Donald Trump has pushed out a baseless conspiracy theory that the British government spied on his 2016 campaign on behalf of President Obama's administration. In a tweet sent just one day after Queen Elizabeth II honored Trump and Melania with an invite to Buckingham Palace in June, the president quoted a pundit on the right-wing One America News Network accusing Britain of spying on him. Trump wrote: “‘Former CIA analyst Larry Johnson accuses United Kingdom Intelligence of helping Obama Administration Spy on the 2016 Trump Presidential Campaign.’ @OANN WOW! It is now just a question of time before the truth comes out, and when it does, it will be a beauty!” This baseless conspiracy theory was first brought to wider attention by Fox & Friends legal analyst Judge Andrew Napolitano in 2017 and repeated by then press secretary Sean Spicer. Even Fox News disavowed Napolitano’s theory two years ago, with anchor Shepard Smith saying on air: “Fox News cannot confirm Judge Napolitano’s commentary ... Fox News knows of no evidence of any kind that the now-president of the United States was surveilled at any time, any.”

British intelligence issued a withering response to the theory, saying: “As we have previously stated, the allegations that GCHQ was asked to conduct ‘wire tapping’ against the then President Elect are nonsense. They are utterly ridiculous and should be ignored.”