Conspirator in Chief: The Long Tradition of Conspiracy Theories in the American Presidency

Esteemed presidential historian Stephen F. Knott takes readers on a sobering tour of the lowlights in the American presidency, showing how presidents from Thomas Jefferson to Donald Trump have engaged in reckless conspiracy-mongering about their political opponents in an effort to increase their power and privilege. Today we are inundated with conspiracy theories-QAnon, the “Big Lie,” Pizzagate, the Epstein Files, and innumerable false claims about vaccines and other medicines.But the widespread proliferation of lies and misinformation can make it easy to forget that conspiracy theories have been part of American life from the beginning.The land of the free and the home of the brave has also been the den of false rumors and conspiratorial claims about one’s political enemies-not merely by rank-and-file Americans but also by our most powerful and consequential elected leaders.As political historian Stephen F. Knott recounts in painful detail, the Commander in Chief of the United States