Alex Jones

Alexander Emerick Jones was born on February 11, 1974, in Dallas, Texas, and grew up in Rockwall, about 25 miles east of Dallas. His father worked as a dentist in Austin, while his mother was a homemaker.

Jones says his ancestry includes English, German, Scottish, and Irish roots. During his second year of high school, his family relocated to Austin, where he attended Anderson High School, played football, and graduated in 1993. He briefly enrolled at Austin Community College but left without earning a degree.

As a teenager, Jones read None Dare Call It Conspiracy, a book by John Birch Society conspiracy theorist Gary Allen. The book argued that global bankers, not elected officials, controlled American politics. Jones later described Allen's work as "the easiest-to-read primer on The New World Order," and it deeply shaped his worldview.

Waco siege and Oklahoma bombing

The 1993 Waco siege, which ended with a massive fire and many deaths near the Branch Davidian complex in Texas, occurred near the end of Jones's senior year. According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, the event "only confirmed his belief in the inexorable progress of unseen, malevolent forces." Around this time, Jones began hosting a call-in show on public access television in Austin. Two years later, the Oklahoma City bombing—carried out by Timothy McVeigh on the anniversary of the Waco siege—prompted Jones to accuse the federal government of causing it.

He claimed, "I understood there's a kleptocracy working with psychopathic governments—clutches of evil that know the tricks of control," and rejected the official account that McVeigh and Terry Nichols were responsible. In 1998, Jones organized a successful campaign to build a new Branch Davidian church as a memorial to those who died in the 1993 fire, often discussing the project on his public-access show. He argued that David Koresh and his followers were peaceful people murdered by Attorney General Janet Reno and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms.

Early broadcasting career

Jones began his broadcasting career on a live, call-in public-access cable program in Austin. In 1996, he moved to radio, hosting The Final Edition on KJFK (98.9 FM). Influenced by radio host William Cooper, who called into his early shows, Jones started broadcasting about the New World Order conspiracy theory. During this period, Ron Paul, then running for Congress, appeared as a guest several times.

In 1999, Jones tied with Shannon Burke for "Best Austin Talk Radio Host" in a poll by The Austin Chronicle. Later that year, he was fired from KJFK-FM for refusing to broaden his topics; the station's operations manager said his views made it difficult to sell advertising. Jones claimed the firing was political, stating he was told to stop discussing Bill Clinton, politicians, rebuilding the church, and criticizing the Marines.

InfoWars

In 1999, Jones and his wife, Kelly Jones, founded InfoWars as a mail-order outlet for their conspiracy-oriented videos. The site later released films such as America Destroyed by Design and America Wake Up Or Waco. Over time, InfoWars and its sister site Banned.Video became platforms for promoting conspiracy theories and fake news.

Stoneman Douglas High School shooting

Jones has alleged that the U.S. government concealed or falsified information about the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, the Parkland high school shooting, the Oklahoma City bombing, and the September 11 attacks. He has also claimed that governments and large businesses colluded to create a globalist "New World Order" through manufactured economic crises, surveillance tech, and inside-job terror attacks. His website Banned.Video has provided a platform for white nationalists and neo-Nazis, serving as an "entry point" to their ideology.

Jones has long criticized both Republican and Democratic foreign and security policy. He supported Donald Trump's 2016 presidential bid and continued to back him as a savior from an alleged criminal bipartisan cabal, though they later fell out over policies like airstrikes against the Assad regime.

Jones staunchly supported Trump's re-election and backed efforts to overturn the 2020 election results. On January 6, 2021, he spoke at a rally in Lafayette Square Park supporting Trump, which preceded the attack on the U.S. Capitol. In 2026, Jones again fell out with Trump over the Iran War, criticizing the intervention as contrary to the "America First" message.

In October 2022, juries in Connecticut and Texas awarded a total of $1.487 billion in damages from Jones to a first responder and families of Sandy Hook victims, after his defamatory falsehoods about the shooting led to threats and harassment. On December 2, 2022, Jones filed for personal bankruptcy. After three years of litigation, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected his appeal without comment.