Trump's second term: fears of an explosion of disinformation

The victory of Donald Trump, elected President of the United States for the second time, opens the way to a new wave of disinformation, both political and climate, with an administration ready to challenge the scientific community.

In the home stretch of his campaign, the Republican shared false claims about government aid after Hurricane Helen hit North Carolina, a key state he won against Kamala Harris.

He also called into question for the umpteenth time, without evidence, the result of the 2020 presidential election, lost to Joe Biden, raising the specter of electoral fraud.

These false statements were massively disseminated on social networks, which have become the main source of information for many people to the detriment of traditional media, permanently discredited by the billionaire.

“The problem of misinformation has never been so serious,” says Bill Adair, founder of the verification site PolitiFact.

And, to stem the flow of lies, moderation of social networks and verification of allegations “clearly do not work”, believes the specialist.

Even as the election campaign was underway, various polls found that about a third of Americans believed the 2020 election was “stolen” by Joe Biden.

Researchers from the specialized site NewsGuard identified 963 sites and 793 influential social media accounts that published false election information during the campaign.

The fault lies with the right, which since 2016 has used social networks in addition to its traditional communication channels to convey its “propaganda”, according to disinformation researcher Renee DiResta.

A machine fueled by the creation of memes, these photo montages very present on social networks.

“Influencers stimulate each other,” explains Renee DiResta.

If disinformation was not necessarily decisive in the Republican's victory, “Trump was certainly helped by Twitter/X's apparent refusal to contain or attenuate pro-Trump disinformation,” said Ethan Porter, professor at George Washington University.

The owner of

The billionaire, boss of SpaceX and Tesla, supported the Republican's campaign with millions of dollars and could play a central role in his new administration.

Trump won over voters thanks to “a right-wing media structure that bombards them with lies and disapproval while dissuading them from consulting other sources of information, whether traditional news outlets, government representatives or experts from the medical field,” underlines Matt Gertz, who works on the links between right-wing media and the Republican Party for the organization Media Matters.

Scientific topics like climate, vaccines and other health issues are at the forefront of this misinformation.

Especially since vaccine skeptic and conspiracy theory follower Robert Kennedy Jr., once an independent candidate before joining Trump, is expected to occupy a key position in health within the new government.

“How are people not alarmed that Trump wants to entrust health care to RFK Jr. (…) This man has promoted anti-vaccine misinformation and conspiracy theories about public health for years,” he said. castigated in a publication on X Alma Hernandez, Democratic member of the House of Representatives.

During Trump's first term, about 1,400 changes were made by the administration to agency sites dealing with scientific topics, removing information on environmental issues, such as water pollution, climate change or species. endangered, according to the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS), an independent group of scientists.

“President-elect Trump's path to the White House has been an unprecedented campaign of misinformation, threats, divisive rhetoric and dangerous policy promises. It is understandable to look forward to the next four years with serious concerns,” said UCS Interim President Kim Waddell.