For Donald Trump and the MAGA movement, the victory of Zohran Mamdani in New York seems to be a fusion of several conspiracy theories – the immigrant “takeover” of America, the Soros-funded promotion of radicals, and the Islamist and communist conspiracies to destroy the US.

American history tells us that once every thirty or forty years or so, the US goes through a political or social churning that decisively shapes the country’s future. While some of this churning can be political or religious, it is often triggered by conspiracy theories that have profound political consequences – heightened polarisation, erosion of trust in democratic institutions and political violence.

In our era, we are witnessing a churn of conspiracy theories, accelerated by social media and digital platforms. So pervasive are these beliefs that there is actually a two-volume encyclopaedia of conspiracy theories in the US listing 300 entries by experts. President Trump is himself a fount of many of these and the list of the various unfounded conspiracy charges he has made through his life has an entire page in Wikipedia.

In a 1964 essay in Harper’s Magazine, ‘The Paranoid Style in American Politics,’ American social scientist Richard Hofstadter argued that the “paranoid style” was a recurring theme in American political culture. This mindset manifested itself in certain political movements across the ideological spectrum, where adherents saw themselves as defenders against vast, sinister conspiracies – often involving elites, foreigners or subversive groups.

The paranoid style, he made it clear, was not clinical paranoia, but more about a style of politics that thrived on fear and mistrust. Hofstadter traced its roots back to the 18th-century anti-Masonic fervour and the 19th-century anti-Catholic crusades, showing how it periodically resurfaced to inflame nativist sentiments and anti-intellectual crusades, much like the McCarthy-era Red Scare that vilified supposed communist infiltrators in government and Hollywood.

Even a cursory look at Trump’s America indicates that Hofstadter’s “paranoid style” is very much part of contemporary American politics. In the current political discourse, there are many “conspiracies” afoot. One manifestation of this has been claims to massive and widespread voter fraud in the US, such as the one that allegedly deprived Donald Trump of the presidency in 2020. 

No evidence was ever found for this, but it triggered an unprecedented riot at the Capitol on the day the Congress certified the election. Associated with this is the belief that there has been massive voting by illegal migrants who are being used to subvert elections.

Another has been the belief that the Russians and Chinese have been interfering with elections. No doubt both these countries try to exert influence through various means, but there is no evidence of actual interference with the process.

This suspicion (on the part of Trump’s opponents) has, in turn, been rebranded by the current administration as the “Russia hoax” or “Spygate” – a fabricated plot by the Obama-era intelligence community and Clinton campaign to surveil and sabotage Trump’s presidential bid. Framed as an existential threat to his legitimacy, it has prompted declassification of sensitive documents, purges in the FBI and retaliatory probes that sowed doubt in the rule of law.

The biggest conspiracy is the belief in the existence of the so-called “Deep State” – a secret network of American intelligence officials, bureaucrats, and politicians who are working together to undermine and control the government from within. This has led to an unprecedented sacking of officials across the US bureaucracy and the gutting of its vaunted intelligence services.

In the second Trump term, this paranoia has escalated into executive orders targeting “disloyal” civil servants, including FBI agents and Justice Department lawyers, whom supporters label as saboteurs. Such purges not only weaken institutional expertise but also create a chilling effect, where career officials self-censor to avoid accusations of disloyalty.

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Trump also gets support from even wilder conspiracy theories touted by the QAnon movement that flourishes largely on the internet and which believes that Trump is leading the fight against a cabal of Satanic, cannibalistic child molesters operating a global child sex trafficking ring. QAnon’s grip has tightened post-2024, infiltrating local school boards with baseless claims of “grooming” in education curricula, leading to book bans and teacher harassment that stifle free expression.

White and Christian nationalists like Nick Fuentes who touts the “America First” ideology are also into anti-semitism and Holocaust denial and push the “Great Replacement theory” suggesting that the elites are trying to replace the country’s white population with immigrants to gain political power. The theory gains renewed strength from the American demographic shifts that have seen a relative decline of its white population.

The Trump administration may not openly embrace racist ideas, but it has opposed the celebration of Black identity and policies that promote inclusion of Blacks in society and government. Recent border policies, framed as defences against an “invasion,” echo this rhetoric, justifying family separations and asylum restrictions under the guise of national security.

Another version of the conspiracies are the global plots by liberal figures and Jewish financiers like George Soros and the Rothschilds to control global events and undermine US sovereignty. In this scheme of things, organizations like the UN and WHO are part of the plot of global elites who are pushing for a “one-world” government. These antisemitic undertones have surged in online echo chambers, linking climate accords to “population control” schemes and pandemic responses to microchip implants.

In a country like the US, the favourite target of right-wing extremists has been its so-called “left wing.” Historically, the real left – the Communist and Socialist Parties – have been virtually non-existent in the US, but in the definition of the right, all liberals are also seen as “left wing.” 

A popular trope among the right are the pernicious activities of ‘Antifa,’ which has now been designated as a “domestic terrorist organisation” by Trump. The only problem is that there is no such organization; it is simply an appellation given by the right-wing to a loose grouping of non-violent radicals who oppose far-right extremism and who include anti-government, anti-racist, anti-capitalist elements.

Compounding this is the narrative of Big Tech as a monopolistic arm of the “deep state,” with platforms like Twitter (pre-Musk) and Facebook accused of algorithmic suppression of conservative content to rig public discourse. This fueled executive threats of antitrust breakups and content moderation crackdowns, recast as battles against a Silicon Valley elite colluding to silence dissent and entrench liberal hegemony. 

One aspect of American politics is that both the so-called left and right often frame political opponents as existential threats. Often, given the religious background of the country, these are cast as a battle between good and evil. Because it is such a contest, there can be no compromise, which leads to a rejection of pluralistic politics.

This Manichean worldview has deepened divides, with progressive calls for “defunding the police” mirroring conservative “deep state” alarms, each side demonising the other as agents of chaos. While economic hardship is a major driver, there are also cultural and social issues such as social status, ethnic identity and the decline of white communities. 

All this has combined with globalisation, automation, and immigration to generate the economic and social anxieties exploited by the right wing and which have led to the existing paranoia that comes with a built-in distrust of existing institutions, be they of the mainstream media, scientific institutions, universities as well as government agencies.

This is often accompanied by harmful developments like distrust of vaccines and false claims on the treatment of COVID-19. In 2025, this extends to scepticism of AI regulations and renewable energy initiatives, portrayed as elite-driven assaults on individual freedoms. The internet and social media platforms have encouraged the paranoid style in America, and conspiracy theories have spread widely because of these mediums.

Looking at the enormous turmoil unleashed by the Trump era in US politics, people often wonder when it will end. Will it be after the Republican Party faces losses in the off-year election next year? Or do we wait out the Trump term in 2029?

A lot of the current political paranoia is an outcome of the deindustrialisation of the US that has given substantial strength to its right wing by creating economic anxieties that its populist politicians exploit. It is difficult to forecast which way things will go from here, but one thing is certain: there will be no return to the old normal. Instead, the paranoid style may evolve into a new hybrid of techno-authoritarianism, where algorithms amplify echo chambers and decentralised blockchain-like networks promise “uncensorable” truth, further entrenching division.

Manoj Joshi is a distinguished fellow with the Observer Research Foundation in Delhi.

This piece was first published on The India Cable – a premium newsletter from The Wire – and has been updated and republished here. To subscribe to The India Cable, click here.

This article went live on November eleventh, two thousand twenty five, at forty-nine minutes past eleven in the morning.

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