How Trump and his allies ran with Russian propaganda – Mother Jones

The concept comes directly from the Soviet game book: plant false information and use it to influence the attitudes of the people and the government of another country. This technique of “active measures” of the era of the Cold War seems to have been resurrected with an alarming success by the Kremlin in its attack on the 2016 presidential election – and was echo in the tactics used by President Donald Trump and his associates, according to Clint Watts, a principal researcher at Foreign Policy Research Institute.

“Part of the reason why active measures have worked in this American election is that the commander -in -chief sometimes used active Russian measures against his opponents,” said Watts, a former FBI agent.

The key to this equation was RT and Spoutnik International, two media sponsored by the Russian state. The two only reach relatively small audiences in the United States (RT should reach around 8 million people via cable television), but their impact has been greatly amplified online, with their repeated stories about what Watts calls “gray” conspiracy sites like Breitbart News and Infowars. Twitter robots and other social media accounts more amplify stories. And in several cases, Trump or his associates have directly cited russian bogus propaganda in a speech or an interview. Here are some examples:

A false report of a terrorist attack in a NATO base in Türkiye: Last July, RT and Spoutnik each reported a fire at the base of Inirlik, framing it as potential sabotage. The pro-Russian and pro-Trump Twitter accounts have spread and enlarged false reports, but traditional press organizations did not resume the report because it was not true, as Watts explained in a room for the daily beast. However, in mid -August, Paul Manafort – the president of Trump’s campaign at the time – climbed the history of a terrorist attack, complaining of CNN that the American media did not adequately cover it. Politifact has demystified Manafort’s claims, noting that the Turkish authorities had reported small peaceful demonstrations outside the base, but no real assault on the basis.

The case of the false e-mail Benghazi: On October 10, Wikileaks published a batch of pirated emails from the messaging account of the John Podesta campaign president. Around 5 pm HE that day, Sputnik News published a story on the emails of the Clinton campaign disclosed with the title “Hillary Confident: Benghazi was” avoidable “; negligence of the State Department ”. About an hour later, Trump told supporters at a Pennsylvania rally that Clinton Ally Sidney Blumenthal called Benghazi’s attack “almost certainly avoidable”. “It just came out a little time ago,” said Trump. These words were not really Blumenthal and Sputnik then deleted the story – but at that time, the title had spread far.

False complaints from omnipresent electoral fraud: RT has been trying to delegitimize the American electoral process since 2012 by calling for the voting system in the fraudulent United States, according to the reported version of the report that the national intelligence director published last January. In his testimony from the Senate, Watts described this the “number one theme” pushed by Russian outlets. In October 2016, a Kremlin controlled reflection group distributed a strategy document which said that Russia should end its pro-Trump propaganda “and instead of intensifying its messages on electoral fraud to undermine the legitimacy of the American electoral system and damage Clinton’s reputation in order to undermine its presidency”, according to a Reuters investigation.

This same month, Trump pushed strongly on the theme that the elections were faked; On October 17 Trump tweeted “Of course, there is large -scale electoral fraud during the day and before the ballot day.” The sources that his campaign reported were all demystified by Polifact, who noted that Trump also tweeted in 2012 on the dead voters who won Obama’s victory.

The Swedish attack which was not: Trump’s strategy to run with false information did not stop when he won the elections – and was not limited to the properties of the media belonging to Russia: he also used Fox News reports in a similar way. In February, Trump seemed to be involved during a rally in Florida that a terrorist attack had occurred the previous night in Sweden. Sweden itself had no idea what he meant and the Swedish embassy stretched out to ask for clarification. Twitter users, including many Swedes, ridiculed Trump’s declaration, with references ranging from Ikea to the character of the Swedish chief of “mupets”. Trump later said that he was referring to a Fox News article on violence that would have been perpetrated by refugees. This report, which was released the day before Trump’s rally, did not mention a specific attack linked to terrorism; He focused on the reports that rape and armed violence had increased since Sweden began to take a record number of refugees in 2015.

Electronic listening claims pushed by a Fox News personality: In March, even if Trump’s claim on Trump Tower’s observer was directly demystified by senior American intelligence officials, the president seized an baseless affirmation of Fox News analyst Andrew Napolitano, that British spies had listened to Trump at the request of former president Obama. Fox News later disavowed Napolitano’s declaration. Trump continued to repeat his conviction that he had been listened to, even if US and British intelligence officials insist that there is no basis for complaints.

The murder of the DNC staff member, Seth Rich: Trump’s allies recently pushed another story that started as a online conspiracy theory and was fueled by Russian media. Sean Hannity de Fox broadcast several segments by focusing on the unfounded affirmation that Rich was behind the covers of Clinton’s campaign, then murdered for his actions, even if the police said that he had probably been killed in a flight attempt. When the statements were completely demystified, Fox retracted the history of his website – but not before having been spread by Trump Ally and the former president of the Newt Gingrich Chamber. Even after Fox has shot history, Gingrich told Washington Post: “I think it’s worth watching.”

In his testimony from the Senate, Watts noted that Trump is vulnerable to a new manipulation of the Russians: he warned that the Twitter accounts linked to Russia are actively trying to hire the president by sending him conspiracy theories. “Until we obtain a firm base on the facts and fiction in our own country, get an agreement on the facts,” said Watts, “we are going to have a big problem.”