Trump said Joe Biden is being controlled by 'people in dark shadows' and was accused of peddling a 'conspiracy theory' by Fox News host Laura Ingraham

• President Donald Trump on Sunday claimed that Joe Biden was being controlled by "people in dark shadows."
• He made the comment during an interview at the White House with the Fox News host Laura Ingraham, prompting her to suggest the US president was promoting a conspiracy theory.
• Trump has embraced multiple conspiracy theories throughout his political career.

President Donald Trump on Monday said the Democratic presidential nominee, Joe Biden, was being controlled by "people in dark shadows," a suggestion that was branded a conspiracy theory by the Fox News host interviewing him.

Speaking with Laura Ingraham at the White House on Monday, the US president said of Biden: "He's not controlling anything."

Ingraham asked: "Who do you think is pulling Biden's strings? Is it Obama people?"

Trump replied: "People that you've never heard of, people that are in the dark shadows. People that--"

Ingraham interrupted Trump to say: "What does that mean? That sounds like a conspiracy theory. Dark shadows. What is that?"

Trump replied: "No, they're people you haven't heard of. There are people that are on the streets, there are people that are controlling the streets. We had somebody get on a plane from a certain city this weekend. And in the plane, it was almost completely loaded with thugs, wearing these dark uniforms — black uniforms — with gear and this and that. They're on a plane."

Ingraham invited Trump to explain his mysterious claim, and he replied: "I'll tell you sometime. But it's under investigation right now."

He said the person who had witnessed the "thugs" on planes had been headed to the Republican National Convention, adding that there were "a lot of people" on the plane who were traveling to Washington "to do big damage." He did not attempt to describe the unfounded claim related to the Biden campaign.

Trump's claims appear to relate to conspiracy theories he has spent the summer promoting on Twitter, warning that "anarchists" and anti-fascist activists would take over and loot cities should Biden win the presidency in November.

At the Republican National Convention last week, Trump said Biden would destroy the American dream, adding: "Your vote will decide whether we protect law-abiding Americans or whether we give free rein to violent anarchists, agitators, and criminals who threaten our citizens."

Trump has embraced a series of conspiracy theories throughout his political career, notably including the false claim questioning President Barack Obama's birthplace.

He has also previously promoted other discredited theories, including that noise from windmills causes cancer.

On Sunday, Trump retweeted a post claiming that only 6% of the more than 180,000 recorded coronavirus deaths in America were actually caused by the virus, with the rest having died from other medical conditions.

The post — which Twitter has now removed for violating its misinformation policies — was shared by an account called Mel Q, a reference to the QAnon movement that promotes the fantastical belief that Trump is engaged in a secret battle with a group of Satan-worshipping pedophiles who run a global sex-trafficking ring.

Trump earlier in August refused to condemn the QAnon movement — which the FBI considers a domestic terrorism threat — saying he didn't know much about the movement but understood that its followers "like him very much, which I appreciate."