From Foreign Policy Magazine: The relationship among Trump, Epoch Times, Falungong and extremist political parties in Germany

The cult of Trump. The Chinese state isn’t the only dubious social media actor. It was revealed this week that the Epoch Times, associated with the Falun Gong spiritual community, is now the largest buyer of pro-Trump Facebook advertising. In the last six months, the English-language outlet has spent $1.5 million on 11,000 video ads. In addition to promoting far-right policies and conspiracy theories in the United States, the Epoch Times is closely allied with extremist political parties in Germany.

Falun Gong is a religious movement that has been the target of a particularly far-reaching Chinese government crackdown. It is also known among China analysts for promoting extreme and unsupported claims. (Its founder, Li Hongzhi, espouses crank theories and has claimed to have magical powers.)