WASHINGTON (AP) — "Ugh," said a Republican senator. "How crude," said a Democratic governor.

President Donald Trump set off plenty of reactions like that when he peddled a baseless conspiracy theory about an activist who landed hard on the ground, and then in intensive care, in what prosecutors call an assault by police.

Trump's week of law and order rhetoric came with heavy doses of misinformation as he stretched to blame unrest on radical leftists and to put three loaded words — "defund the police" — in the mouth of a Democratic rival who doesn't support them.

Meantime, the coronavirus pande...