A president’s conspiracism coerces officials into accommodation and distorts governance

Evidence

So Trump’s conspiracist reality has consequences for our reality. It is something his supporters adopt and repeat, that officials in the White House and across the executive agencies are compelled to accept or to discreetly ignore, that Republican officials—almost to a person—acquiesce in a show of partisan reticence, and that thousands of civil servants and others must accommodate as they go about the now besieged and often distorted business of government. Trump imposes his reality on the country. That is the distinctive threat of the new conspiracism when it occupies the White House. — Russell Muirhead and Nancy L. Rosenblum, A Lot of People Are Saying, 170

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Presidential recognition power makes conspiracism uniquely divisive at the top — Russell Muirhead and Nancy L. Rosenblum, A Lot of People Are Saying: The New…, 145; An officeholder’s specious claims carry destructive force once backed by institutional power — Russell Muirhead and Nancy L. Rosenblum, A Lot of People Are Saying: The New…, 150; Trump brought conspiratorial claims into the White House presidency itself — Russell Muirhead and Nancy L. Rosenblum, A Lot of People Are Saying: The New…, 157 (+3 more)

Broader Connections

• Presidential office converts personal conspiracism into publicly authoritative claims #expands (0.80) — Russell Muirhead and Nancy L. Rosenblum, A Lot of People Are Saying, 169
• Conspiracy theories held by a president can be enacted into reality #corroborates (0.80) — Russell Muirhead and Nancy L. Rosenblum, A Lot of People Are Saying, 177
• Presidential conspiracism functions as willful arbitrary rule #corroborates (0.75) — Russell Muirhead and Nancy L. Rosenblum, A Lot of People Are Saying, 312