Entangled in legal cases as he plans a new race for the White House in 2024, Donald Trump is breathing new life into the QAnon conspiratorial movement, of which he sets himself up as an icon.
The anonymous founder of the far-right nebula, “Q”, may have disappeared, the former Republican president showed during a recent campaign rally in Ohio that the movement retains strength, row behind him.
Supporters of Donald Trump were filmed solemnly raising their arms, index fingers outstretched, as Trump ended his speech to the sound of a piece of electronic music identified by Media Matters, a progressive research center, as “Where one from we go, we all go”, sometimes referred to by its initials WWG1WGA in English, the anthem of QAnon.
Donald Trump previously used this track on August 9 in a video protesting the FBI’s search of his Florida residence, as well as several other times, which was noticed by QAnon followers on social media. .
Donald Trump is also increasingly echoing QAnon’s ideas on his Truth Social social network. On September 13, he shared an edited photo of himself wearing a huge Q on his lapel.
The QAnon nebula initially subscribed to the theory that Joe Biden and the Democrats were part of a global Satanist and pedophile conspiracy. Among his followers was the “shaman” Jacob Chansley, who entered the Capitol on January 6, 2021 shirtless and armed with a spear, wearing bison horns.
But according to experts, the conspiracy movement is now adopting more “Trumpist” theories such as the denial of Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 presidential election or the notion of “deep state”, frequently used by Donald Trump to denounce officials who , according to him, are working to undermine the authority of the president.
Trump “hero” of conspiracies
For Rachel Goldwasser, far-right specialist at the Southern Poverty Law Center, it is now “difficult to distinguish” between QAnon and Donald Trump’s MAGA (Make America Great Again) movement.
The billionaire is today “a kind of hero of the conspiracy theory”, she explains.
Born in 2017 in the United States, the QAnon movement takes its name from enigmatic messages posted by a certain “Q” supposed to be a senior American official close to former American President Donald Trump.
Over the years, these theories have convinced more and more Americans, and the FBI is monitoring this far-right group, considered potentially dangerous.
Many QAnon activists have participated in Donald Trump campaign rallies carrying QAnon banners or wearing t-shirts marked with a big Q. Trump has never officially supported them, but has never distanced himself from them. no more.
After his electoral defeat, and more particularly after the assault on the Capitol on January 6, the conspiracy movement ran out of steam. The ‘Q’ posts ceased and someone linked to the website where they appeared called on his followers to accept Joe Biden’s victory.
Pushed out of major social networks, QAnon followers turned to Telegram and then, when it launched in February 2022, to Truth Social.
Influencers
Largely diminished, the nebula has refocused on the supposed electoral fraud that led to the defeat of Donald Trump, under the impetus of several influencers who have organized rallies on this theme.
John Sabal, known as “QAnon John”, has organized a large rally in Dallas in 2021 and is planning another in November.
Former General Michael Flynn, who was national security adviser to Donald Trump, criss-crosses the United States to propagate the same theories. Without openly mentioning QAnon, he uses the same terminology as the far-right movement when announcing that “the storm is brewing”.
Footage filmed at a fundraiser in California on September 18 shows Mr Flynn and others listening to a woman sing “Where one of us goes, we all go”.
Pointing the index finger to the sky has not so far been a gesture associated with QAnon, but the episode has raised many fears: images of Trump supporters with arms raised have been compared to the Nazi salute.