The ties between Donald Trump s presidential campaign and the regime of Russian leader Vladimir Putin have been extensive and troubling as they ve been revealed over the course of the campaign. Trump has repeatedly praised Putin, despite his invasion of Ukraine and his belligerent attitude on the international stage, including his support of Syrian dictator Assad.In exchange, Putin has also had nice words for Trump, and it is believed that Russia is backing hackers who have attacked  Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton and the Democratic Party.Now Trump has escalated the back and forth by promoting a delusional conspiracy theory that began on Russian propaganda websites. From CNN:Trump didn t cite a source to back up his claim, but the most recent report alleging this came from Sputnik News, a Russian state-owned news agency. Google search engine was suppressing the bad news about Hillary Clinton,  Trump said, apparently referring to Google searches during the first presidential debate on Monday night.Trump s remarks Wednesday night came two weeks after Sputnik News, a Russian government-controlled news agency, published a report claiming that Google search results are biased in Clinton s favor. Conservative news outlets, including Breitbart News, whose chairman became Trump s campaign CEO last month, linked to the report.Trump has surrounded his campaign with conspiracy theorists, including radio host Alex Jones, who is an ardent Trump supporter and who believes that the 9/11 terrorist attacks were an  inside job  executed by the U.S. government. Jones also believes that the children murdered at Sandy Hook Elementary were  crisis actors. There is no truth to Trump s claim about Google, and it is very possible he got the information from Jones, who has alleged that he is in phone contact with Trump.Trump s supporters ate up the claim, as a majority of them visit and believe the same propaganda false stories as their leader does.Featured image via Wikimedia Commons