Rep. Greg Steube (R-FL), a Trump-endorsed lawmaker and sitting member of the House Intelligence Committee – one of Congress’ most powerful oversight panels – was widely ridiculed over the weekend after railing against aircraft condensation – a common target of debunked conspiracy theories.
“This is ridiculous,” wrote Steube Saturday in a social media post on X, sharing a video of several condensation trails left by aircrafts.
Conspiracy theories around aircraft condensation, or “contrails,” have existed since the 1990s, and falsely suggest that contrails are actually “chemtrails,” a mix of chemical or biological agents intentionally spread into the earth’s atmosphere for nefarious purposes.
Steube’s social media post was immediately hit with what’s known as a “community note” – a crowd-sourced fact-checking service on X that provides additional context to posts – which clarified that the phenomena seen in the video were, in fact, not “chemtrails,” which the community note dismissed as a “debunked conspiracy theory.”
Given the important role Steube plays as a sitting member of the influential House committee, that frequently receives highly classified briefings on national security threats, helps shape intelligence laws and policy and oversees intelligence agencies like the CIA and FBI, his apparent reference to a decades-long debunked conspiracy theory alarmed some onlookers.
“This man is on the congressional intelligence committee,” wrote Matt Lech, co-host of the “Left Reckoning” podcast, in a social media post on X to his nearly 80,000 followers.
“Florida Congressman shakes fist at sky as he mutters to himself and clicks post,” wrote another, Ben Sharpe, a political strategist and consultant, in a social media post on X to their 6,000 followers.
And Duncan Smith, a frequent sports commentator who’s amassed more than 21,000 followers on X, said he was stunned that someone promoting a long-debunked conspiracy theory had been elected to public office to begin with.
“Americans find a way to elect the literal dumbest members of their populace to their highest offices,” they wrote in a social media post on X.
Florida Congressman shakes fist at sky as he mutters to himself and clicks post. “We just banned weather modification why does this keep happening!” https://t.co/QRQUg9KG0l — Ben Sharpe (@iamsharpe) January 17, 2026
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