conspiracy movements poured. The thirst is twisted into the kind of pure fantasy that defined 'pizzagate' – a satanic cabal of baby-eaters apparently led by Hillary Clinton in secret bunkers under a pizza shop – and Trump as the saviour. Total fiction, rooted in real fury. But the emotional truth remains: people feel that the powerful get away with everything. Trump capitalised on that anger. Now, he's the one looking over his shoulder. The nature of their friendship, the timeline, and when exactly Trump stopped calling the paedophile financier a 'terrific guy' are all under scrutiny. The same scrutiny that was, in Trump's own way, the fair questions that he demanded be asked of the Democratic elite. Now, with Trump in power once again, Republican lawmakers have voted to block a Democratic effort to force the release of the Epstein files, which amounts to a mythological cache of apparently undisclosed information about the convicted sex offender at the centre of American politics for over three decades. The Epstein files may be buried, but the case is still open – if not legally, then morally. Survivors are still waiting. Names are still redacted. And trust in institutions is still on life support. Trump doesn't now get to call this 'boring'. More Trending He wanted to be the one to expose the rot. He told his base he was the only one who would clean it up. Now, faced with their anger, he shrugs and calls it dull. He isn't bored. He's terrified. And he should be. Do you have a story you'd like to share? Get in touch by emailing Share your views in the comments below. MORE: Ragtag Zohran Mamdani protest likened to Netflix comedy sketch MORE: John Torode doesn't remember using racist language – that's a problem MORE: The Great British Sewing Bee is back – but I miss Kiell Smith-Bynoe
Hindustan Times
16-06-2025
- Politics
- Hindustan Times
Is Vance Louther Boulter really a Trump supporter? MAGA exposes Minnesota shooter friend's major claim
Vance Luther Boelter, the suspected assassin of Democratic leaders Melissa Hortman and her husband, was apprehended After a two-day manhunt. However, a number of questions regarding the Minnesota shooting still need to be addressed. First, the reason for the murder was revealed when police discovered a list of roughly 70 politicians he intended to assassinate. Republicans are now accusing Boelter, who worked for Governor Tim Walz, of being a Democrat supporter. 'No Kings Protest' posters were discovered in his car after he escaped on foot. The Minnesota shooting suspect's childhood friend David Carlson claimed that Boelter is a Trump supporter and voted for him. His target list mostly had names of liberal and Democratic leaders. However, MAGA rallied against Carlson after he claimed in a widely shared video that Boelter served Tim Walz but did not like him. The pal added that he also didn't like Jim Biden. Also Read: Broken windows, shock, tributes: Photos show aftermath of Minnesota shooting as Rep Melissa Hortman, husband killed According to MAGA, it is impossible to trust someone who couldn't even recall the name of former President Joe Biden to make a declaration about someone's political affiliation. 'He wasn't a Democrat. He didn't like Jim Walz. He didn't like Jim Biden. He listened to InfoWars,' stated Boelter's roommate. If someone referred to him as a Democrat, the friend said that Boelter would take offense. He was merely helping the community when he served on this board for Governor Walz. He remarked, 'I can't believe a political issue would cause him to do such a thing.' The friend stated, 'He did not like Jim Walz, he did not like Jim Biden,' alluding to Joe Biden and Tim Walz. Reacting to Carlson's statement, one Trump supporter wrote: 'Who's Jim Biden?This roommate is totally unreliable, considering Boelter attacked two Democratic lawmakers in separate incidents for supporting Republicans in removing healthcare funding for illegal immigrants.' 'Jim Walz? Lmao,' another stated. 'Such a liar!!! He voted Democrat! Appointed by a Democrat. Wife volunteered for a Democrat. Killed Democrats looking to leave the party!' a third user said. According to the Brooklyn Park Police Chief, the 43-hour manhunt for Boelter was the 'largest manhunt in the state's history'. At least 200 officers as well as a federal, state, and local partnership were involved in the manhunt. Boelter was apprehended in a field after he croaked at the arresting cops. No force was used during the arrest, as per reports.
AFP
10-06-2025
- Politics
- AFP
Burning police car video predates anti-deportation protests in Los Angeles
"MSM is still calling this Democratic Party run uprising of illegal aliens and communist a 'peaceful protest,'" says a June 8, 2025 post on X from Alex Jones, founder of the conspiratorial website InfoWars. The clip shows a burning police car surrounded by other graffitied vehicles and roving crowds. Image Screenshot of an X post taken June 9, 2025 Similar claims placing the footage at the June 2025 demonstrations in Los Angeles ricocheted across X, where US Congressman Dan Crenshaw and Senator Ted Cruz amplified them. The video also spread on Facebook and on YouTube, as well as in other languages, including Portuguese, Chinese and Arabic. Protests in Los Angeles broke out June 6, spurred by immigration raids that resulted in dozens arrests of what authorities say were migrants and gang members. In a move state leaders criticized, US President Donald Trump -- who made immigration enforcement a pillar of his second term -- sent in California's National Guard, a stand-by military usually controlled by the governor. Trump said the deployment of hundreds of Marines, due to arrive in Los Angeles on June 10, was also necessary, despite objections from state officials. Images from the weekend of demonstrations show police spraying tear gas and at least three self-driving Waymo cars torched. According to reports, local police said law enforcement vehicles were targeted with rocks and fireworks during the upheaval and there is at least one news clip showing what appears to be a The clip shared online of the burning police vehicle does not come from that unrest, however. Reverse image searches reveal the British television channel Sky News published the same footage in May 2020 (archived here). The outlet reported that the clip was filmed during nationwide protests sparked by the police killing of George Floyd, an unarmed Black man, in the state of Minnesota. Image Screenshot of the SkyNews website taken June 9, 2025, with the original date of publication highlighted by AFP A photo report from a local Los Angeles NBC affiliate also included images of same police cruisers, identifiable by their numeric markings (archived here). Videos from the explosive 2020 protests, which swept across the United States, have been frequently misrepresented online in the years since, often to spread misleading claims about current events. California Governor Gavin Newsom responded to one post claiming the cop-car video came from the June 2025 protests (archived here). "This video is from 2020," he wrote. nia officials have stressed the majority of protesters have been peaceful -- and that they could maintain law and order themselves. The state of California has sued to block the use of the Guard troops and Newsom said he would also sue against the deployment of the Marines (archived here and here). Read more of AFP's reporting on US misinformation here.
