Extending previous studies tracking how Donald Trump’s political conspiracy theories have evolved over time, this essay focuses on his January 6th denialism during the 2024 U.S. presidential campaign as a significant turning point. Quite different from the various fragmented conspiracy theories he had previously spread to delegitimize institutions and undermine democratic communication, I suggest that his January 6th denialism functioned as a kind of rhetorical paramnesia, or the introduction of false public memory as a resource for evading accountability. In addition to exploring how rhetorical paramnesia expands our knowledge of denialism, this study analyzes Trump’s rhetoric throughout the 2024 campaign to show how he went from distancing himself from the insurrectionists, to rejecting basic facts, to reframing the violence as patriotic love, all while winning converts to a narrative they likely knew was false.
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