Donald Trump is not shy about using emotion in this campaign. He has no qualms with striking fear into a voter in attempt to sway their vote. One way in which he has done this is with conspiracy theories. One of his main theories of the campaign has been that the government has failed the people on the issue of immigration. He hopes to sway voters by making current elected officials seem incompetent or that there is some sort of corruption occurring.
Trump claims that the President and current politicians have failed the American people on the issue of immigration. Trump has said “Countless innocent American lives have been stolen because our politicians have failed in their duty to secure our borders and enforce our laws like they have to be enforced.” By enforcing this conspiracy theory he is hoping to make voters see the established politicians as failures who cannot contain the borders so he should be president because he will secure the border. As Hofstader put, it he is making it seem like the government has failed to help.
Trump rhetoric is exhibiting many of the elements that come with conspiracies. He believes that people who do not share similar views to him on this are part of the problem. Trump has made this conspiracy widespread. I, myself, have seen firsthand on Facebook how people now believe the government was negligent on securing the border and it is the politician’s fault that there is an “immigration problem” in our country right now. This issue is self-sealing in that any politician that tries to oppose this conspiracy is seen as just digging deeper into the corruption that exists. They will be labeled a liar that has failed our country.
What is interesting with this conspiracy is that it seems to be working on many people. Trump’s base has bought into this and they believe he is the best man to fix it. Trump seems to have effectively utilized the conspiracy to enhance his support on the issue of immigration.
