Congrats to Don Jr. For Being The First To Turn The Missing Sub Into a Conspiracy Theory
It was inevitable that the story of the missing submersible in the North Atlantic would spark conspiracy theories. On Wednesday, as the frantic search continued, Donald Trump Jr. earned the distinction of becoming the first prominent pundit to lean into conspiracy over the vessel, which disappeared while taking passengers to view the wreck of the Titanic at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean.
“Literally everything I’ve seen about this missing submarine is insane and sketchy AF… almost none of it makes any sense whatsoever,” the former president’s son wrote in a multiple question mark tweet on Wednesday. “How long till we find other external factors making it even more so???”
Trump Jr. didn’t expound upon his suspicions surrounding the vessel.
A CBS reporter who joined a Titan expedition last summer said he “couldn’t help noticing how many pieces of this sub seemed improvised, with off-the-shelf components.” That report led some to question the preparedness and safety of the craft.
The submersible was built and run by OceanGate Expedition out of Everett, WA, and was carrying five people to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean to view the wreck of the Titanic, which sank in 1912. The last time the submersible made contact with the mother ship was nearly two hours into a trip that commenced on Sunday morning.
Officials have been looking for the vessel ever since. The U.S. Coast Guard said they are still in “search and rescue” mode.
“This is a search and rescue mission, 100%,” said Capt. Jamie Frederick, the response coordinator for the First Coast Guard District. “We’re smack dab in the middle of a search and rescue, and we’ll continue to put every available asset that we have in an effort to find the Titan and the crew members.”
On board the sub are British billionaire Hamish Harding, 59; Pakistani-born billionaire Shahzada Dawood, 48, and his son, 19-year-old son Suleman Dawood; French maritime expert Paul-Henry Nargeolet, 77; and OceanGate’s CEO Stockton Rush, 61, who was piloting the vessel.
Frederick said the massive search area is “approximately two times the size of Connecticut and it is up to two-and-a-half miles deep.”
Hopes were raised Tuesday after search crews detected mysterious “banging sounds” coming from under the water. The Coast Guard said ROV equipment was searching for the sound’s origins but they still don’t know if the sound was man-made.
Don Jr. has been accused of perpetuating conspiracy theories in the past, most notably, about the Chinese spy balloon, Elon Musk and the SCOTUS Roe leak, and the attack on Paul Pelosi, to name a few.
