Alex Jones has long been one of Donald Trump’s biggest supporters, and for good reason: The former president loves unhinged conspiracy theories almost as much as he does. And though he’s criticized him before, it seems their alliance may be even more fractured, all because Trump dared praise the vaccines.
Trump held one of his ranty rallies in Alabama Saturday, and while it was mostly a Greatest Hits package — plus a random cameo from a certain Best Picture winner — there was one notable deviation from the norm: His adoring crowd actually booed him. They didn’t like that he gently but firmly implored his base, who has caught the brunt of the Delta variant, get jabbed so they don’t die. And neither did his loudest conspiracy theorist ally.
On his The Alex Jones Show Monday, the host played a clip of Trump saying the vaccines are working. Au contraire, he claimed.
“Trump: That’s a lie, you’re not stupid,” he said before laying into some bogus-sounding stats, claiming that the booster shots doctors are advising fully vaccinated people start getting are a “rope-a-dope” scam. (Spoiler: They’re not.) He then really laid into him.
“Shame on you, Trump. Seriously,” he said. “Hey, if you don’t have the good sense to save yourself and your political career, that’s OK. At least you’re going to get some good Republicans elected, and we like you. But, my God, maybe you’re not that bright. Maybe Trump’s actually a dumbass.”
This latest chapter in Trump’s post-presidential life is honestly a bit of a surprise. Who could have ever predicted the throngs who willingly watch him air grievances would turn on him, let alone Austin’s least favorite son? Will Trump put out one of his un-copy edited “press releases,” telling his fans to endanger their lives by not taking the medicine he himself helped will into existence? Whatever happens, this is the kind of leftfield, wackadoodle development that we used to get every single day when he was president.