Trump: The FAKE NEWS media is the enemy of the American people!

[abaris]

I'd say they've not heard a lot of the stuff that's actually going on. Remember they look at and listen to the likes of Fox, Breitbart and Limbaugh, sources of information which only impart a very partial amount of information, blocking vast swathes of reality and inventing fantasies in order to prop up their worldview to the detriment of the truth and critical analysis.

People who follow these sources rarely venture outside that bubble, so hearing Trump deny that Flynn was contacting Russia and was sacked for same is quite possibly the first they've heard of his links to Putin. And "I never heard X. Why is he denying X?" is a very strong precursir to "There must be something in X". As Terry Pratchett elaborated in Interesting Times, getting your opponent into denial mode is a great way to get his followers to believe he's up to his armpots in what he's denying.

You make the case for people living in a bubble and then expect them to do what they never did. Fact checking. Him denying X will not be filed under suspicious. It will be filed under wrongfully accused and him making a stand even if they didn't hear about X before. He won't fall over his fanbase. The only reason he can fall is a sufficient amount of sanity left in the political aparatus.