From Sheffield but based in Battersea, south London, Watson is a prominent right-wing commentator who creates content for his own YouTube channel as well as for the Prison Planet website and the American fake news website, InfoWars.com, run by the conspiratorial radio host Alex Jones. Watson is known for his confrontational style, creating conspiracy theories, and his willingness to fabricate stories and manipulate facts.
Trump Jr. retweeted Watson’s comments about French celebrities who have supposedly said they will move to Canada should the far-right candidate Marine Le Pen win the upcoming French Presidential elections. Trump Jr. added: “I’m still waiting for all those celebs here, who promised to do the same, to go!!! #maga”.
While Watson has been creating content for years, he first attracted widespread attention after circulating wild conspiracy theories during the US election about Hillary Clinton’s – the ‘Is Hillary Dying’ hoax. In a series of wildly conspiratorial videos he suggested Clinton might have syphilis, brain damage, a tumor, a degenerative disease, autism and Parkinson’s disease. He also claimed she was a drug abuser. His videos on the topic were viewed millions of times. The conspiracy theory was even picked up and discussed by Fox News.
Ironically, the tweet from Donald Trump Jr. comes after a week in which Watson had been very vocal in his criticism of Trump Sr, following the President’s authorisation of airstrikes on Syria. On Friday Watson tweeted that he was “officially OFF the Trump train” and accused the president of being a “deep state/Neo-con puppet”.
When someone on Twitter pointed this out to Trump Jr., he replied: “I can agree on some points and not others”.
The fact that Trump Jr. knows of a British alt-right content creator is testament to Watson’s recent and growing influence. He has amassed a large following on social media with 559,000 Twitter followers and nearly 900,000 subscribers on YouTube.
This Twitter exchange is further evidence – if any was needed – of the Trump family’s willingness to engage with the fake news pushers from the alt-right fringe.
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