Here's an idea why Secretary of State Pompeo keeps spreading the conspiracy theory that coronavirus escaped from a Chinese lab

• Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and other China hawks in GOP are ignoring US intelligence agencies, and continuing to spread the conspiracy theory that the coronavirus came from a Chinese government lab.
• They're doing it for an audience of one — Donald Trump.
• China hawks have always fought to get Trump to take an even harder line on China, but he's often put his hopes of signing a trade deal with China first.
• By turning this anti-China conspiracy theory into a talking point on Trump's favorite TV shows and in his political circles, though, hawks could win Trump to their side. It's worked before.
• This is an opinion column. The thoughts expressed are those of the author.
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In recent weeks Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has been making the rounds on the conservative media circuit, spreading the conspiracy theory that the coronavirus may have escaped from a Chinese government laboratory in Wuhan. He's started getting in fights with mainstream media about it too.

The scientific consensus is that the virus was not man made, and US intelligence agencies have said that there's no evidence that the virus escaped from a lab instead of occurring naturally and spreading to an open market in Wuhan.

Still, Pompeo insists he has evidence to support his theory, though he hasn't provided any. High ranking members of the GOP, like Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton, have spread the idea on conservative media outlets as well.

Maybe they believe this stuff. And maybe they have evidence they plan on showing the American people eventually. But given how blatantly Pompeo dodges the evidence question when it's raised in mainstream media, it's more likely they're just performing for an audience of one — President Donald Trump.

By turning this theory about the virus' creation into a Fox News talking point, Republicans who want the president to be more aggressive towards China can feed it to Trump through his favorite filter. That, in turn, could harden his stance on China.

Trump has a history of going softer on China than the hawkish in his administration and in his party would like, and on issues that really matter. Instead of listening to the hawks, he takes a softer stance often recommended by Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin and other more business-focused officials working on the US trade deal with China, Trump's obsession.

For example, Congress unanimously passed bills in December condemning China for its treatment of Uighur Muslims and for its anti-democratic encroachment on civil liberties in Hong Kong. For any normal White House this would be an obvious moment to stand up for human rights, but Trump didn't voice support for either cause.

And in between complaining about the unfairness that prompted him to start a trade war with China, Trump has always professed to like and respect Chinese President Xi Jinping. He's maintained that in press conferences throughout this pandemic.

For a time Trump insisted on calling the coronavirus the "Wuhan virus," in an attempt to retaliate when a Chinese diplomat started spreading the conspiracy theory that it came from the US. But after a meeting of G20 world leaders at the end of March he pulled back from that.

Trump came out of that G20 meeting talking about how many ventilators the US would soon sell to other countries — as if COVID-19 were a businesses opportunity, a deal. It's clear that he would like to get back to that as soon as possible. That's why he's trying to declare victory over the virus and open up the economy again. He wants to get back to what his presidency used to be, and that includes spending his time haggling over soybeans with China.

That return to normalcy is just not ideal for Washington's China hawks — not with anger at China increasing around the world. Countries like the UK and Australia are calling for an inquiry into the origins of the virus. And if Trump is more focused on getting a trade deal from China, he may not be as supportive.

The idea that China unleashed the virus on the world and refuses to take responsibility for it, though, may be enough to sustain Trump's anger so that he continues to listen to hawks like Pompeo, sidelining pragmatists like Mnuchin.

Trump's habit of regurgitating ideas he's heard in conservative media circles is well documented. Most recently, Axios reports that Trump has taken to questioning the official COVID-19 death toll. It's a theory that got conservative talking heads Diamond and Silk kicked off of Fox News, but it's been floating around the right wing since death tolls started rising in the US at the end of March.

So filtering an idea that could harden Trump's stance on China through his favorite TV shows could work. In fact, it could be working right now.