Analysis: Why Trump’s Reliance on Debunked Theories Raises Concern

As a candidate, Trump’s often unsubstantiated attacks on political opponents, foreign governments, election officials, law enforcement, a federal judge, news outlets and Muslims shattered political norms and sowed division. As president, his decisions will carry the full weight of White House policy, raising concerns about where he gets his information and whether he might act on false or flawed reports

Trump’s baseless claim that Hillary Clinton won the popular vote with “millions” of illegal voters, for example, appears to have been popularized by Infowars conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, who has also claimed the 9/11 attacks were carried out by the government and that the Sandy Hook shootings were faked.

Every president makes difficult decisions on sensitive issues based on incomplete intelligence and competing advisers, making the ability to discern what news is credible critical to the job. This is especially important when it comes to national security, where presidents have broad latitude to order military action and direct negotiations with foreign leaders.

The iconic example is the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, in which President John F. Kennedy pulled the United States from the brink of war by aggressively questioning and ultimately discarding initial calls from military leaders to attack Cuba and navigating mixed messages from Moscow to reach an agreement.

“We hire presidents so they can be calm and level-headed and assess all this information under conditions of great stress and uncertainty in times of crisis,” Elizabeth Saunders, a professor at George Washington University who researches presidential foreign policy decisions, said.