From Ronald Reagan to Donald Trump, the Conspiracy theories keep on getting more bizarre with every US President. But, some theories are just too interesting or, let’s just say, too weird to miss out on.
The association between conspiracy theories and US Presidents has been strong for decades. Conspiracy theories are about the US Presidents, and more recently, by the US President. There is a funny thing about these theories; they stem from nothing. And just as quickly as they appear, they die down too. But some conspiracy theories associate themselves with the Presidents. These theories stay on and keep on getting meatier with time. So, here are some bizarre conspiracy theories about recent US Presidents that refuse to die down.
Conspiracy Theories Get Weirder With Every US President — Here Are 5 That Refuse To Die Down (From oldest to most recent)
5) The Deadly Romance of Marilyn Monroe and Kennedy-s.
Marilyn Monroe! Born as Norma Jeane Mortenson on 1 June 1926 in Los Angeles, later went on to become one of the most well knows pop-culture icons in history. The sultry actress, known as the sex symbol since the 50s, had a rather distraught childhood. Featuring in one of the most iconic pictures of the 20th Century, Marilyn Monroe died on August 4, 1962, at the age of only 36. Reason for death? Acute Barbiturate Poisoning. In simpler words, overdose of medicines.
Now, one would think that this is a common occurrence in the Western showbiz industry. After all, so many greats such as Michael Jackson, Robin Williams, and many more died similarly. But, it is a little more complicated than that. It has been widely said and written that Monroe’s death was not suicide. There have been numerous allegations on the Kennedys to have killed Monroe.
77 days before her death, Marilyn Monroe gave a famous performance where she sang “Happy Birthday President” for President John F. Kennedy. As per some theories, Monroe was having an affair with President JFK and his brother, Robert Kennedy. At the time, Robert Kennedy was a senator. Marilyn Monroe was rumored to be struggling with mental issues and was on continuous medication. She even left a movie project incomplete because of her mental condition. The conspiracy theory says that Monroe wanted to reveal her relationship with Kennedys to the public and, thus, to save their political careers, they had conspired to silence her.
Watch: Private Eye’s Notes Suggest Monroe-Kennedy Love Triangle
Things did not end well for JFK himself. Even his death is said to be one of the biggest unanswered questions in the USA’s political history.
4) Ronald Reagan’s October Surprise
There has been a lot of talk about the election this year. Both Democrats and Republicans have pointed fingers at each other for using media, courts, etc. to change the election outcome.
Yet, a conspiracy theory called October Surprise is probably the most bizarre attempt to sway the election result.
In 1979, during the term of President Jimmy Carter, the Iran Revolution was in full flow. During this revolution, Iran captured 52 American hostages to induce pressure on the American government. In the preceding US Presidential Election of 1980, Republicans were hoping that Carter would miraculously solve this issue right before the election rendering them an upper hand.
But, it didn’t work out that way for President Carter. Instead, Ronald Reagan won the Presidential election. Now comes the fun part, merely within 20 minutes of Reagan being sworn-in, Iran released all the 52 hostages. It led to widespread rumor-mongering that this perhaps was Reagan Campaign’s doing. But then again, there were never enough pieces of evidence or witnesses to testify this. The October Surprise remains an unanswered piece of history, even to this day.
3) The Clinton Body Count
The infamous Clintons! The Kardashians of US politics Clintons have been the most controversial first family in recent history. Clinton Body Count is a conspiracy theory that the former US President Bill Clinton and his wife Hillary Clinton have killed fifty or more of their colleagues. Such allegations have been made at least since the 1990s, when a pseudo-documentary film called The Clinton Chronicles, created by Larry Nichols and supported by Rev. Jerry Falwell, accused Bill Clinton of numerous murders.
Watch: How Trump is fueling the Epstein-Clinton Conspiracy
As reported by Snopes in 1998, this theory was born by an Indianapolis Lawyer Linda Thompson. Linda compiled a list of 34 Clinton associated who had died and connected it to the first family. The title read, “The Clinton Body Count: Coincidence or the Kiss of Death?” In 1994, William Dannemeyer, a homophobic congressman from California, trimmed the list to 24 and used it to fuel his run for US Senate. Though, Thompson later herself admitted that she had no ‘direct evidence’ that Clintons were responsible for these deaths. After a couple of years, an extensive report suggested that those deaths occurred due to natural causes and accidents.
One would think that after these reports, the theory would die down. But no! Recently with the death of Jeffrey Epstein in 2019, Clinton Body Count was again in the news. You know why? Because President Trump tweeted about the mysterious death of Epstein in the Jail cell with the Clintons. He used the hashtag #ClintonBodyCount, and the theory was resurrected.
2) Barack Obama’s Birtherism
How do you know where a person was born? Probably through documents and Government ids, right? But no. Some conspiracy theorists can even look through these things and cry foul. It is a summary of the whole Obama Birtherism theory. Ok, so the conspiracy says that former US President Barrack Obama was not born in the USA. Yes, he has a birth registration in Hawaii and two newspaper announcements of 1961 certifying his birth.
Watch: Trump admits Obama was born in the US after years of advocating the Birtherism conspiracy
In 2009, Orly Taitz, a political conspiracy theorist, gave birth to this theory of Barrack Obama being Kenya born. As per the hypothesis, Barrack Obama’s mother was living in Kenya, along with his Arab-African father. Barrack’s mother was not allowed to travel by plane during the late stages of her pregnancy, due to which Obama was born in Kenya. Then, his mother brought him to Hawaii and got him registered. If this was not all, Obama is said to be a secretly practicing Muslim. FYI, Obama is a protestant Christian.
One of the constant advocates of this theory has been the current President. Trump has time and again talked and tweeted about Obama being not born in the USA.
1) Donald Trump’s Co-vid-nspiracy Theory
Well, not often do we see the player becoming the game. Throughout his Presidential term, Donald Trump has pushed quite a lot of conspiracy theories. But the current President has been a part of some bizarre conspiracy theories himself. The one we are talking about is pretty recent. Like really recent.
Watch: Trump’s COVID-19 Diagnosis sparks Conspiracy Theories
So when earlier this year the whole world was trying to find ways to fight the Coronavirus pandemic, the current US President was downplaying it publicly. However, is recently leaked audio tapes, Trump is heard confessing the knowledge about the severity of the disease. As per Trump, he downplayed the pandemic because he did not want the American public to ‘panic’.
Anyway, earlier this month, Trump reported COVID-19 positive. It sent ripples through the political world. Whereas many were concerned about the President’s health, some were looking for dirt on this matter. As the news of Trump reporting positive broke out, some conspiracy theorists questioned the timing of it all. According to a far-left filmmaker and activist Michael Moore, Trump was faking his Covid infection.
“There is one absolute truth about Trump: He is a consistent, absolute, unrelenting, fearless, and professional liar.… Trump has a history of lying about his health… He may have it. But it’s also possible he’s lying. That’s just a fact.”
Michael Moore
Well, so is the world of Conspiracy theories. But one thing is for sure that these theories are an interesting way to capture attention. In some cases, they can even be used to plant a thought in the reader’s head. Maybe, just maybe, this is a conspiracy theory in itself. Who knows? But we do know that US politics is a goldmine for conspiracy theories.
