[GUEST ACCESS MODE: Data is scrambled or limited to provide examples. Make requests using your API key to unlock full data. Check https://lunarcrush.ai/auth for authentication information.]  Murtaza Solangi [@murtazasolangi](/creator/twitter/murtazasolangi) on x 619.9K followers Created: 2025-07-20 05:24:55 UTC “Donald Trump, who has always had an instinct for applying pop culture tropes to politics, made his own crossover from “Apprentice” host to Fox News favorite by adopting the false conspiracy theory that Barack Obama had not been born in the United States. After he became president, he used conspiracy language not simply as an excuse — a stolen election, the machinations of the “deep state” — but as a story to hold and unite an audience. For a leader, conspiracy theories allow you to hold power yet pose as a challenger to larger powers. For followers, they transform mere political allegiance into participation in a grand story. The QAnon grand mythology — which cast President Trump as a warrior against an elite cabal of pedophiles, and which he amplified— resembled a work of multimedia storytelling, a labyrinth of text drops, video analysis, parsing and close reading. Now, one of the conspiracist fixations that the president encouraged is blowing back against his own administration. Followers of his own MAGA movement are rebelling over the decision not to release additional files related to the financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. It was — as seen through the narrative held by much of his base for years — as if the serial’s hero had suddenly taken a heel turn. As anyone who has followed a mystery-box TV drama for years knows, the best way to alienate a fan base is to deny it final answers. The president lashed out in response. He called his upset followers “weaklings.” He cast the investigation as a new counter-conspiracy with him as its victim — the files, in his words, “written” by a consortium of enemies including former President Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. It was as if, on his Truth Social account, he were trying to rewrite the Epstein mythology on the fly, retconning in a new origin story. But the thing about conspiracy theories is that they absorb their own refutation; telling viewers, “There’s nothing to see here,” only encourages them to break out the magnifying glasses. Mr. Trump is discovering what, as a former TV professional, he should have already known: Once you’re hooked on this kind of thriller, it’s not so easy to just turn it off.”  XXXXX engagements  **Related Topics** [york times](/topic/york-times) [realworld](/topic/realworld) [united states](/topic/united-states) [barack obama](/topic/barack-obama) [conspiracy theory](/topic/conspiracy-theory) [donald trump](/topic/donald-trump) [$nyt](/topic/$nyt) [Post Link](https://x.com/murtazasolangi/status/1946803483992084574)
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Murtaza Solangi @murtazasolangi on x 619.9K followers
Created: 2025-07-20 05:24:55 UTC
“Donald Trump, who has always had an instinct for applying pop culture tropes to politics, made his own crossover from “Apprentice” host to Fox News favorite by adopting the false conspiracy theory that Barack Obama had not been born in the United States. After he became president, he used conspiracy language not simply as an excuse — a stolen election, the machinations of the “deep state” — but as a story to hold and unite an audience. For a leader, conspiracy theories allow you to hold power yet pose as a challenger to larger powers. For followers, they transform mere political allegiance into participation in a grand story. The QAnon grand mythology — which cast President Trump as a warrior against an elite cabal of pedophiles, and which he amplified— resembled a work of multimedia storytelling, a labyrinth of text drops, video analysis, parsing and close reading. Now, one of the conspiracist fixations that the president encouraged is blowing back against his own administration. Followers of his own MAGA movement are rebelling over the decision not to release additional files related to the financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
It was — as seen through the narrative held by much of his base for years — as if the serial’s hero had suddenly taken a heel turn. As anyone who has followed a mystery-box TV drama for years knows, the best way to alienate a fan base is to deny it final answers. The president lashed out in response. He called his upset followers “weaklings.” He cast the investigation as a new counter-conspiracy with him as its victim — the files, in his words, “written” by a consortium of enemies including former President Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. It was as if, on his Truth Social account, he were trying to rewrite the Epstein mythology on the fly, retconning in a new origin story. But the thing about conspiracy theories is that they absorb their own refutation; telling viewers, “There’s nothing to see here,” only encourages them to break out the magnifying glasses. Mr. Trump is discovering what, as a former TV professional, he should have already known: Once you’re hooked on this kind of thriller, it’s not so easy to just turn it off.”
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Related Topics york times realworld united states barack obama conspiracy theory donald trump $nyt