In the twilight of the Obama presidency, the U.S. military announced that it would hold military training exercises in states across the Southwest, including Texas. From July through September 2015, troops would use public and private land to train for operations in foreign combat zones. The announcement was meant, in part, to allay fears. Citizens could rest assured that any soldiers seen crawling around in the woods were Americans, not Russians or Chinese infiltrating Bastrop. But there was a problem: some Americans feared their government more than they did foreign invaders. By March, conspiracy theories had bloomed: Jade Helm 15—as the exercises were called—was actually a federal takeover of the states. Texas, in particular, was a hotbed of wild notions. Conspiracy peddler Alex Jones warned…
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