Fact check: The five wildest conspiracy theories from Trump’s late-night posting spree

By Daniel Dale, CNN

(CNN) — President Donald Trump promoted a bunch of unfounded conspiracy theories during a late-night social media posting spree on Monday.

Trump wrote or shared more than 150 posts on his Truth Social platform between 9 p.m. and midnight. Many of them were unremarkable political fare, but others were bananas – outlandish conspiratorial tales the president shared with his 11-plus million followers even though they were detached from reality.

Here is a fact check of (arguably) the five wildest.

A false conspiracy theory about Michelle Obama

Trump shared a social media post from notorious conspiracy peddler Alex Jones that said, “WILD: Michelle Obama May Have Used Biden’s Autopen in the Final Days of His Disastrous Administration to Pardon Key Individuals, Patrick Byrne Reveals.” Both Trump’s post and Jones’ post included a video of Byrne – a businessman who has promoted unfounded conspiracy theories about the 2020 election – claiming in an interview with Jones, “I think there were four or five pardons she gave.”

There is no basis for this tale. A fictional story had previously spread among pro-Trump conspiracy theorists on social media that Michelle Obama had snuck into the Oval Office alone during the Biden presidency and “grabbed the autopen” to grant pardons; that simply did not happen.

A false conspiracy theory about the Biden White House

Trump shared a social media post in which pro-Trump social media commentator Mila Joy wrote, “Jeffrey Zients, Bidens Chief of Staff, says that even though the paper he is reading SAYS he approved the use of the autopen, that he actually DIDNT APPROVE it. Someone else FORGED HIS APPROVAL!” As supposed evidence of a forgery, Mila Joy included a 14-second video clip of Zients testifying before the House Oversight Committee in September about an email related to pardons Biden granted at the end of his presidency.

But the 14-second video left out critical context in which Zients made clear to the committee that the email was not forged.

The video showed Zients being asked about an email that was sent under his name on the last night of Biden’s term, which said, “I approve the use of the autopen for the execution of all the following pardons. Thanks, JZ.” It showed Zients being asked, “Did you, yourself, write this email?” and Zients responding, “I do not believe I did.”

The video ends there. But the full transcript of Zients’ testimony shows that Zients immediately went on to say that he had authorized his chief of staff Rosa Po to send the email.

He said: “Rosa asked me about, if I approve everything, and I said, yes, and then she did what she did on occasion, which was to send the email, because I was at home, and she was there (at the White House), and time was of the essence.”

A false conspiracy theory about Barack Obama

A key tenet of the QAnon conspiracy movement is that various Democratic and “deep state” perpetrators of crimes against children and the country will be arrested under Trump and face justice before military tribunals. On Monday, Trump shared a post from a QAnon-promoting account that said, “When the Director of National Intelligence tells the public, Obama committed TREASON and President Trump is your President, you can 100% know we will see his MILITARY TRIBUNAL.”

We won’t.

Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard did claim in July that Obama and/or top officials in the Obama administration engaged in a “treasonous conspiracy” by creating an intelligence document that Gabbard significantly mischaracterized related to Russia’s interference in the 2016 election. There is no evidence Obama did anything criminal. But even if he had hypothetically committed some crime for which he did not have presidential immunity, he would not face a military tribunal; the president is a civilian who is not subject to the armed forces’ justice system.

A false conspiracy theory about Nancy Pelosi

Trump has long used false claims to try to blame Democratic former House speaker Nancy Pelosi for the attack on the US Capitol by pro-Trump rioters on January 6, 2021. On Monday, he shared a Mila Joy post that said, “Nancy Pelosi’s former top staffer said Nancy planned January 6th for two years. Lock her up.”

But that’s not what the former Pelosi staffer, Ashley Etienne, actually said.

Mila Joy’s post and Trump’s post included a 14-second video of Etienne, Pelosi’s former communications director and senior adviser, saying in an October interview, “We were planning – when I was working for Pelosi, I don’t know that this has ever been made public, or I’ve never said this publicly – but planning for a January 6th-type of an event two years before it happened.”

She said “planning for,” not “planning”; even that sentence alone should make clear to reasonable-minded viewers that Etienne was saying Pelosi’s office prepared in advance to deal with an attack like the January 6 assault, not saying Pelosi orchestrated the assault. And the full video of Etienne’s comments includes context that makes her meaning even clearer.

Etienne made the remark about January 6 after saying it is essential for Democrats to anticipate Trump’s moves ahead of time. Etienne praised Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek for preparing months in advance to address the president’s attempt to send National Guard troops into Portland this year, and she added, “And this is something we did around January 6th. She (Kotek) anticipated that this was going to happen.”

Then Etienne added: “We were planning – when I was working for Pelosi, I don’t know that this has ever been made public, or I’ve never said this publicly – but planning for a January 6th-type of an event two years before it happened. Right? Just understanding the mentality of the president.”

Etienne’s words about “understanding the mentality of the president” make it extra-obvious she was attributing the Capitol riot to Trump, not to Pelosi.

A false conspiracy theory about the 2020 election

No Trump conspiracy-pushing blitz would be complete without some nonsense about the 2020 election he legitimately lost to Biden. The president shared a post from a pro-Trump commentator who called the election “stolen” and who then rattled off a variety of nonsense about supposed election-rigging by machines – including a claim that 51%-to-49% margins of victory are “no coincidence” but occur “because that’s the way the programs to steal elections were designed.”

No, they occur because some US elections end 51% to 49%. There is no basis for claims that some nefarious technology is spitting out fake numbers to make US elections look close; the fact is that, in a polarized country with two major parties, they often are close.

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