alex jones

Alex Jones turns on Trump: ‘The brain’s not doing too hot’

On Tuesday, longtime MAGA pundit Alex Jones had some hard words for supporters of President Donald Trump: “He’s gone, and that’s it.” While Jones has been an avid Trump backer since his first campaign for office, he now says that the president’s health, polls, and actions in Iran make him unfit for leadership.

Following news that Trump’s approval rating has sunk to a career low, Jones asserted that the numbers don’t bode well for MAGA’s upcoming electoral chances, saying, “Trump is in freefall, and that means we’re in freefall in the midterms.”

According to Jones, Trump’s health is a major issue. The president’s massively swollen ankles, Jones said, are a sign of “heart failure. And he does look sick. And he does babble and sound like the brain’s not doing too hot.”

These health problems, guessed Jones, may be contributing to Trump’s erratic decision-making in regard to the war in Iran, which in turn reflects poorly on the wider MAGA movement.

“We have to say too bad. Trump’s run off the edge of a cliff, and I don’t think he’s coming back from it,” said Jones. “Triage him, isolate him, and explain that we’re not him and we’re morally against this blowing up of Iranian water supplies he’s talking about. War crime any way you cut it. Put pressure on him not to do that, and just continue on the moral, proper way to behave.”

Jones has expressed displeasure with the war previously, pointing out in early March how it conflicted with the messaging that landed Trump a second term.

"This is supposed to be America First," Jones said at the time. "We’re not supposed to be running around doing this anymore.”

What’s more, Jones suggested he’s not the only Trump ally to notice a problem, saying, “You can see Hegseth and the press secretary freaking out. They’re just being loyal. They think it’s the lesser of two evils, ok, but Trump needs an intervention. He needs to take some time off.”

Jones’s advice to his fellow MAGAs is simple: it’s time to move on.

“We cut bait on Trump and we mobilize against the democrats,” said Jones. “Trump is just a minor figure.”

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MAGA influencers losing audiences after defending Trump's Venezuela invasion

Several prominent commentators within the MAGA movement have ignited an uproar among their audiences for supporting President Donald Trump's invasion of Venezuela.

That's according to a Monday article in The Bulwark, which reported that far-right figures like Nick Fuentes, Tim Pool, Alex Jones and Gavin McInnes are all getting blowback for defending the ouster of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. Fuentes (an outspoken defender of Adolf Hitler) posted over the weekend to Telegram: "TAKE THE OIL. THE WESTERN HEMISPHERE IS OURS." His post garnered more than 5,500 thumbs-down emoji responses, outperforming the 4,600 heart emoji responses.

Pool was similarly ecstatic in the aftermath of the attack, writing on X: "The US economy about to boom. Tons of free oil heading our way." One of his followers responded: "It does not matter how much oil Venezuela has if you can't get it, and we can't get it."

"They don't have the drilling equipment, they don't have the workforce, they don't have the supplies, they don't have the security, they don't have the storage, they don't have the roads, they don't have the pipelines, they don't have the power grid, they don't have the ports," the X user wrote. "And thats the short version of this, theres a much much longer version where things get even worse."

Bulwark writers Will Sommer and Andrew Egger also observed that pro-Trump conspiracy theorist Alex Jones – was sued for falsely claiming on his InfoWars show that the Sandy Hook mass shooting in 2012 was staged — "tied himself in knots after the raid to defend the president." While Jones has frequently spoken out against "neocon war" efforts in the past like former President George W. Bush's invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, he claimed that Trump's attack on Venezuela was different as it was against the "globalist rules-based order."

"Thomas Jefferson would’ve gone to war with Venezuela!" Jones said in a video posted to X.

Jones' competitors weren't buying his argument. Far-right influencer Stew Peters (an avowed antisemite) implied Jones had been compromised by Israeli propaganda. Former InfoWars host Owen Shroyer called MAGA "slop-eating sheeple" for supporting the Venezuela invasion. Jones' former attorney Robert Barnes lamented that his ex-client had been "suckered into regime change support."

Click here to read the Bulwark's full article.

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'A punch in the face': MAGA back onboard with free speech after Alex Jones’ slap-down

MAGA influencer and network owner Alex Jones has nowhere to turn now that the Supreme Court has declined his appeal Tuesday to overturn a $1.4 billion libel judgment a lower court ordered against him over his false comments about the 2012 Sandy Hook school massacre.

CNN reports Jones faces intense legal pressure after juries in Connecticut and Texas found him liable in 2022 for defamation and emotional distress over his lies about the Sandy Hook massacre, in which 20 first graders and six educators were killed. The steep $1 billion-plus decision is forcing Jones to sell his far-right platform, Infowars, to pay damages. A separate emergency appeal Jones filed at the Supreme Court claims Infowars has an average of 30 million daily listeners

“The result is a financial death penalty by fiat imposed on a media defendant whose broadcasts reach millions,” Jones told the Supreme Court in a September appeal.

MAGA elements on social media raged against what they purported to be the Supreme Court’s attack on free speech.

“The US Supreme Court rejecting Alex Jones's appeal is a punch in the face of free speech!” posted one critic on X. “The guy may have exaggerated with the Sandy Hook theory, but punishing him with $1.4 billion is just another censorship move disguised as justice. Outrageous!

“Violation of free speech. All of you [complaining] about free speech and not [complaining] about this are hypocrites,” posted another X user — who incongruously reposted a Sept. 11 call to “expose” another user who’d relished the assassination of Charlie Kirk. “Expose him. He doesn’t deserve to counsel anybody,” the user shared.

Other X commenters delighted in Jones’ depleted options.

“Cry me a river Alex!” posted one commenter.

“Good. The foot of justice should remain on his fat a—— neck,” said another.

“What's next for Alex Jones?” asked still another. “Appeal to the European Court of Human Rights?

Earlier this year, a federal judge ordered that Infowars’ parent company, Free Speech Systems, be turned over to a court-appointed receiver, who would be responsible for selling the assets. The order paves the way for satirical news outlet ”The Onion” to revive its bid for the platform.

Read the CNN report on the Supreme Court development at this link.

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'Alternate reality': What happened when an NYT reporter immersed himself in far-right media

One common explanation for the outcome of the 2024 presidential election is that the far-right's vast social media ecosystem was able to reach more Americans than traditional media, influencing a decisive number of voters in key battleground states. One New York Times reporter decided to put himself in those Americans' shoes for a week and document the results.

In a Friday article for the Times, journalist Stuart A. Thompson — who covers right-wing media — dove head-first into Rumble, which is the preferred video news platform for the extreme right. As Thompson noted, Rumble began as a YouTube alternative that was known for cat videos until the January 6, 2021 siege of the U.S. Capitol. Once YouTube banned multiple accounts for their defense of insurrectionists, those content creators migrated their channels and audiences to Rumble.

As part of his research process, Thompson wrote that he watched approximately 47 hours of Rumble content for his report. For one week, Thompson deactivated all of his news apps, filtered out emails from news outlets and newsletters and exclusively watched Rumble content creators like Dan Bongino, Roseanne Barr, Candace Owens, Russell Brand and Clayton Morris, among others.

These are just a few of the most popular Rumble commentators. Other top Rumble contributors include conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and misogynist influencer Andrew Tate. Stew Peters — a former bounty hunter who has roughly 556,000 followers — has praised Adolf Hitler and called for shooting nonprofit workers who help undocumented immigrants.

"Just a few hours into the experiment, it was clear that I was falling into an alternate reality fueled almost entirely by outrage," Thompson wrote, noting that he could feel his worldview and perspectives shift the more he was exposed to far-right narratives.

"When I described to my wife what I was hearing on Rumble, she said I was right to feel uneasy because the world I was immersing myself in sounded genuinely awful," he continued. "Hour by hour, Rumble’s hosts stoked fears about nearly everything: culture wars, transgender Americans and even a potential World War III."

Thompson reported that while he expected blowback from Rumble contributors after his article went live on the Times' site, he was surprised to get public backlash before publication. He recalled one interaction in which Jake Pentland — Roseanne Barr's son, who co-hosts her podcast — posted an email inquiry he sent to X, which resulted in him getting doxxed and brigaded with hate from Rumble viewers.

"Rumble’s chief executive reposted [Pentland's tweet], then Elon Musk reposted that to his more than 200 million followers," Thompson wrote. "My phone number was visible, and apparently seen more than 50 million times on the platform, so I was soon flooded with angry phone calls and texts calling my article (which hadn’t yet been published) a 'hit job' focused on World War III."

After the election, Pew Research found that roughly 37% of Americans under 30 — and approximately 20% of all American adults — get their news from "social media influencers" rather than from traditional news outlets. 63% of those influencers are men, and 77% of those influencers have no background or ties to any news organization. A majority of influencers lean conservative, and 85% of them have a presence on X. 50% of news influencers are active on Instagram, and 44% also have a YouTube presence.

"These Americans also say they get a variety of different types of information, from basic facts and opinions to funny posts and breaking news," Pew reported last month. "When it comes to opinions, most who see them say they are an even mix of opinions they agree and disagree with (61%), but far more say they mostly agree with what they see (30%) than mostly disagree (2%)."

Click here to read Thompson's report for the Times in its entirety (subscription required).

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How Sandy Hook families got the last laugh in legal battle with Alex Jones

Far-right conspiracy theorist Alex Jones' media assets were officially sold to satirical news site The Onion on Thursday. And apparently their acquisition was greenlit by the families of the Sandy Hook school shooting victims Jones defamed.

According to the Washington Post, The Onion officially took ownership of Jones' Infowars website, along with its related social media accounts, production studio, email list, archive and intellectual property. Sandy Hook families were apparently so in favor of The Onion securing the winning bid that they accepted a lower buyout amount to ensure that the humor publication would win ownership of Jones' media empire. The Onion's winning bid came despite Jones' followers hoping for a bailout from far-right activist Roger Stone and/or tech billionaire Elon Musk.

"We were told this outcome would be nearly impossible, but we are no strangers to impossible fights. The world needs to see that having a platform does not mean you are above accountability — the dissolution of Alex Jones’ assets and the death of Infowars is the justice we have long awaited and fought for," stated Sandy Hook parent Robbie Parker, whose six year-old daughter Emilie was among the 20 people killed in the 2012 massacre.

The Post further reported that the nonprofit group Everytown for Gun Safety, which was formed in the aftermath of the Sandy Hook shooting, will serve as the "exclusive advertiser" for the Onion in its takeover of Infowars. Currently, the Infowars website is a blank white screen with the text: "Site unavailable till further notice."

It's unclear how much The Onion paid to acquire Jones' media company in the bankruptcy lawsuit that kicked off after Sandy Hook families won a $1.5 billion judgment, but Onion CEO Ben Collins said his company's acquisition of Jones' Infowars assets included the conspiracy theorist's massive stockpile of supplements. Collins told the Post the supplements were "another joke that we have to figure out."

In a satirical post as the fictional CEO of The Onion's make-believe parent company, the publication said it would continue Infowars' "storied tradition of scaring the site's users with lies until they fork over their cold, hard cash." The statement also promised to "immediately" halt the sale of Jones' supplements.

"We plan to collect the entire stock of the Infowars warehouses into a large vat and boil the contents down into a single candy bar-sized omnivitamin that one executive (I will not name names) may eat in order to increase his power and perhaps become immortal," the post read.

In a post to the social media platform Bluesky, Collins said the original idea to buy Infowars came from a user on the platform who suggested The Onion bid on Jones' assets because it would be funny. Collins also promised to turn Infowars into "a very funny, very stupid website."

"[P]eople on Bluesky told us it would be funny to buy InfoWars. And those people were right," Collins wrote. "This is the funniest thing that has ever happened."

Click here to read the Post's report in full (subscription required).

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GOP Senate hopeful tied to Alex Jones would be 'gift to Democrats' if nominated: columnist

The Minnesota Republican Party has made an endorsement in the state's 2024 U.S. Senate race: Former basketball star Royce White — a far-right MAGA conspiracy theorist with a history of antisemitic and anti-gay remarks. If White wins his party's nomination in August, he will be up against incumbent Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar in the general election.

In the past, White was a Black Lives Matter activist. But that was before he took a far-right turn and became a major ally of "War Room" host Steve Bannon and Infowars' Alex Jones.

In her May 24 column, liberal New York Times opinion writer Michelle Goldberg argues that a White nomination would likely be a major "gift" for Democrats. She wrote that in one appearance on Jones' show, White suggested police would one day forcibly vaccinate children, prompting Jones to say, "you’re awesome, you’re dead-on, and we’re going to learn a lot from you." She lamented that someone with such extreme views has been endorsed by the Minnesota GOP.

"If he is the Republican nominee," Goldberg writes, "White will probably be a gift to Democrats this cycle, particularly at a time when Republicans hope to exploit liberal divides over Israel. But while the mainstreaming of figures like White may be useful to Democrats in the short term, in the long term, it's a sign of a collapsed consensus about the nature of reality that bodes ill for liberal democracy."

Goldberg discussed White's campaign with Michael Brodkorb, former deputy chair of the Minnesota GOP and a critic of its current ultra-MAGA direction.

Brodkorb told Goldberg, "Right now, there's a highly motivated core of Alex Jones, Steve Bannon-esque Republicans (in Minnesota)…. The party's going to have an obligation, in some ways, to support the endorsement process."

Goldberg notes that any Republican "who takes White" in Minnesota will "have to go up against both the establishment and the insurgent wing of the party."

"If a challenger succeeds in wresting the nomination from (White)," Goldberg observes, "that person's reward will be an uphill contest against Amy Klobuchar, who has, according to one recent poll, a 54 percent approval rating in the state."

Michelle Goldberg's full New York Times column is available at this link (subscription required).

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Here Are 6 Stunning Facts About Infowars’ Alt-Right Conspiracy Buff Jerome Corsi

Prior to the 2000s, far-right conspiracy theorist and author Jerome Corsi was little known in the publishing world and earned his living in the financial services sector. But in recent years, Corsi (who turned 72 on August 31) has become a prominent figure on the alt-right—and in 2017, he left his position as a staff writer for World Net Daily to become the Washington bureau chief for Alex Jones’ Infowars. World Net Daily is so far to the right that even right-wing journalists for the National Review and the Weekly Standard shy away from it, but it was a good place for Corsi to build his brand and promote way-out conspiracy theories. And at Infowars, conspiracy theories—however outrageous or over the top—are always welcome.

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