Governing by Conspiracy Theory, Trump’s Latest Attack – Nonprofit Status of Environmental Groups
From climate to immigration, the Trump administration is executing a similar strategy of laundering baseless right-wing conspiracy theories to justify their authoritarian policy agenda.
Reportedly, the Trump administration is considering celebrating Earth Day to knee-cap the organizations seeking to mitigate our climate catastrophe. Eliminating nonprofit status for civil society organizations working on environmental issues via an Executive Order, Trump is seeking to wield the presidential pen as an authoritarian truncheon against his perceived enemies. A maneuver like that raises serious legal questions about the extent of presidential authority and whether the Trump administration will bother to follow the law. And that is exactly the point – supposed opponents take a hit while nudging us closer to authoritarianism.
The policy justification for the assault on the climate-focused civil society organizations will be some mutated form of a debunked conspiracy theory that has been floating around the fringes of the right for the last decade. Painting an absurd fiction, they claim that climate nonprofits are a part of some nefarious plot funded by Russia, or maybe China, or maybe deep-state operatives, all in an effort to raise energy prices for working Americans to either benefit foreign energy production or undermine Trump. The nonsensical conspiracy has conveniently shifted with the Republicans’ enemies list and downplays the urgent threat of climate change.
After closely tracking the GOP’s maneuvers on immigration for the last several years, the administration’s attack on climate is a familiar strategy pulled from a well-worn playbook. It's a three-step strategy to launder some illogical bullshit that imagines a convenient boogeyman threatening the “real” American people that allegedly only authoritarian measures can solve and which just so happens to align with the interests of their corporate executive friends. The strategy plucks a fringe right-wing conspiracy theory to act as an opportune fig leaf to justify an authoritarian policy measure.
Phase 1 - Circulate the Conspiracy
Establish an innocuous-sounding nonprofit, like the Environmental Policy Alliance or the Center for Immigration Studies, that gives an air of legitimacy to baseless conspiracy theories and far-right policy ideas. These organizations can then help drive conspiracy theories in right-wing blogs before moving to more mainstream right-wing media. The late-white nationalist and eugenicist John Tanton pioneered this strategy to help create the modern nativist movement and circulate the white nationalist conspiracy theory that immigration constitutes a literal “invasion.”
Rick Berman, or “Dr. Evil” as 60 Minutes referred to him, adopted a similar approach. Starting around 2014 and continuing for the last decade, Berman created the Environmental Policy Alliance under one of his many shifting entities to help launder baseless attacks against legitimate environmental groups and efforts. But while Tanton and his network of nativists were true believers in their ugly new nationalism, Berman is apparently quite happy to utilize the strategy as a shill for corporate interests. In 2014, Berman used the Environmental Policy Alliance to attack energy-efficient construction efforts under the Obama administration. Then in late 2015, the Environmental Policy Alliance published a “report” that pushed a conspiracy theory that the top environmental organizations were being funded by Russia in an effort to keep a dependence on its oil exports. There is, of course, no evidence of such an effort. But the Environmental Policy Alliance’s conspiracy holds that Sea Change – a family foundation that does not take outside donations and has donated over $500 million to support climate nonprofits – is a front for Russian oil interests. The Environmental Policy Alliance used an off-hand remark in Hillary Clinton’s emails (likely repeating another anecdote about Russian efforts in Eastern Europe that were never credibly confirmed) to stack conspiracy on conspiracy spreading the lie in the right-wing blogs and online media outlets like Breitbart, the Daily Caller, and the Washington Free Beacon.
A semblance of logic and fact isn’t important; in fact, the murkier and more confusing the story, the better, it only ‘proves’ that something nefarious is going on. The elites are conspiring behind closed doors to pull one over on the “real” American people.
Phase 2 - Congress and Electeds Co-Sign the Conspiracy Theory
Congress and elected officials then give the conspiracy theory the next jolt of legitimacy, posting about it from their official accounts and making it the focus of congressional hearings and letters. In turn, weaponizing the right-wing blogs and organization reports to provide the ‘evidence’ of the conspiracy theory. As was the case in 2023 and 2024 with the “invasion” conspiracy theory, which came to dominate weekly action from Republicans in Congress.
In 2017, Republican Congressman Lamar Smith (now retired) and Randy Weber (TX-29) used their offices to lend legitimacy and give new life to the baseless Russian funding conspiracy. Writing a letter to then-Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin directly citing the Environmental Policy Alliance’s report and five separate articles on the report from right-wing outfits.
The conspiracy continued to mutate as Putin’s Russia was increasingly embraced by the American right. By 2024, the conspiratorial accusations by Republican members of Congress getting covered in the Daily Caller, were that environmental groups were political fronts to attack Trump and benefit China.
The various elements don’t need to fit into a coherent picture. The narrative that mattered is that climate-focused civil society organizations were not to be trusted, as one way or another, they were colluding with powerful entities to actively harm “real” Americans.
Phase 3 - Adopt the Conspiracy Theory as White House Policy
The most concerning phase is that now these conspiracy theories are jumping from the right-wing fringes to the official policy justification of the White House. We have already begun to see the severe consequences and moves to authoritarianism that this jump has made on immigration. The baseless, white nationalist conspiracy theory that immigration constitutes a literal invasion is the underlying basis that the administration is using to invoke the Alien and Enemies Act. Citing debunked conspiracies that the administration's own National Intelligence Council denies about a Venezuelan prison gang, they are whisking people off the streets without due process to send them to a torture prison in El Salvador. Repeatedly defying court orders in this process.
One of the many problems of governing by conspiracy theory is that it creates the false pretext of existential enemies in our midst. Enemies whose rights can be abandoned and organizations that must be crushed with authoritarian maneuvers. If the right-wing conspiratorial lies were true and the United States was in fact being invaded like Ukraine, sending enemy combatants to prisons for the duration of the war could be rationalized. If the civil society groups focused on climate or other issues were actually fronts for nefarious purposes, they should be investigated. The problem is that none of these lies are true. The conspiracy theories provide a common-sense rationale for authoritarian actions. This is exactly why this strategy is so dangerous.
The conspiracy theory directed to justify the attacks on immigrants, isn’t just about immigrants. Nor are the conspiracy theories directed to justify the attacks on climate organizations. They are about creating a villain to attack in such a manner that slowly erodes the rights and democracy of all Americans. Yes, the Trump administration hates immigrants and is unconcerned with climate change, but their authoritarianism is the point. To get there, he is going to continue to pluck the fruit of the poisoned conspiracy theory tree that the American right has been cultivating for the last decade or more.
We need to urgently recognize this strategy if we hope to build a counter-strategy to the conspiracy theory justification for a 21st-century American authoritarianism.