LA Times: Trump Relies on 'Creepiest Kind' of Info

Including conspiracy theories, things he sees on TV, rumors from supermarket tabloids
By Jenn Gidman,  Newser Staff
Posted Apr 6, 2017 1:03 PM CDT
LA Times : Trump Relies on 'Creepiest Kind' of Info
Where does he get his info from?   (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

The Los Angeles Times has been hitting hard at President Trump with a multi-part editorial series taking on his dishonesty, his "dangerously authoritarian vision," and his "war on journalism." Thursday introduced the series' scathing fifth installation, this time on Trump's role as the nation's "conspiracy theorist in chief" and his reliance on "misinformation of the creepiest kind." That "intel," says the Times, consists of often unproven, racist bits and pieces he reportedly picks up from websites mired in conspiracy theories, supermarket tabloids, and TV talk shows, a habit the paper calls both "pathetic" and "alarming," with examples (he once tweeted that the Chinese created the "concept of global warming").

If the president is so willing to spew "wild, paranoid, unsubstantiated accusations," then "why should the nation believe what he says about a North Korean missile test, Russian troop movements in Europe or a natural disaster in the United States?" the editors wonder. The Times also looks wistfully back to when most hoped Trump would dump his "red-meat scare stories" once he moved into the Oval Office—a hope that's quickly fading. "He is allowing the credibility of his unimaginably powerful office to be exploited and wasted on crackpot ideas," the editors write. Part Five in its entirety is here; the sixth installment will be published Friday. (More opinion stories.)

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