One of the most brutal images to understand what American politics has become took place on July 29. That day, Anthony Fauci, director for 38 years of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases of the United States, appeared before a Senate committee. The face of the pandemic fight and main medical advisor to Joe Biden, 85, was subjected to a harsh interrogation by Republicans, led by Senator Rand Paul, who have accused him for years of lying about the origin of the coronavirus, funding research in Wuhan, and the existence of secret biological laboratories worldwide, manipulating recommendations on masks, vaccines, and lockdowns for political control or to benefit the pharmaceutical industry, or coordinating a conspiracy to silence scientists advocating for the "lab origin."
Fauci, who received a preemptive pardon from Joe Biden in his final days in office to prevent him from ending up in prison or ruined, repeatedly invoked the Fifth Amendment, the right in the Constitution not to answer questions that could have criminal consequences, while some lawmakers openly insisted he should end up in jail, and government members posted memes with doctored images wearing handcuffs.
The conspiracy phenomenon is essential to understand the United States and much of the world right now. It was crucial for Trump's reelection, driven by various movements like QAnon supporters, who claim there is a secret elite of politicians, businessmen, and celebrities, led by the Clintons, controlling the country and running a massive network of pedophilia and child trafficking from pizzerias, tunnels, and sewers, with some members even being reptilians or beings capable of changing appearance. According to the theory, Donald Trump secretly fights against this "cabal" and was preparing for their exposure and mass imprisonment.
Dr. Anthony Fauci appears before the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs, in late July.AP
But that same ecosystem of distrust that for years fed on ideas about the so-called deep state, vaccines, or the FBI no longer distinguishes between enemies and allies. The controversy over the Epstein case has led a part of the MAGA universe to now accuse the Trump Administration, the Department of Justice, and even figures like former Attorney General Pam Bondi or FBI Director Kash Patel of hiding information to protect the elites. The demands for absolute transparency that were previously directed against Democrats and officials are now turned against those in power.
In recent months, there has been a split within the MAGA world. A phenomenon with significant figures: Tucker Carlson said he felt "tormented" for having supported Trump; Marjorie Taylor Greene apologized for believing falsehoods after being called a "traitor" by the president himself; Candace Owens said she felt "ashamed" for endorsing him after the Iran bombing; and both Greene and Owens, along with Alex Jones, have suggested that Trump's cabinet should consider the 25th Amendment to remove him. In recent weeks, even a queen of wild conspiracies like Laura Loomer, a friend of the president, fell off the horse on her way to Kiev, saying that Russian propaganda had brainwashed her for years.
It is the result of turning permanent suspicion into the basic political tool, something that has become the raison d'être of hundreds of blogs, podcasts, and streamings. When the dominant message shifts from institutions failing to none deserving trust and all being against the people, controlling any message becomes impossible, as Trump discovered with desperation, in the Epstein case but also with the Iran war, with the resignation of officials denouncing the "influence" of Israel in the Executive.
Trump is the person who has contributed the most to fueling the conspiracy beast. That's why he always talks about Barack Hussein Obama, after launching his political career playing with the false claim about the birthplace of the then-president and a supposed fake birth certificate. Trump has spent the last decade spreading all kinds of outlandish theories about electoral fraud. In 2020, but also afterwards. It's something he repeats almost every day. Just like all kinds of narratives about immigrant invasions, emptying prisons and psychiatric hospitals in the United States, or Haitians in Ohio eating people's pets.
The problem is that conspiratorial logic does not understand loyalties. It thrives on the conviction that there is always a hidden truth and that any official explanation is part of a cover-up. Once that political culture is established, not even those who helped create it can assume they will be exempt from it. This was immediately evident after the assassination of the conservative influencer and activist Charlie Kirk, when those figures from the MAGA world began to talk about the involvement of secret services and allies of the United States, such as Israel or France, and completely rejected the detainee's authorship of the shootings.
Perhaps where it has been most evident is with the repeated assassination attempts suffered by Trump, which have multiplied skeptical voices. 30% of Americans believe that at least one of the assassination attempts against Trump was staged, according to a NewsGuard/YouGov survey conducted in May of this year. 24% believe that the shots fired by Butler in Pennsylvania in 2024 and the incident at the White House Correspondents' Dinner last April were staged. There are even elaborate theories about Trump's ear wound that left an iconic image of the campaign. Podcasters like Joe Rogan or Tim Dillon have toyed with the idea of this staging in front of millions of people.
Other theories circulating on the internet involve the White House Ballroom, whose construction a federal court ordered to halt last Friday. The underground construction associated with the new ballroom complex has fueled the conspiracy that Trump is preparing a bunker from which to govern indefinitely, protect himself from a rebellion, and avoid leaving power after 2028. With or without the deep state's collaboration, as there are elaborate fictions about intelligence officials, FBI, judges, prosecutors, and unelected bureaucrats having spent years trying to destroy Trump and prevent him from governing. In April 2026, before leaving office, the Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, presented documents she described as evidence of a conspiracy to fabricate the case that led to Trump's first impeachment.
Speculations inevitably also affect the president's health, with photographers targeting his discolored hands every day. This year, Trump appears on camera much less than in 2025, and rumors of hospitalizations or secret visits to Walter Reed Hospital on the outskirts of Washington have multiplied, with entire floors emptied unexpectedly and stories on Reddit about constant cover-ups. Not to mention his possible cognitive decline or even the weekend rumor that he was dead and being replaced. The same thing that happened and that Trump himself fueled about Biden is now turning against him.
The same dynamic affected the thesis that 11 scientists and researchers linked to space and nuclear programs had died or disappeared in a short time, leading to an investigation by the House Oversight Committee, which sent formal letters to Secretary of War Pete Hegseth and FBI Director Kash Patel. Trump himself described the matter as "quite serious." Or that inspires far-right white nationalist Nick Fuentes to spread an elaborate conspiracy theory that JD Vance was handpicked as vice president to be "a tool of powerful forces in the tech industry."
In April, after Trump threatened to wipe out Iranian civilization and portrayed himself on social media as Jesus Christ, his former friend Tucker Carlson spent an entire show wondering whether the president might be the Antichrist. He literally drew on a concept that obsesses one of the tech industry's leading figures, Peter Thiel—Vance's mentor—who travels the world giving lectures on the subject.