https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/5dzgnk/trumps-deranged-antifa-tweet-and-oann-are-the-result-of-failed-media-policy

Last week, more than 50 million people watched as 75-year-old Martin Gugino was shoved to the ground by Buffalo police officers, who proceeded to leave him bleeding on the sidewalk—before falsely claiming the peaceful protester had simply tripped. As Gugino recovers in the hospital, his experience has become fodder for conspiracy theorists thanks to a false statement by the President of the United States.

“Buffalo protester shoved by Police could be an ANTIFA provocateur,” Trump tweeted on Monday morning. “75 year old Martin Gugino was pushed away after appearing to scan police communications in order to black out the equipment. @OANN I watched, he fell harder than was pushed. Was aiming scanner. Could be a set up?” Absolutely nothing in that Tweet was true. Antifa isn’t a formal organization, Gugino isn’t a member, and he wasn’t attacking police communications (he was holding a cell phone, not a “scanner”). The conspiracy theory wasn’t even an original idea. Trump was simply repeating something he’d seen on his favorite cable news channel, One America News Network (OANN).