President Donald Trump is once again reviving the debunked conspiracy theory that former President Barack Obama orchestrated a “coup” after the 2016 election, angrily declaring that those involved “must pay.”
In a barrage of Truth Social posts, Trump has returned to his old playbook distracting his MAGA supporters from the escalating Epstein files controversy by recycling baseless accusations against Obama and top U.S. intelligence officials who concluded Russia interfered in the 2016 election.
“The Russia, Russia, Russia HOAX is now TOTALLY UNDISPUTED! THE FACTS ARE ALL THERE, IN BLACK AND WHITE,” Trump ranted on Truth Social Friday morning. “It is the biggest scandal in American History. The perpetrators of this CRIME must pay a big price. This can never be allowed to happen in our Country again!”
Doubling down, Trump shared a video from The Daily Signal featuring right-wing commentator Victor Davis Hanson, who accused Obama-era intelligence officials of plotting to “destroy” Trump after his win over Hillary Clinton. Trump added, “They must pay for the crime of the Century.”
Photo: Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
The latest attacks originate from allegations made earlier this month by Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard. She referenced newly declassified documents, claiming that Barack Obama and senior national security officials were involved in a “treasonous conspiracy” to fabricate evidence of Russian election interference, with the intent to undermine the legitimacy of the 2016 election results.
Gabbard asserted that Obama and top intelligence figures deliberately created false evidence of Russian meddling in order to delegitimize Trump’s victory. She argued this was a coordinated effort to challenge the new administration’s credibility from the outset.
She further accused Obama’s team of laying the groundwork for what she described as a “years-long coup” against Trump, using misleading information to sustain attacks on his presidency.
Gabbard’s allegations hinge on a supposed contradiction within U.S. intelligence reports from January 2017. While those findings concluded Russia ran an influence campaign to assist Trump’s candidacy, she claims there are unproven assertions that Moscow actually altered vote counts in Trump’s favor.
Despite these claims, the Obama administration has consistently stated that Russia did not change any vote totals or hack U.S. voting machines.
In 2020, a bipartisan Senate Intelligence Committee report, which included current Secretary of State Marco Rubio, confirmed that Russia did attempt to aid Trump’s 2016 campaign through influence operations.
Responding to Gabbard’s accusations, Obama’s office maintained that no newly released documents undermine the widely accepted conclusion that while Russia interfered in the election, it did not succeed in altering any votes.
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Meanwhile, several of Trump’s close allies, including Deputy White House Chief of Staff Dan Scavino, expressed satisfaction after newly declassified documents revealed that the FBI had investigated intelligence suggesting Hillary Clinton approved a plan to tarnish Trump by linking him to Vladimir Putin during the 2016 election.
However, The New York Times pointed out that an annex in Special Counsel John Durham’s 2023 report indicated that this alleged approval by Clinton might have originated from disinformation planted by Russian operatives.
Trump’s latest barrage of posts on Truth Social targeting Obama came as he faces mounting scrutiny over his ties to Jeffrey Epstein, the convicted sex offender who died in August 2019.
For years, Trump insisted that his relationship with Epstein soured over a business disagreement. Now, he claims the real reason was Epstein “stealing” young staff from his Mar-a-Lago resort.
“He took people. I said, ‘Don’t do it anymore,’ because they work for me,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One. “He took some others, and once he did that, that was the end of him.”
Trump claimed one of the women Epstein “stole” from him was Virginia Giuffre, a known sex trafficking victim of Epstein who tragically died by suicide in April.
