DAVID FOLKENFLIK: The Southern Poverty Law Center concludes that Jones appeals to right-wing extremists. The center studies hate groups.

HEIDI BEIRICH: He’s in a way the gateway drug to white supremacy in the United States.

FOLKENFLIK: Heidi Beirich is the director of the center’s Intelligence Project. Beirich says Jones has not espoused explicitly racist views, but she adds this.

BEIRICH: Most of the white supremacist leaders that we track talk about their pathway to sort of radicalization, they would consider that their pathway to the truth. And a lot of them specifically discuss how reading Alex Jones, or watching Alex Jones, or being on Infowars.com opened their minds to other ideas.

FOLKENFLIK: All of which makes Jones an astonishing person for Donald Trump to court. Yet, candidate Trump appeared on Infowars last December, just ahead of the primaries.