For years, Trump has promoted theories about his predecessor to distract from unwelcome news, elevate himself and excite his base. The details are rarely important.
Donald Trump launched his political career turbocharging the conspiratorial birther movement. Now Trump is trying to keep his presidency afloat with another theory about his predecessor: Obamagate.
Over the past three days, Trump has tweeted and railed about claims that President Barack Obama, in his final days in office, orchestrated a plot to damage the incoming president. “He got caught, OBAMAGATE!” Trump tweeted on Sunday, one of 126 tweets and retweets — the second-highest single-day total of his presidency — that kept returning to Obama.
The term has become an all-caps rallying cry for Trump. “OBAMAGATE makes Watergate look small time!” he tweeted on Monday. Trump then pinned an “OBAMAGATE!” tweet to the top of his profile to promote a segment from Fox News host Tucker Carlson. Continue reading.