CNN: More Americans Believe Earth Is Flat Than Support Trump’s Vanity Projects

BusinessMediaCNN: More Americans Believe Earth Is Flat Than Support Trump’s Vanity ProjectsByMark Joyella,Senior Contributor.Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. Mark Joyella is a former broadcast journalist who covers media.Follow AuthorJun 01, 2026, 12:27pm EDT--:-- / --:--This voice experience is generated by AI. Learn more.This voice experience is generated by AI. Learn more.WASHINGTON, DC - OCTOBER 15: U.S. President Donald Trump holds a model of an arch as he delivers remarks during a ballroom fundraising dinner in the East Room of the White House on October 15, 2025 in Washington, DC. Trump hosted organizations and individuals for a fundraising dinner for the new $250 million ballroom addition currently under construction at the White House. (Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)Getty ImagesIn a 2013 speech at Georgetown University, President Barack Obama dismissed climate change deniers with a sharp put-down: "We don’t have time for a meeting of the Flat Earth Society," he said, referencing the 70-year-old organization based on the belief that the Earth is flat, not round, and that photos of our planet taken from space--which show the Earth as a sphere--are fakes.The Blue Marble - Earth from space, December 7, 1972. This famous photograph, known as The Blue Marble, was captured by the Apollo 17 astronauts on the same day that they left Earth on a Saturn V rocket developed by NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. The image became part of the official Earth Day flag. It is not known which of the three astronauts - Eugene Cernan, Ron Evans, and Harrison Schmitt - took the photo as all three men have always claimed it as their own. Artist NASA. (Photo by Heritage Space/Heritage Images via Getty Images)Heritage Images via Getty ImagesThat’s considered a fringe conspiracy theory, dismissed by the vast majority of Americans. Now it turns out there’s something even more fringe: believing in Donald...