Alex Jones is an American right-wing radio host and prominent figure in the world of anti-government conspiracy theories. He has cultivated a significant following by promoting a range of unsubstantiated and often outlandish claims, catapulting himself from relative obscurity to national notoriety. Many consider Alex Jones to be a highly influential, albeit controversial, voice in contemporary American media due to his extensive reach and the nature of his pronouncements.
Jones’s broadcasts, accessible online and through radio airwaves, are characterized by a breathless and impassioned delivery of what many deem absurd and unfounded theories. These range from the assertion that the tragic Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre was an elaborate hoax designed to undermine gun rights, to the claim that the 9/11 attacks were orchestrated by the U.S. government itself. He has also alleged that student survivors of the Parkland, Florida, school shooting were “crisis actors” funded by political opponents, and even bizarrely linked juice boxes to homosexuality. The foundation of many of his conspiracy theories can be traced back to the anti-government militia movement, an ideology he embraced in the 1990s.
Based in Austin, Texas, Alex Jones commands a considerable national audience. His radio program is syndicated across 100 stations nationwide, and his websites, Infowars and Prison Planet, serve as digital platforms for disseminating his often-disputed narratives as “news” through various media formats. Despite facing bans from major social media platforms in 2018, the Infowars network maintains a substantial online presence. Web analytics data from Quantcast indicated that Infowars attracted approximately 3.34 million unique visitors in February 2020 alone, highlighting the breadth of its reach.
Jones frequently attributes societal issues to the federal government, which he posits is controlled by a shadowy “New World Order.” This alleged clandestine group is blamed for a wide spectrum of events, from the rise in autism rates – which he falsely links to vaccines – to numerous “false flag” operations, citing Sandy Hook and the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing as examples. He is also a vocal proponent of the “9/11 truther” movement, asserting that the attacks were a staged event by the U.S. government for nefarious purposes. His theories, particularly those surrounding the September 11 attacks, broadened his audience and resonated with figures within the white supremacist movement, including Andrew Anglin (of The Daily Stormer) and Lee Rogers (of InfoStormer). Jones contends that the U.S. government is part of a global conspiracy aimed at disarming and subjugating American citizens, often pointing to routine National Guard training exercises as supposed evidence.
Image alt text: Alex Jones speaking into a microphone with an Infowars backdrop, highlighting his role as a radio host and Infowars personality.
In 2015, Alex Jones played a significant role in amplifying public anxieties surrounding Jade Helm, a U.S. military training exercise designed to prepare soldiers for diverse combat scenarios. Jones propagated the notion that Jade Helm was a covert operation initiating martial law, a claim that gained enough traction to necessitate Army officials publicly addressing and reassuring concerned citizens. Texas Monthly, in its Bum Steer Awards, highlighted Alex Jones’s role in this episode.
In January 2020, Jones and Infowars were instrumental in escalating fears surrounding a gun rights rally in Richmond, Virginia. They disseminated the conspiracy theory that the Virginia government intended to confiscate firearms and warned of a potential “false flag” operation targeting the event. This echoed similar pronouncements made by Jones prior to the violent “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017. Jones himself attended the Richmond rally alongside Infowars correspondents, driving a black “battle tank” adorned with the Infowars logo, labeling Democrats as “anti-American globalists,” and cautioning against a purported “globalist tyranny” seeking to incite civil unrest.
In the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, Alex Jones has promoted various products and dietary supplements as preventative measures and treatments for the virus, despite lacking scientific evidence to support these claims. In response, New York Attorney General Letitia James issued a cease-and-desist letter in March 2020, demanding Jones stop marketing these unsubstantiated products. Subsequently, the Food and Drug Administration also sent a letter to Jones, instructing him to cease selling these products under threat of legal action.
On April 18, 2020, Jones participated in a protest in Austin, Texas, against coronavirus-related restrictions, declaring to the assembled crowd that “Texas is leading the way against the tyrants.”
Alex Jones’s Endorsement by Donald Trump
Alex Jones has garnered public praise from former President Donald Trump and has claimed to have communication channels with President Trump and members of his administration.
President Trump has, on multiple occasions, amplified conspiracy theories propagated by Jones that have been widely debunked, including questioning President Barack Obama’s birthplace and alleging widespread voter fraud in the 2016 presidential election involving millions of undocumented immigrants.
The reciprocal admiration between Trump and Jones was evident during a 2015 radio interview where then-candidate Trump told Jones, “Your reputation is amazing,” to which Jones responded, “What you’re doing is epic. It’s George Washington level.” According to Jones, Trump contacted him after the election to express gratitude to the Infowars audience for their support and promised to make them proud. Following the election, Infowars established a Washington, D.C. bureau, initially headed by Jerome Corsi, a right-wing author and conspiracy theorist, who later departed from the website in 2018.
Since the 2016 election, Jones has asserted on various occasions that he maintains communication with President Trump and White House officials. In August 2018, Jones claimed to communicate with the president “through different systems,” without providing further details. During an Infowars broadcast in February 2020, Jones stated that an unnamed White House official informed him of President Trump’s intention to pardon Roger Stone.
Despite these claims of ongoing contact, Jones’s commentary on President Trump has not always been positive. Following U.S. airstrikes in Syria in April 2018, Jones expressed disapproval on his show, stating he would tell the president, “If you ever call me again, I’m going to tell you I’m ashamed of you.” He further added, “I’m not in a…cult for Donald Trump,” before using profanity directed at the President.
Image alt text: Image of Donald Trump shaking hands with Alex Jones, illustrating the connection and mutual recognition between the two public figures.
The Real-World Impact of Jones’s Conspiracy Theories
Jones’s inflammatory rhetoric has demonstrably incited real-world actions, often with harmful consequences. A prominent example is his role in promoting the “Pizzagate” hoax, a fabricated conspiracy theory centered around the D.C. pizzeria Comet Ping Pong and its owner James Alefantis. This elaborate fabrication falsely alleged that tunnels beneath the restaurant served as the headquarters for a child trafficking and pedophilia ring orchestrated by Hillary Clinton.
“When I think about all the children Hillary Clinton has personally murdered and chopped up and raped, I have zero fear standing up against her,” Jones proclaimed in a now-deleted YouTube video posted on November 4, 2016. “Yeah, you heard me right. Hillary Clinton has personally murdered children. I just can’t hold back the truth anymore.” Jones later attempted to contextualize these remarks as a reference to U.S. policy in Syria.
Similar to the Jade Helm episode, Jones’s rhetoric had tangible real-world repercussions. On December 4, 2016, Edgar Welch arrived at Comet Ping Pong armed with an assault rifle, intending to “rescue” children he believed were being held captive in the restaurant’s non-existent basement. Welch discharged several shots inside the restaurant and remained there for nearly an hour before concluding that there was no evidence of any criminal activity. He surrendered to the police and subsequently pleaded guilty to assault and weapons charges, receiving a four-year prison sentence in June 2017.
Following this shooting incident, Jones issued a rare apology for his baseless allegations against Alefantis, stating, “I made comments…that in hindsight I regret.” It was widely noted that Alefantis, as a private citizen, possessed grounds to sue Jones for defamation, and Jones’s carefully worded apology was likely an attempt to mitigate potential legal repercussions. Despite this incident, Jones has not entirely abandoned child-trafficking conspiracy theories, but has shifted focus to targeting prominent Democratic politicians, who, as public figures, have less legal protection against libel.
Jones also propagated conspiracy theories surrounding the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, falsely labeling the tragedy a hoax perpetrated by “crisis actors.” His followers subsequently subjected the victims’ families to years of harassment. Jones has repeatedly failed in his attempts to dismiss civil lawsuits filed against him by Sandy Hook families and was ordered to pay nearly $150,000 in legal fees. Jones’s appeal in this matter was also rejected in March 2020.
Wolfgang Halbig, a co-defendant in the Sandy Hook lawsuits and a former Infowars contributor who Jones has since distanced himself from, was arrested on January 27, 2020, for allegedly harassing Sandy Hook victims’ families.
Image alt text: Exterior view of Comet Ping Pong restaurant in Washington D.C., the location targeted by the Pizzagate conspiracy theory, highlighting the real-world location affected by misinformation.
Antisemitism and Guests on Alex Jones’s Show
While Alex Jones’s on-air persona is not overtly antisemitic, he has provided a platform for antisemitic guests on his programs.
White supremacists and antisemites have, at times, expressed disappointment at the perceived lack of explicit antisemitism in Jones’s broadcasts and websites.
However, Jones has been known to criticize the “Jewish mafia,” and following the violent “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, he suggested that many attendees were “leftist Jews” “in disguise” intending to discredit white supremacists and provoke violence. More recently, on November 30, 2019, Jones hosted E. Michael Jones, a known antisemite, to discuss Sacha Baron Cohen’s call at ADL’s “Never is Now” conference in November 2019 for social media platforms to ban Alex Jones’s content. During this conversation, Alex Jones acknowledged reading E. Michael Jones’s book Monsters from the Id and spoke favorably of the conspiracy theorist.
Although E. Michael Jones minimized overt antisemitism during the interview, framing his primary concern as the spread of pornography – which he believes leads to moral decay – he did accuse a Jewish individual of responsibility for pornography proliferation in post-World War II Germany and claimed the Israeli military used pornography to disrupt the local population during a 2002 operation in Ramallah.
On January 13, 2020, Jones hosted Richard Spencer, a prominent white supremacist and antisemitic alt-right figure, providing him a platform to express white nationalist views. While Jones disagreed with some of Spencer’s positions, they engaged in extensive discussion about a purported globalist plot to dismantle Western civilization, a concept often interpreted as a veiled reference to Jewish people. Although Jones did not explicitly mention Jews during the interview (though he did assert George Soros funded agitators at the Unite the Right rally), Spencer twice referenced “Zionism” as a driving force behind American imperialism and declined to condemn Hitler when directly asked by Jones.
Image alt text: Richard Spencer, a white supremacist figure who has appeared as a guest on Alex Jones’s show, representing the controversial guests platformed by Infowars.
Social Media Bans and Alex Jones’s Remaining Influence
Despite being banned from several major social media platforms for disseminating violent and bigoted conspiracy theories, Alex Jones continues to maintain a significant audience.
In August 2018, Facebook, Apple, YouTube, and Spotify removed podcasts, pages, and channels associated with Jones and Infowars. In September 2018, Twitter followed suit, also banning Jones and Infowars from its platform. Facebook cited Jones’s pages for “[glorifying] violence, which violates our graphic violence policy, and [using] dehumanizing language to describe people who are transgender, Muslims, and immigrants, which violates our hate speech policies.” Spotify stated that Infowars “[expressly and principally promotes, advocates, or incites hatred or violence against a group or individual based on characteristics.”
Prior to these bans, Jones enjoyed a substantial online presence, with Infowars attracting over 10 million monthly visitors and his YouTube channel boasting approximately 2.4 million subscribers and 17 million monthly views. While his platform has noticeably diminished following these removals, Jones’s videos continue to be shared across social media by supporters, spam accounts, and smaller Infowars-affiliated accounts. In March 2019, one YouTube channel linked to Infowars had over 64,000 subscribers before it was taken down. In February 2020, Newsweek reported that three YouTube channels sharing Infowars content collectively amassed over 19,000 subscribers and more than 2.5 million views since October 2019, indicating the persistent circulation of his content.
Image alt text: Screenshot of the Infowars website, demonstrating the online platform through which Alex Jones disseminates his content despite social media bans.
Conclusion
Alex Jones remains a controversial and influential figure in American media. Through Infowars and his various platforms, he has cultivated a dedicated audience for his brand of conspiracy theories and anti-government rhetoric. While facing significant backlash, including social media bans and legal challenges, Alex Jones and his Infowars network continue to operate and disseminate his content, demonstrating his enduring presence in the media landscape. Understanding Is Alex Jones and his impact is crucial in analyzing the spread of misinformation and conspiracy theories in the contemporary digital age.
