Story highlights The idea of the deep state was pushed most notably by former White House strategist Stephen Bannon

The notion of a deep state was debated at length in the early days of the Trump administration

Washington (CNN) He still believes it all, according to a stunning new New York Times report. Barack Obama's birth certificate. The inauguration crowd sizes. Being cheated out of the popular vote. Each of the conspiracy theories President Donald Trump has pushed, he still harbors in private conversations with senators and aides, according to the report, which also suggests he questions whether it's his own voice on the "Access Hollywood" tape.

Nobody's on the record and he doesn't say the stuff in public, so even if he believes it, it's not like he's pushing it exactly.

Trump is, however, now officially pushing a more sinister conspiracy theory -- the so-called deep state -- the idea that an entrenched bureaucracy is working to delegitimize him.

For the first time, Trump mentioned the idea of a "deep state" on Twitter on Tuesday evening, apparently after watching Fox News.

"Charles McCullough, the respected fmr Intel Comm Inspector General, said public was misled on Crooked Hillary Emails. 'Emails endangered National Security.' Why aren't our deep State authorities looking at this? Rigged & corrupt?" He tagged Fox News personalities Sean Hannity and Tucker Carlson in the tweet.

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