Two high-profile conservative figures ignited backlash this week after sharing viral posts promoting unfounded and conspiratorial claims — one invoking government betrayal, the other end-times prophecy.
On Friday, Former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, who now serves as Director of National Intelligence under Donald Trump, accused former President Barack Obama of leading a coordinated “coup” to undermine Trump’s 2016 win.
“This was an attempted coup. A treasonous conspiracy orchestrated by Obama,” she wrote Tuesday on X.
🧵 Americans will finally learn the truth about how in 2016, intelligence was politicized and weaponized by the most powerful people in the Obama Administration to lay the groundwork for what was essentially a years-long coup against President @realDonaldTrump, subverting the… pic.twitter.com/UQKKZ5c4Op
— DNI Tulsi Gabbard (@DNIGabbard) July 18, 2025
The Senate Intelligence Committee, which conducted a bipartisan investigation, previously found no evidence to support claims of a conspiracy against Trump.
“She’s not competent,” said Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) at the Aspen Security Forum, responding to Gabbard’s statement.
On the same platform just days earlier, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) shared her own warning. This time about a cashless economy. Quoting Bible verses and referencing Revelation 13:16–17, Greene claimed that digital currency initiatives like the GENIUS Act signal “the mark of the beast” system, a Biblical motif that signals the “End Times.”
“I am NOT voting for the mark of the beast system,” she wrote, in opposition to efforts that would modernize digital ID and financial systems.
I am NOT voting for the mark of the beast system.
Totally happy and content being 1000% NO.
— Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene🇺🇸 (@RepMTG) July 16, 2025
In her post, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene tied the push toward a cashless society to the biblical “Mark of the Beast.” But many scholars dispute that interpretation.
A theologian explained in an eschatological commentary that the mark of Revelation 13:16–17 was not about credit systems or digital payments. It was an economic symbol of allegiance, not tied to modern technology or monetary systems like CBDCs or cryptocurrencies. The mark served to distinguish those aligned with the beast in the ancient world — not to track purchases via digital devices.
Similarly, a 2023 commentary in the Los Angeles Review of Books describes how certain modern interpretations like linking cryptocurrency to the mark blend end-times theology with contemporary political fears. The author warns that conflating biblical prophecy with secular conspiracies undermines both theological integrity and rational critique.
While Gabbard’s comments feed into long-standing “deep state” narratives, Greene’s evoke evangelical concerns about biblical prophecy. Neither offered further comment in the days since, but both drew criticism for advancing conspiracies that have no grounding in fact but hold lasting appeal among their bases.
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