Trump seemingly tweets conspiracy theory about bombs sent to his critics

UPDATE: Oct. 26, 2018, 12:48 p.m. EDT Updated to include Trump's comments after arrest of suspect.

President Donald Trump is using his Twitter account to seemingly push a conspiracy theory, this time surrounding the dozen (and counting) bombs sent to critics of his administration.

Throughout the week, authorities have responded to alerts of explosive devices sent to prominent Democratic figures like former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, former President Barack Obama, and former Vice President Joe Biden.

As the number of packages increased to 12 on Friday morning, Trump used Twitter to seemingly push an unsubstantiated conspiracy theory among the right-wing fringe that the bombs may be a false flag meant to give Democrats a sympathy boost in the upcoming midterm elections. Shortly after Trump's tweet, news broke that an arrest had been made in connection with the packages.

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The focus here is on Trump's use of quotation marks around the word bomb, suggesting that perhaps he doesn't believe the bombs are real or that they're of concern.

The false flag theory has been circulating on conservative corners of the internet the last few days. Conservative pundits like Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter have made unsupported claims on the subject and the topic has come up a number of times on Fox News.

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Trump's son, Donald Trump Jr., apparently liked a tweet claiming with no evidence that the bombs were fake and made by Democrats.

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Additionally, posts suggesting it's all a hoax have been quite popular on "The Donald," a pro-Trump subreddit.

In the past few days, Trump has reacted angrily on Twitter to the bomb scares. At 3:14 a.m. ET on Friday, Trump published a tweet lashing out at CNN's reaction to the bomb sent to their office -- addressed to former Central Intelligence Agency Director John Brennan -- on Wednesday.

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And prior to his Friday tweet about the "'Bomb' stuff," Trump seemed to pushed another unfounded conspiracy theory that Twitter was somehow throttling his follower count (the shadow ban theory.) Twitter has since insisted that it was routine removal of fake or spam accounts.

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The reaction to Trump's "'Bomb' stuff" tweet was swift and critical.

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This, though, shouldn't really come as a surprise given that Trump has a well-documented penchant for floating conspiracy theories. As long as he continues to do so (and Twitter allows him to get away with it) he'll continue to create an incendiary environment that could spiral into violence.

Later Friday afternoon, Trump cast a more subdued tone in saying, "These terrorizing acts are despicable and have no place in our country" and adding, "We must never allow political violence to take root in America and I am committed to doing everything in my power as president to stop it."

The Department of Justice was slated to hold a press conference later Friday afternoon to discuss more about the suspect.