Homeland Security Warns of Threat from Trump Conspiracy

The Department of Homeland Security is raising the alarm. There’s a growing trend of calls for violence from conspiracy theorists who want former president Donald Trump reinstated, the agency said in a bulletin sent to state and local authorities. The Jan. 6 attack on the US Capitol, an event preceded by similar online activity, has them spooked, ABC News reports. The warning isn’t tied to any specific threat, the DHS said, but they’re following online discussions among extremists.

False claims about the 2020 election have been spiking recently, fueled in part by MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell who has said he expects Trump to retake the presidency in August, the Daily Beast reports. Lindell said recently on Steve Bannon’s podcast that he thinks his argument is so persuasive that President Joe Biden will just resign. Although some of the online chatter references the Jan. 6 attack, DHS called the threat “modest,” CNN reports. (More Capitol riot stories.)