10/18/2018

BORDER/CENTRAL AMERICA/CONSPIRACY THEORY/DEMS/ELECTION/IMMIGRATION/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “President Donald Trump on Thursday [10-18-18] amped up his focus on immigration ahead of the midterm elections by claiming, without evidence, that Democrats were behind a group of Central American migrants trying to reach the U.S…Returning to the first issue that helped him vanquish more than a dozen Republican rivals in the 2016 campaign, the president emphasized the need to build a border wall, lest his supporters forget about reports of another caravan of 4,000 Central American migrants traveling from Honduras with hopes of entering the U.S. Trump, flirting with conspiracy theories about the possibility that the migrants are being paid off, said money was being ‘passed through’ those very people…Trump appeared to be referring to a video that Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), a frequent ally, posted on Twitter on Wednesday that supposedly depicted migrants in Honduras ‘giving cash’ to migrants in the Central American country as they set of for the U.S. Going even further, Gaetz called for an investigation to examine whether ‘US-backed NGOs’ or the financier George Soros, a frequent subject of conservative conspiracy theories, were behind the alleged payments. Trump himself tweeted out the video on Thursday.”

Christopher Cadelago and Brent D. Griffiths, “Trump, at rally, hints at conspiracy theories for migrant caravan,” Politico, October 18, 2018 10:58 pm