(CNN) Over the last 72 hours, the President of the United States has leaned into a conspiracy theory that goes like this: During the 2016 presidential race, President Barack Obama -- via the FBI -- placed a "spy" within Trump's campaign for purely political reasons.

Trump made that charge plain in a tweet Friday morning:

"Can anyone even imagine having Spies placed in a competing campaign, by the people and party in absolute power, for the sole purpose of political advantage and gain? And to think that the party in question, even with the expenditure of far more money, LOST!"

Can anyone even imagine having Spies placed in a competing campaign, by the people and party in absolute power, for the sole purpose of political advantage and gain? And to think that the party in question, even with the expenditure of far more money, LOST! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 25, 2018

There's a tendency to write this latest Trump claim off as Trump being Trump. He has proven time and again that he is willing to stray from established facts in pursuit of a narrative that is more favorable to him -- from the size of his inauguration crowds to the idea that Obama ordered a wiretap on him during the last presidential campaign.

But the fact that this is what Trump does shouldn't distract us from the allegations here: Donald Trump is saying his predecessor as president used the leading law enforcement entity in the country to spy on him because Obama/the "deep state" didn't want someone as unconventional as Trump to be president.

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