InfoWars is behind President Trump’s idea that the media is covering up terrorist attacks https://t.co/ERTysDdQwx

— Washington Post (@washingtonpost) February 6, 2017

President Trump made a whopper of a claim on Monday, suggesting that the media is deliberately ignoring terrorist attacks.

“It’s gotten to a point where it’s not even being reported,” he said to military leaders at U.S. Central Command. “And in many cases the very, very dishonest press doesn’t want to report it. They have their reasons, and you understand that.”

The comments would seem to be a response to the hubbub over Kellyanne Conway having repeatedly cited a non-existent terror attack in Bowling Green, Ky., in recent days. But Trump doesn’t appear to have totally invented this theory on the fly.

Instead, the kernel of the idea appears to have come from — or at least been propagated by — one of his favorite news sources: the conspiracy theory website InfoWars.

As @UrbanAchievr noted after Trump’s comments, InfoWars has been barking up this tree for a while now. A sampling of its headlines:

“FAKE NEWS: MAINSTREAM MEDIA WHITEWASHES ISLAMIC TERROR IN BERLIN: Propagandists desperate to hide the obvious” — Dec. 20
“SCANDAL: MASS MEDIA COVERS UP TERRORISM TO PROTECT ISLAM” — July 29
“GERMANY COVERING UP TERROR PLOTS TO PROTECT MUSLIM MIGRANTS” — June 24
“MEDIA CAUGHT COVERING UP ISLAMIC TIES IN MUNICH ATTACK” — July 24
“VIDEO: TERROR IN GERMANY - THE TRUTH THEY HIDE: Mass media deception to conceal what’s really happening” — July 25

Former congressman Allen West (R-Fla.) has also pushed this idea, posting a video from InfoWars back in August under the headline, “TERROR ATTACK: Massive media cover-up.” And it’s a theme that has cropped up on other conspiracy theory and right-wing websites from time to time.