Six months into his presidency, Donald Trump has turned the federal government into a conspiracy theory factory, deploying taxpayer resources to investigate debunked claims while his administration grinds to a halt chasing internet fantasies, the Washington Post reported Monday.
When Trump falsely claimed millions of dead people were collecting Social Security, his administration spent 11 weeks overhauling the agency's database. When he bought into racist conspiracy theories about White South African farmers being "systematically massacred," U.S. officials developed plans to resettle 1,000 of them as refugees.
Most recently, the Justice Department wrapped up a months-long investigation using "considerable FBI resources" to debunk internet conspiracy theories about Jeffrey Epstein's death—concluding what three previous investigations already determined: Epstein had no client list and died by suicide.
"We used to say, 'Well, it's just some guy in his basement, he doesn't have the power to do anything,'" said Joseph Uscinski, a University of Miami political scientist. "But people in government have power to do seriously damaging things. That is the issue now."
The Social Security fiasco exemplifies Trump's dangerous approach. Despite no evidence of fraud, the administration forced agency employees to spend months moving 12.3 million long-dead people to different databases.
"For at least a month or two, that was multiple people's only job," one employee revealed to the Post.
Former Social Security administrator Martin O'Malley told the Post, "They are spending a lot of effort and a lot of money to give cover to the big lie—in this case, the big lie that lots of dead people are receiving Social Security."
Trump's obsession with South African farmers proved equally baseless. He confronted South African President Cyril Ramaphosa in the Oval Office, showing him a video of what he claimed were "more than 1,000 graves of murdered farmers"—which turned out to be protest props, not actual graves.
The administration has also launched investigations into Biden's use of an autopen machine, despite such devices being standard presidential tools since George W. Bush.
Under RFK Jr., Health and Human Services is now investigating the thoroughly debunked link between vaccines and autism, with Kennedy promising a "massive testing and research effort" involving "hundreds of scientists."
"When people who have power act on conspiracy theories, especially if they are in government, they can do so in a way that can seriously harm others," Uscinski warned. "When you start chasing phantoms, you will end up chasing real people."
