How evangelical Christians and social media helped Trump weaponize conspiracy theories

Conspiracy theories are having a moment, as they often do in times of chaos. Many Americans are struggling to make sense of the various billowing cultural headwinds: seemingly endless wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, extreme partisan division at home, an executive branch battling scandals and consolidating power at an unprecedented scale.

As people struggle to make sense of it all, they seek out what Northeastern University professor Sarah Riccardi-Swartz calls "supportive scaffolding." They look for points of connection between these various crises, hoping to find some sort of throughline.

Enter conspiracy theories. Distilled ideas — no matter how irrational — that seem to prop up the otherwise unstable structure of reality.

Riccardi-Swartz says that starting in the late 1990s, certain groups have shown a particular interest in conspiracy theories.

In the years leading up to Trump's first administration, many Americans celebrated a series of historic gains in civil rights and cultural equity for marginalized racial, sexual and gender identities. But for people who saw those gains coming at their expense — especially evangelical Christians, many of whom viewed them as a threat to traditional white male authority — they began to crave an explanation.

Enter Trump — who, Riccardi-Swartz told The Show, hasn't just embraced conspiracy theories — he’s weaponized them.

Jeremy Swartz

Full conversation

SARAH RICCARDI-SWARTZ: You know, we see in, in the Trump administration, and I think we saw this in the first Trump administration as well, that a real openness to embracing conspiratorial rhetoric, to positioning people who believe in and propagate conspiracies within the administration.

And Trump himself has used conspiracy theories to sort of jab at his political enemies. He talked about the birther conspiracy with Obama, and he tied the Clintons to Pizzagate and to Epstein. Even more recently, he said that James Comey was calling for his assassination. And we now see where James Comey is.

SAM DINGMAN: Yeah. And, you know, as you're saying that, Sarah, I feel like I'm seeing a connection that I hadn't considered previously, which is, you know, if there was this preexisting appetite that predates Trump, a bit about the decline of white male authority, and Trump has come along as a sort of an avatar for the idea of restoring that authority.

It makes sense to me, based on what you're saying, that that same cohort of people would want to believe the conspiracy theories that are then being propagated by Trump because they already believe that the authority that he represents has been under threat.

And so, of course, it would make sense if he says to them, no, no, don't you see? These are all the same efforts that I am pushing back against the attempts to, you know, say that I didn't win the election. It's not the will of the people. It is those same shadowy forces that you already believe exist.

RICCARDI-SWARTZ: Absolutely. And that message of persecution and some sort of larger conspiracy has really broad appeal with disaffected communities. And that, and that is particularly clear among right-wing and far-right Christian communities who believe they're being persecuted by what they see as a sort of ethos of liberal progressivism. And his rhetoric validates their idea that they are sort of persecuted patriots.

DINGMAN: Yes. I wonder if you could talk about this a bit more, Sarah, because you are a professor of religion and anthropology, and as you have written and spoken about, faith is a tremendous part of this that I think, broadly speaking, maybe until the recent renewed discourse about it in the wake of Charlie Kirk's murder, maybe people have not thought about so much.

How does faith fit into the kind of appetite environment for conspiracy theories?

RICCARDI-SWARTZ: The desire to believe and to accept something that you cannot see and you cannot feel in sort of the natural world, in a biological way, is part of the conversation in a very ready, everyday kind of way for evangelical Christians.

So they accept and believe that God is all around them. They accept and believe that the Holy Spirit is guiding them to do certain things, and that understanding of faith allows them to accept other things as well, that they believe inform their faith or that their faith helps inform.

DINGMAN: It seems like the technological environment that we find ourselves in has also really supercharged this. And I know it's sort of hack to say social media plays a big role in some sort of social ill, but it does seem particularly relevant here.

RICCARDI-SWARTZ: I think the speed with which we get information is sometimes alarming because we have the tendency to also get mis- and disinformation. So misinformation is just getting facts wrong. When misinformation becomes disinformation, that's when information is entirely focused on misleading a public.

And that's when I get concerned, because there is a desire to ideologically persuade people through technological means. And that for me is the frustrating part of social media, because it has that ability to allow for disinformation on a massive scale in a rapid way.

DINGMAN: Yeah, I mean, it's very interesting, you know, because a lot of times you see people who believe in these very fringe ideas justifying it by saying something to the effect of like, well, I'm a free thinker and free thinking, generally speaking, is a good idea, but free thinking has to be informed thinking.

RICCARDI-SWARTZ: Absolutely. And you know, there is, because we have access to search engines now and AI, there is a tendency to do your own research, right. And doing your own research is different than verifying, which is actually seeking out credible sources. Doing your own research can take you down a very murky path of sources that are not credible.

And I think that the, the trust your own research or do your own research is part of this anxiety that people have that they are not getting the truth and what they want is the truth. And sometimes conspiracy theories offer that for them in a way that facts and figures won't.

DINGMAN: Right. It offers something that seems like the truth and would be satisfying because it would be an answer.

RICCARDI-SWARTZ: Yeah. And it also sometimes then re-verifies their own view of the world and makes them feel like they're empowered and they know what they're talking about.

DINGMAN: Yeah. Well, in that vein, as a last question for you, Sarah, I wonder if you would be willing to weigh in on one of the most persistent, I don't even know if conspiracy theories is the right phrase for this, but the information phenomenon of the Epstein files is such a persistent and confounding issue for both people on the left and for the Trump administration.

I wonder if, as somebody who studies these, these matters, there is something about the questions that underpin what's in the Epstein files that feels singular or unique to you.

RICCARDI-SWARTZ: There are so many factors in terms of the Epstein files that create this, what I would say a really robust conspiracy theory around it. There are people in the story that we can sympathize with. There is a villain in the story, the concept of Jeffrey Epstein being part of this satanic cabal of pedophiles.

And so the fact that he is not releasing the files creates a ton of anxiety for people who believed that he would be the one to defeat the cabal. That creates a sense of that he's backtracking and reinforces the conspiracy. It actually enlarges it.

DINGMAN: Wow. So if we go back to this idea that part of what's powerful about Trump and his relationship to conspiracy theories is that he has become an avatar for the idea that a cabal exists that is gradually minimizing the influence of certain groups of people.

The Epstein files in some way suggest a truly terrifying idea, which is, what if Trump is part of the cabal? Or what if he can't defeat the cabal?

RICCARDI-SWARTZ: And then what happens to the figure of Trump among those who support him? What does he become for them? And that's the real question. If the Epstein files are never released in full, then what happens to the figure of Trump? And that's, you know, that is something that I don't think either you or I are able to forecast at this point.

DINGMAN: No, I don't think so. But I do feel a little bit closer to understanding it through this conversation.