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ICYMI: Donald Trump gets advice from a man who thinks Sandy Hook was a hoax.

The 45th President of the United States, it appears, favours the advice of a seasoned conspirator over his country’s most experienced journalists.

After claiming the American press is the “the enemy of the American people” last Friday, links between Donald Trump and nationalistic cult figure Alex Jones – the man who once claimed the Sandy Hook massacre was “completely fake” and that 9/11 was “a cover up” – have emerged.

While the White House refuses to comment on the President’s relationship with the chief of InfoWars – an alt-right website Wikipedia identifies as a “fake news website” – The New York Times has examined just how highly Trump values Jones’ opinions.

Curiously, it appears the former Apprentice host echoes Jones’ sentiment on everything from debunked allegations the mass media covered up acts of Islamic terrorism (they didn’t), to baseless claims Hillary Clinton received millions of unauthorised votes from immigrants.

Donald Trump and Alex Jones (Images: Getty)

In both press conferences and on Twitter, Trump espouses a variety of Jones' headlines almost word for word.

A 2015 InfoWars interview between the pair provided ample insight into their gushy relationship - where Trump spoke of Jones' "amazing" reputation, promising him: "I will not let you down."

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Jones' reply proved the feeling was mutual: "My audience, 90% of them, they support you."

Most interesting, perhaps, is that Trump and Jones exchange political advice over the phone, and have continued to do so since the November 8 election.

Listen: Mamamia Out Loud on why it’s time to start trying to understand the people we don’t agree with. (Post continues after audio.)

One conversation last year saw the latter urge the President to address illegal voting allegations with the press, to which he says Trump replied: 'I already know, I’m making a speech in two days.’

While Jones says he has spoken with Trump since that call, an anonymous aide to the President assured The Times communication between the pair is infrequent.

Still, InfoWars has its sights set on gaining an elusive White House press credential. Why? Because - according to Jones' reasoning - if “Trump’s calling CNN fake", and CNN has one, why shouldn't they?

Whether that mission is successful is anyone's guess, but it certainly is interesting to observe what kind of media Trump approves of, and which he declares war on.

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