![]() Trump is the Messiah who fights the so-called “deep state” (a clandestine network entrenched inside the government, bureaucracy, intelligence agencies, and other governmental entities, who secretly manipulate government and government policy). The theory claims that Democrats, all of Hollywood, and other liberal elites are involved in the sex-trafficking of children and murder of children to extend the life of the elites, who have found a way to brew the fountain of youth from the blood of innocents. The QAnon conspiracy theory is perhaps the most extreme disinformation campaign supporting Donald Trump’s reelection. For example, there are articles that discuss Trump’s character and authoritarian tendencies, his continuous lying, his unaccomplished promises, his impeachment (almost all Democrats and some Republicans believed that he was guilty), and his use of the Federal government to cover his crimes, to name a few. Trustworthy, evidence-based sources establish broad consensus among all but Republican officials and the president’s electoral base. In an academic paper, the author is typically enjoined from making such an assessment, but rational people, scientists, political leaders, psychologists, and experts of many shades (many from the president’s own party) concur with this evaluation. Trump and his enablers, the Republican Party, his administration, his news channels and media, and his supporters are responsible for the deaths of thousands of Americans due to incompetent management of the coronavirus pandemic, the collapse of American democratic norms and the rule of law, and the cruel treatment of immigrants, just to name some of the most prominent failures. By any moral or political standard, he is unfit for office, a compulsive liar, incompetent, arrogant, corrupt, ignorant, criminal, mean, petty, and narcissistic. By any measure, much of the rhetoric supporting Donald Trump is disinformation. The use of the hyphenated terms underscores their interaction for this paper. The problem is that in many cases it is not clear whether it is one or the other because of an ambiguous context or questions as to whether misinformation is being used in the service of disinformation (e.g., fake cures for the coronavirus). Misinformation need not involve intent it is merely false. The examples studied here are the disinformation campaigns that made Donald Trump the United States president, sustain his continuation in office, and promote his reelection.ĭisinformation occurs when the originator of the information intends to deceive. In order to address this topic, the research here draws on many fields: information studies, psychology, philosophy, communication studies, and media studies, among others. This paper investigates how disinformation-misinformation campaigns, particularly in the political arena, succeed and why they are so hard to challenge, defeat, or deflect. The paper concludes by discussing the dynamics of the Trump disinformation-misinformation ecology, creating an Age of Inflamed Grievances. These cognitive authorities also use emotional triggers to inflame Trump supporters, keeping them addicted by feeding their anger, resentment, or self-righteousness. ![]() The role of cognitive authorities like Fox News and right-wing social media sites are examined to show how the power of these media sources escalates and reinforces partisan views and the rejection of other cognitive authorities. It then explains how these factors sustain the variety and motivations of Trump supporters’ commitment to Trump. It then looks at psychological factors, conscious and unconscious, that predispose partisans to pursue partisan sources of information and reject non-partisan sources. Why do rational assessments of his presidency fail to have any traction? This paper looks at the conflation of knowledge and beliefs in partisan minds, how beliefs lead to self-deception and social self-deception and how they reinforce one another. Yet his approval rating tends to remain at 40%. By all rational standards, he is unfit for office, a compulsive liar, incompetent, arrogant, ignorant, mean, petty, and narcissistic. ![]() This paper lays out many of the factors that make disinformation or misinformation campaigns of Trump successful.
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