Donald Trump on Wednesday answered a question from a reporter representing TruNews , a media outlet run by a Christian preacher that promotes oddball conspiracy theories such as lizard people and satanic cannibals.
As Gizmodo reports, during Trump’s Wednesday press conference, a reporter identifying himself as Edward Szall said he was from TruNews , and asked the president a question about the Israel/Palestine conflict. Trump answered the question and then moved on.
Here’s the problem: though having a syllable in its name that sounds like the word “true,” TruNews is anything but. That is unless you genuinely believe that devil-worshiping lizard people are real. And Trump, who once refused to answer a question from a CNN journalist, calling them “fake news,” took a question from them.
Calling itself “the world’s leading news source that reports, analyzes, and comments on global events and trends with a conservative, orthodox Christian worldview,” it turns out that the site is run by Rick Wiles, a Florida preacher whose message would embarrass even many Christians.
For example, back in July, Wiles predicted that a coup was coming within 72 hours and that it would result in Donald Trump being decapitated on the White House lawn.
“Be prepared for a shootout in the White House… Be prepared for a leftist mo to tear down the gates, the fence at the White House and to go into the White House and to drag him out with his family and decapitate them on the lawn of the White House.”
That was on July 18; 72 hours later, there had been no coup nor has there been one as of this writing.
Edward Szall of the conspiracy theory outlet Trunews just asked Trump a question at the press conference.
Here’s him talking about how Pokemon is literally a tool of Satan: https://t.co/ufQ2qaWHWW
— Brian Tashman (@briantashman) September 26, 2018
In June, Wiles posited that God was planning a race war to punish America for abortion, referring to immigration as a “brown invasion.”
“We’ve already been invaded. We’re already being pushed off the land. It’s already happened. The judgment has been underway for years and we didn’t see it. God is bringing another people in to America and pushing the white Europeans off the land… We have a brown invasion that has come in. This is the land vomiting the people out.”
Jared Holt, a researcher with Right Wing Watch , says that Wiles has “bragged” about his reporters gaining access to the White House press pool. Further, Hold notes that Trump himself has been known to advance some beliefs that could be considered conspiracy theories, such as that Barack Obama wasn’t born in the United States. For this reason, says Holt, it’s “no surprise” that Trump would take a question from a reporter from a conspiracy news site.
