In 2015, when Barack Obama was in the White House, the US Army ran a lengthy exercise in Texas and across other southern states to train special forces troops on how to fight in towns and civilian areas.
Operation Jade Helm quickly became a magnet for conspiracy theorists, who claimed the manoeuvres were a dry run for the US imposing martial law, locking people up in federal detention centres, suspending their constitutional rights and taking away their guns.
Far-right pundits and blowhards such as Alex Jones incessantly amplified those theories. At one point, a poll found a third of Republicans believed the federal government would try to take over Texas. In the same survey, half the members of the Tea Party, a precursor to the Make America Great Again movement, believed it.
“I understand the reason for concern and uncertainty because the federal government has not demonstrated itself to be trustworthy in this administrati
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